First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
278 results found
Biometric technology and beneficiary rights in social protection programmes
Authors:
Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 4
Over the past decade, the use of biometric technology in the identification and authentication of beneficiaries of social protection programmes has increased. However, there has been little debate among governments, donors and civil society organizations on the potential implications of this technology in relation to the inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors of the population, as well as for security and the protection of privacy and personal data. This article aims to fill that gap. First, the article reviews how biometric technology is used in various social protection programmes around the world. Then, it examines the potential risks and challenges of deploying biometric technology in social protection programmes. Finally, it assesses the requirements necessary to ensure that biometric technology is implemented in compliance with international law standards. The focus is on developing countries, where the use of biometric technology in identification systems has increased considerably in recent years. Among the key conclusions of the article is that the adoption of biometric technology, often encouraged by donors, needs to be preceded by democratic debate where all alternatives are discussed. The adoption of this technology should be accompanied by a context-specific assessment of risks, and the adoption of an appropriate legal and institutional framework to protect rights and ensure that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the population are not excluded.
Topics:
Governance and administration
Innovation capacity
Keywords:
social protection
social assistance
data protection
biometric identification
beneficiary
Regions:
International
Youth-oriented active labour market policies and economic crisis: Explaining policy effort in Greece and Portugal
Authors:
Konstantinos Kougias
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 4
The starting point of this study is the implementation of seemingly similar youth-oriented labour market policies in Greece and Portugal. Both countries have suffered high youth unemployment rates and have been pressured to restructure their labour market as part of the rescue programmes adopted during the European sovereign debt crisis. Despite convergence in terms of policy trajectories, there is a significant divergence in employment outcomes. In Portugal, youth-oriented policies were better-targeted and structured. Their implementation has been more effective and has involved the social partners from the outset of the crisis. In Greece, policy design failures, administrative weaknesses and unfavourable macroeconomic conditions have limited the dynamics of youth-oriented policies thus increasing youth insecurity. Τhis antithesis suggests that convergence in policy content can be compatible with divergence in terms of outcomes.
Topics:
Employment
Employment policies
Employment of young workers
Keywords:
youth unemployment
employment policy
economic recession
Countries:
Greece
Portugal
The old-age pension law in Mexico: The promise of poverty in old age?
Authors:
Francisco Colín
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 4
In 1997, Mexico replaced its main old-age pension system with an individual capitalization system. In 2021, the first people subject to the new system will retire. Using a model that projects demographic and labour variables and using Monte Carlo simulations, the findings of this study show that in 2051 the percentage of men not having a pension will increase from 38 per cent to 59 per cent, and that of women from 44 per cent to 66 per cent. The replacement rate for the average Mexican worker will fall from 70 per cent to 30 per cent. The numbers of people in extreme poverty will increase by almost 2.8 million, representing 9.44 per cent of the population. Alternative scenarios are proposed that involve increasing the contribution rate and raising the retirement age.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Actuarial
Keywords:
pension scheme
defined contribution plan
social security reform
social security legislation
poverty
Countries:
Mexico
Work, social protection and the middle classes: What future in the digital age?
Authors:
Bruno Palier
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 3
The digitization of the economy can be interpreted as an industrial revolution, a series of technological innovations associated with new practices and new business models. As for previous industrial revolutions, a phase involving the destruction of existing systems and structures is driving a profound transformation of the world of work and the development of new sectors of activity and new jobs, including changes in the labour market and in the types of jobs created. This puts into question the position of the middle classes, and presents new challenges for social protection. This article seeks to understand the impacts of digital technology on the economy and employment, including the phenomena of labour market polarization. It describes the new forms of employment and work and analyses the social risks and the likely ramifications for the middle classes in the digital age. In turn, new possibilities for social protection in the digital age are discussed. The article concludes that there is a need to re-evaluate jobs that involve the provision of personal and care services, including to support social investment, to strengthen the future prospects of the weakened middle classes.
