First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
278 results found
An actuarial balance sheet of the Swiss old‐age pension scheme
Authors:
Christoph Metzger
Issue:
Volume 71 (2018), Issue 1
Following the recent update of the international System of National Accounts (2008 SNA), internationally comparable estimates of accrued‐to‐date pension liabilities (ADL) of unfunded social security pension schemes will soon be available in the supplementary table to the National Accounts. Against this background, this article analyzes the medium‐term sustainability of the Swiss old‐age pension scheme (Alters‐ und Hinterlassenenversicherung – AHV). This is achieved by estimating a “Swedish” actuarial balance sheet, which compares pension liabilities with the explicit and implicit assets of the pension scheme. Our results show that the current financing of the AHV is unsustainable, with about 30 per cent of the liabilities not backed by corresponding assets. In order to close this financing gap either the contribution rate should rise from 8.4 per cent to 12 per cent or all pension liabilities should be cut by about 38 per cent.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Actuarial
Keywords:
actuarial valuation
old-age benefit
pension scheme
Countries:
Switzerland
Linking taxation and social protection: Evidence on redistribution and poverty reduction in Ethiopia
Authors:
Giulia Mascagni
Kalle Hirvonen
Keetie Roelen
Issue:
Volume 71 (2018), Issue 1
Although redistribution results from the simultaneous effects of taxes and transfers, analyses of their distributional effects in low‐income countries have largely been undertaken from singular perspectives. This article jointly assesses the distributional effect of taxes and transfers (through social protection) using Ethiopia as a case study. We find that Ethiopia's flagship social protection programme is more effective than income taxation in achieving poverty reduction, while neither policy achieves a sizeable reduction in overall inequality. We also find that Ethiopia does not currently have the capacity to close the poverty gap or to fully fund its main safety net programme using domestic income sources alone.
Topics:
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
social protection
income redistribution
taxation
poverty
Countries:
Ethiopia
Approaches to social protection for informal workers: Aligning productivist and human rights-based approaches
Authors:
Francie Lund
Rachel Moussié
Laura Alfers
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 4
There has been increasing recognition of the growth of informal employment in the global South and North. Most informal work is precarious and low paid, with workers having little or no access to social protection. It is sometimes suggested that an approach that moves away from productivism – the idea of work as a pathway to access social protection – and towards a universal human rights-based approach is important. However, this article argues that a large and growing informal economy does not provide justification for abandoning certain key productivist ideas. Key ideas that should not be abandoned include the focus that this approach has on establishing a link between workers and capital and the importance of social services within a social protection discourse that is presently dominated by cash grants. Also important, productivist ideas emphasize the economic contributions of informal workers as a means by which to complement a human rights-based argument for the extension of workplace protection to all workers, regardless of employment status. Overall, the hard binary that is sometimes drawn between human rights-based approaches and productivist (or “instrumentalist”) arguments may not always be as definitively delineated as some might suggest.
Topics:
Employment
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
social protection
informal economy
work
labour market
human rights
Regions:
International
Ensuring inclusion and combatting discrimination in social protection programmes: The role of human rights standards
Authors:
Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 4
Recent years have witnessed the significant expansion of social protection programmes around the world. Yet, a vast number of poor and vulnerable people, including children, women, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, remain uncovered, especially in lower-income countries. This article argues that a better understanding of the principle of equality and non-discrimination, as defined under international human rights law, can guide practitioners and policy-makers to design and implement more inclusive social protection systems. Compliance with this principle is also necessary under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the International Labour Organization’s social security standards. The article first analyses the scope and content of the legal principle of equality and non-discrimination, giving attention to the standards commonly used to assess compliance with it. It then applies these standards as analytical tools to assess how and when discrimination may occur in the implementation of non-contributory social protection programmes. Finally, it explores the challenges that social protection practitioners face when applying the principle of equality and non-discrimination in social protection programmes.
Topics:
Extension of coverage
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
legal aspect
UN Convention
social security administration
coverage
human rights
Regions:
International
The politics of rights-based, transformative social policy in South and Southeast Asia
Authors:
Gabriele Koehler
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 4
A key normative principle of transformative social policy is that it is rights-based. This implies that it be universal, as a right extended categorically to all persons in a defined situation, or to all citizens, or, in its most radical form, as applicable to all residents regardless of citizenship status. To be transformative, social policy also needs to tackle the root causes of inequalities and social injustices. In the recent past, approaches emerged in a number of countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia that pointed in the direction of universal, rights-based social policy. These suggest that a “social turn” took place – a shift to ideas and policies that prioritize social issues. In the cases under review (India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand), the trends towards a universal, rights-based approach to social services and social transfers were in each case politically driven and a result of changes in government – the social turns were the outcome of contestation. At present, these countries are experiencing political backlashes, with democratic processes and civil society under severe attack. This article seeks to make two points. First, a rights-based, transformative policy approach and a social turn do not come automatically: it is always the result of contestation, be it from the electorate and their interests groups, or from competition between political parties. Second, acquired rights and moves towards transformation can be dismantled. In the current global political rollback, there is a need to defend and fight for transformative and rights-based social policy.