Topics:
Employment
Digital economy
Keywords:
labour market
social protection
middle class
Regions:
International
The regulatory challenge of occupational safety and health in the online platform economy
Authors:
Sacha Garben
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 3
The online platform economy raises a range of intricate legal questions connected to labour law and social security protection. In particular, the atypical forms of labour relationships used by many online platforms (e.g. multilateral, hyper-temporary, off-site, autonomous), often contractually defined as independent contracting, have challenged the application of labour and occupational health and safety law in many countries across the world, as the application of these norms tends to be dependent on the existence of an “employment relationship”. These developments are compounding the general increase in atypical employment, especially as a result of the 2007–08 financial and economic crisis. It has mostly fallen to courts to resolve the disputes between online platforms and their online platform workers, but some European Union (EU) Member States (such as France) have taken specific legal measures in response to these difficulties. Also, the EU-level as such is becoming increasingly involved, with the Court of Justice’s ruling in the case of Uber providing some guidance on the “employment question”, and a pending legislative initiative on a Directive for Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions which may provide minimum labour protection for online platform workers in the EU. This article analyses the problem of labour law in the online platform economy and surveys the various responses by courts and policy-makers across the EU, which may furthermore set the tone for developments outside the EU in this area.
Topics:
Employment
Occupational accidents and diseases
Digital economy
Keywords:
occupational safety
labour market
employment
EC Regulation
ILO
Regions:
International
Global employment and decent jobs, 2010–2030: The forces of demography and automation
Authors:
Klaus Prettner
Mathew J. McKenna
David E. Bloom
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 3
Globally, an estimated 734 million jobs will be required between 2010 and 2030 to accommodate recent and ongoing demographic shifts, account for plausible changes in labour force participation rates, and achieve target unemployment rates of at or below 4 per cent for adults and at or below 8 per cent for youth. The facts that most new jobs will be required in countries where “decent” jobs are less prevalent and workers in many occupations are increasingly subject to risks of automation further compound the challenge of job creation, which is already quite sizable in historical perspective. Failure to create the jobs that are needed through 2030 would put currently operative social security systems under pressure and undermine efforts to guarantee the national social protection floors enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Topics:
Employment
Keywords:
demographic aspect
labour market
employment
Regions:
International
Social protection systems and the future of work: Ensuring social security for digital platform workers
Authors:
Quynh Anh Nguyen
Uma Rani
Christina Behrendt
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 3
Digitalization is transforming societies and economies worldwide at an unprecedented scale and pace. In the wake of automation and digitalization, new forms of employment have been emerging in various occupations and sectors, such as the digital platform economy. The emergence of new forms of employment, such as work on digital platforms, requires that existing social protection systems adapt to the specific situation and needs of such workers, as to realize the human right to social security for all. Current social protection coverage for workers on digital crowdwork platforms reveals significant gaps in social security coverage. Where such coverage exists, it is often provided through the workers’ previous or additional jobs, or indirectly through their spouses or other family members. This raises questions about digital platforms free riding on the traditional economy with regard to the financing of social security. How can social protection systems adapt to changing forms of work to ensure full and effective coverage for workers in all forms of employment, including those in “new” forms of employment? How can workers in all types of employment, including those on digital platforms, be protected in an adequate and comprehensive way, combining contributory and non-contributory mechanisms and based on equitable and sustainable financing mechanisms, so as to ensure adequate social protection to all?
Topics:
Employment
Extension of coverage
Digital economy
Keywords:
social protection
coverage
labour market
ILO
Introduction: Social security and the digital economy – Managing transformation
Authors:
Roddy McKinnon
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 3
This special issue of the International Social Security Review considers the multidisciplinary topic of the digital economy and social security. The selected articles that comprise this issue offer a number of varying perspectives on the changing and increasingly complex environment in which social security institutions operate and critically assess not only how social security institutions are likely to be impacted but also how they may respond to the challenges foreseen. Social security institutions do not have control over external factors that can negatively impact the financing and coverage of social security programmes. Nonetheless, with the shift to the digital economy, the task at hand is to manage an unprecedented process of change. Though ensuring service continuity is the primary concern, also required are improvements in service delivery for all stakeholders and the development of responses to meet new operational challenges and emerging coverage risks. Particularly in more developed economies, the socio-economic challenges that accompany the labour market changes associated with the transition to the digital economy are often characterized as threatening a risk of growing precarity. Regardless, the global policy goal remains one of ensuring sustainable and adequate social security protection for all.
Topics:
Governance and administration
Digital economy
Keywords:
social security administration
coverage
labour market
The digital economy and the future of European welfare states
Authors:
Bent Greve
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 3
As a consequence of new technology, labour markets are changing. This article’s central aim is to discuss variations among welfare states in Europe to adjust to changing labour markets. These variations in adjustment suggest that some welfare states are more prepared than others, including their capacity to ensure their sustainable financing. In the years to come, the predicted impact of technological development on labour markets will be huge. Impacts will include stronger “dualization” and new cleavages between “insiders” and “outsiders”. Fewer industrial jobs are to be expected, and service-sector employment faces a risk of decline due to automation. While the creation of new jobs is likely, it remains to be seen whether these will replace the number of jobs destroyed, leaving the risk that many people whose skills become obsolete will become unemployed in the short as well as the longer term. Furthermore, even if the same number of jobs are eventually created, there will be a period of transition. In the light of this, welfare states will be challenged, not only in how they can finance their activities but also in terms of the threat posed to social cohesion by emerging labour market “winners” and “losers”, with an accompanying higher risk of increasing inequality. The article offers suggestions as to how welfare states may cope with the changes related to the financing of welfare states, and how active labour market policy can be part of the response to help alleviate the expected dramatic changes. Also required is a discussion on the annual average number of hours people will work and how this might be a factor in lower future levels of unemployment.
Topics:
Employment
Digital economy
Keywords:
welfare state
technological change
dualization of society
labour market
Regions:
Europe
Second‐pillar pensions in Central and Eastern Europe: Payment constraints and exit options
Authors:
Elaine Fultz
Kenichi Hirose
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 2
During 1998–2007, a majority of Central and Eastern European (CEE) governments enacted laws obligating workers to save for retirement in privately managed individual accounts. The governments funded these accounts with a portion of public pension revenues, thus creating or increasing deficits in public systems. After the onset of the global financial and economic crisis (2008), most CEE governments reduced these funding diversions and scaled back the accounts. Now, a decade after the crisis, this article examines the benefits that the accounts are beginning to pay retiring workers. In general, these benefits are shown to be disadvantageous compared with public pensions. Some pay lump sums in lieu of regular monthly benefits, most fail to adjust pensions regularly for inflation, and some pay women less than men with equal account balances. In several countries, pensioners with individual accounts receive lower benefits than those without them. To enable retiring workers to avoid these disadvantages, several CEE governments have allowed them to refund their account balances and receive full public pensions. Yet while this strategy diffuses worker dissatisfaction, it also places strains on public pension finance. To assist second‐pillar account holders without weakening public pensions, governments should consider making private pension savings voluntary and financing these schemes independently of public pensions – i.e. by worker and employer contributions and, possibly, direct state support.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Keywords:
pension scheme
annuity
social security reform
Regions:
Europe
Social health protection in Cambodia: Challenges of policy design and implementation
Authors:
Lundy Keo
Soonman Kwon
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 2
The Government of Cambodia is implementing ambitious reform initiatives to improve the country’s social health protection system. In January 2018, it was announced that the Health Equity Fund (HEF), which is fully subsidized by a joint government-donor initiative for the reimbursement of user fees for the poor at public health facilities, is to be expanded to some segments of informal workers belonging to associations, as well as to commune and village chiefs. Since 2017, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has provided social health insurance for formal economy workers in enterprises with eight employees or more. In January 2018, it was expanded to civil servants and all employees regardless of the size of the enterprise. However, this article highlights that the new ambitious reforms are not accompanied by careful planning as regards funding, service delivery, human resources and institutional design. This article therefore aims to examine key policy issues and challenges for Cambodia’s ambitious reform of its social health protection system in terms of resource generation, population coverage, strategic purchasing and governance.
Topics:
Health
Extension of coverage
Keywords:
health policy
health insurance
social protection
Countries:
Cambodia
Employer-oriented labour market policies in Sweden: Creating jobs and the division of labour in the public sector
Authors:
Daniel Castillo
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 2
In many European countries, greater importance is accorded to labour market policies in which employers are involved in activating unemployed people. Such employer-oriented policies target employers’ demand for labour and attempt to influence their willingness to hire, train or guide (often disadvantaged) unemployed groups. Using data from a qualitative interview study of an employer-oriented programme in a medium-size city in Sweden, the present article aims to develop knowledge about how these policies are used to influence employers to hire unemployed workers and how jobs created in this context differ from regular jobs. The article argues that creating jobs through new arrangements for the division of labour, with the promise of relieving regular staff of unskilled tasks, may influence employers’ willingness to hire the unemployed when used alongside other kinds of policy instruments. However, the article also shows that this new division of labour, with programme participants performing mainly unskilled tasks, has been difficult to realize, as new staff gradually come to perform an increasing number of regular working tasks.
Topics:
Employment
Keywords:
return to work
unemployed
division of labour
employers participation
public sector
Countries:
Sweden
How fair are unemployment benefits? The experience of East Asia
Authors:
Gyu-Jin Hwang
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 2
Despite an increasing emphasis on active labour market measures, unemployment benefits still remain a focal point of employment protection. This article takes the cases of four East Asian economies – China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan (China) –, which are often characterized as having welfare states with a strong developmental and productivist orientation, to investigate whether, as is sometimes argued, unemployment benefits are restrictive and exclusionary. In doing so, it examines the logic behind the design of unemployment benefits and argues that they are in fact progressive in design and fair when they pay out. Nonetheless, low effective coverage and low benefit rates weaken their redistribution and compensation objectives.
Topics:
Employment
Keywords:
unemployment benefit
Regions:
East Asia
Countries:
China
Japan
Korea, Republic of
Taiwan, China
Effective retirement age from employment and full‐time employment, and the impact of the 2008 crisis
Authors:
Denis Latulippe
Florence Fontaine
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 2
Estimates of effective retirement age based on labour force participation rates are commonly used for actuarial experience review and policy development. However, the transition from work to retirement and the socio-economic environment have evolved over the years, influenced by a growing role for gradual retirement and the labour market impact of the 2008 economic crisis. Rather than focusing exclusively on retirement ages based on labour force participation rates, this article presents complementary estimates of retirement ages to better assess the effective retirement age from employment. It also introduces the concept of retirement from full-time employment, showing that the retirement age from full-time employment is systematically lower than the retirement age from employment. The results reveal that the trend towards an increase in the retirement age has been impacted by economic conditions when considering the effective employment of older workers. Results are presented for different Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development over the period 2005–2015.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Actuarial
Keywords:
retirement age
retired worker
labour force participation
employment
flexible retirement
older worker
Regions:
International
Has the redistributive effect of social transfers and taxes changed over time across countries?
Authors:
Chen Wang
Jinxian Wang
Kees Goudswaard
Koen Caminada
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 1
In most Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), the income gap between rich and poor has widened over the past decades. This article analyses whether and to what extent income taxes and social transfers have contributed to this trend. Has the redistributive impact of different social programmes changed over time? We use microdata from the LIS Cross National Data Center in Luxembourg for the period 1982–2014 and study both the total population and the working-age population. In contrast to the results of some other studies, especially by the OECD, we do not find that redistribution has declined. Tax-benefit systems around 2013 are more effective at reducing income inequality compared to the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, especially among the total population. Changes in social programmes are not a driver of greater income inequality across the countries included in this study.
The full article is freely available under an open access copyright agreement
Topics:
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
welfare state
cash benefit
income redistribution
taxation
Inequity in access to the Argentinian pension system (1994-2017)
Authors:
Mariana de Santis
Milva Geri
Nebel Moscoso
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 1
Pension coverage in Argentina is inequitably distributed between different income levels, both during working years and during retirement. The objective of the article is to study the evolution of inequity of access to the Argentinian pension system in terms of its association with the socio-economic status of individuals during the period 1994–2017. An evaluation is offered of how variables such as sex, age, and educational attainment influence such inequity. It is concluded that, although the level of average coverage increased, inequity of access increased significantly in the years following the 1994 reform, both among the active and the inactive population. However, inequity of access among active persons did not improve substantially with the return to the pay-as-you-go pension system, while it was considerably reduced among the inactive population. While the former are found to be affected to a greater extent in terms of coverage as a result of the pro-educated bias among the active population, the latter outcome is thought to be a direct result of the transitory plans for pension inclusion, after which inequity was to resume its upward course.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Keywords:
pension scheme
coverage
Countries:
Argentina
The impact of international migration on the public pension system: The case of Portugal
Authors:
Daniela Craveiro
José Alves
Maria Teresa Garcia
Paula Albuquerque
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 1
This article analyses the impact of replacement migration on the financial sustainability of the old-age pension system in Portugal, a country with one of the largest ageing populations in Europe. We do this using demographic forecasts and prospective exercises for the evolution of the Portuguese economy. During the 2015–2060 period, our results evidence the positive impacts of international migration on old-age pension system financial balances, reaching over 3 per cent of GDP after 2045. Moreover, even when taking into considering the low dynamics for the Portuguese economy, replacement migration is an important input to improve pension system financial sustainability.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Migration
Keywords:
migrant worker
social security financing
pension scheme
Countries:
Portugal
Access to social protection among people with disabilities: Evidence from Viet Nam
Authors:
Doan Thi Thuy Duong
Hannah Kuper
Hoang Van Minh
Karl Blanche
Lena M. Banks
Matthew Walsham
Tran Thu Ngan
Vu Quynh Mai
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 1
Although people with disabilities are frequently targeted as key beneficiaries of social protection, little is known on their access to existing programmes. This study uses mixed methods to explore participation in disability-targeted and non-targeted social protection programmes in Viet Nam, particularly in the district of Cam Le. In this district, social assistance and health insurance coverage among people with disabilities was 53 per cent and 96 per cent respectively. However, few accessed employment-linked social insurance and other disability-targeted benefits (e.g. vocational training, transportation discounts). Factors affecting access included the accessibility of the application process, disability assessment procedures, awareness and the perceived utility of programmes, and attitudes on disability and social protection.
Topics:
Disability
Keywords:
disabled person
social protection
gaps in coverage
Countries:
Viet Nam
The effects on intra-generational inequality of introducing a funded pension scheme: A microsimulation analysis for Estonia
Authors:
Andres Võrk
Magnus Piirits
Issue:
Volume 72 (2019), Issue 1
This article uses a single male cohort microsimulation model to analyse the intra-generational and distributional effects of a shift in Estonia from a defined benefit pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system to a multi-pillared system with a PAYG scheme with contribution-based insurance components and a funded pension scheme. We contribute to the literature on microsimulation by showing how introducing contribution-based insurance components and compulsory defined contribution (DC) schemes can increase pension inequality. Our results show that in the case of a high level of inequality in labour earnings and high long-term unemployment rates, such as in Estonia, the introduction of a very strong link between contributions and future benefits leads to considerably higher inequality in pension incomes as measured by the Gini coefficient. Simulation results for Estonia suggest that inequality in old-age pension incomes more than doubles when the reforms mature. In contrast, the inequality in replacement rates decreases.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Actuarial
Keywords:
social security reform
pension scheme
old-age benefit
adequacy
Countries:
Estonia
Organizational governance of activation policy: Transparency as an organizational ideal in a Swedish welfare agency
Authors:
Ida Seing
Katarina Hollertz
Kerstin Jacobsson
Issue:
Volume 71 (2018), Issue 4
The Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA – Försäkringskassan) and its frontline staff have a key role in the implementation of activation policy. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at local offices, this article investigates how the transparency ideal, as an integral part of the organizational governance of the activation policy, is negotiated and enacted in the everyday life of a welfare bureaucracy. The analysis shows the central role that the transparency ideal plays in the alignment of frontline staff with the normative regime of the agency. While the transparency ideal is central to the internal organizational life of the SSIA, the analysis shows how transparency is much less salient in relation to clients and other relations with the outside world.