Topics:
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
social policy
social change
political aspect
legal aspect
Countries:
India
Myanmar
Pakistan
Thailand
The rights-based approach to care policies: Latin American experience
Authors:
Valeria Esquivel
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 4
Care policies are high on the public policy agenda in Latin America. This is partly explained by the region’s structural conditions, typical of middle-income countries, such as increasing life expectancy and women’s relatively high participation in the labour market, but also by the politicization of care, derived from the recognition that the unequal distribution of care provision is a powerful driver of gender and income inequalities. Women’s movements have positioned care policies high on their own agendas and, with varying degrees, States have progressed in the implementation of care policies, supported by a strong gender-equality agenda which is framed within a rights-based approach to social protection. This article presents the Uruguayan and Costa Rican “care systems” as examples of Latin America’s rights-based approach to care policies. It succinctly explains their political and institutional evolution, and presents the main features of their legal frameworks. It pays particular attention to the actors that have mobilized to support and, eventually, shape them. It also identifies the dimensions that are singled out by other countries in the process of replicating and adapting these examples to build their own “care systems” following a rights-based approach to care policies. The article closes with a focus on implementation challenges.
Topics:
Health
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
care work
care worker
social policy
gender
Countries:
Costa Rica
Uruguay
Social protection and persons with disabilities
Authors:
Catalina Devandas Aguilar
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 4
Social protection is an essential condition for social and economic development for all, but particularly for those who experience poverty and social exclusion. Social protection programmes can play a crucial role in alleviating and preventing poverty and vulnerability to secure people’s well-being. They can also enhance the productivity, employability and economic development of people by creating better income-earning opportunities for them. Moreover, social protection can foster social inclusion and participation by ensuring effective access to food, health care, education and support services. Thus, well-designed social protection programmes have the potential to directly improve the enjoyment of rights of persons with disabilities. Regrettably, traditional disability-welfare approaches have promoted the opposite, building and spreading charity and medical perspectives in social protection responses. As a result, for too long, many national social protection systems resulted in furthering paternalism, dependence, segregation and institutionalization of persons with disabilities, limiting their opportunities to live independently in their communities. The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities challenges these views, promoting social protection systems that are inclusive of persons with disabilities and which facilitate active citizenship, social inclusion and community participation. The Convention calls on States parties to ensure that persons with disabilities receive equal access to mainstream social protection programmes and services as well as access to specific programmes and services for disability-related needs and expenses such as support services. Against this background, this article aims to discuss why and how States and other stakeholders should ensure the establishment of disability-inclusive social protection systems, in conformity with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Topics:
Disability
Keywords:
disabled person
UN Convention
social protection
Regions:
International
Introduction: Reflecting on the human right to social security
Authors:
Christina Behrendt
Katja Hujo
Roddy McKinnon
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 4
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 asserts that social security is an inalienable human right. Realizing this human right is often considered, simply, as a matter of political will and of administrative aptitude. In these terms, the progressive realization of the human right to social security may be viewed as the outcome of an appropriately-resourced political and bureaucratic process. Such a perspective, however, is clearly inadequate. Characteristically, bureaucracies are designed to cater to the needs of all, based on common procedures and common deliverables designed for the “typical” case. Yet such approaches often lack the necessary flexibility and resources to make a distinction between individuals, which acknowledge their respective differences and needs. To meet the international commitment to progressively realize universal social security coverage, social security administrations are key actors. However imperative this role may be, if the pursuit of this commitment fails to respect people’s differences this will put at risk the meeting in full of what is envisioned by the human right to social security. To this end, this special issue aims to foster an understanding that the goal of universal coverage must necessarily also respect and respond to the individual needs of each and every person.
Topics:
Extension of coverage
Keywords:
social security administration
legal aspect
human rights
coverage
Regions:
International
Global–regional interaction to extend access to social protection for migrant workers: Insights from ASEAN and MERCOSUR
Authors:
Elisa Fornalé
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 3
Universal access to social protection for migrant workers is emerging as a problematic issue in the implementation of free movement regimes at a regional level. This article focuses on the concept of regional governance as a possible mechanism to address the unsolved challenges of social security regimes to extend coverage. To this end, the article looks at current legal developments in two regional projects (ASEAN and MERCOSUR) to identify a creative approach to strengthen the development of national floors of social protection. The interest of using these case studies lies in exploring whether the regional integration process can play a major role in the progressive extension of social protection rights to migrant workers by facilitating the adoption of social security agreements.
Topics:
Migration
Keywords:
migrant worker
social protection
social security agreement
regional level
Regions:
International
A “Swedish” actuarial balance for a notional defined contribution pension scheme with disability and minimum pension benefits
Authors:
Juan M. Pérez-Salamero González
Manuel Ventura-Marco
Carlos Vidal-Meliá
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 3
This article proposes a “Swedish” type actuarial balance sheet (ABS) for a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme with disability and minimum pension benefits. The proposed ABS splits the pension system in two parts: the pure NDC part and the redistributive part, which includes the assets and liabilities originating from non-contributory rights. The article contains a numerical example that sheds light on the real applicability of our proposal. The model has practical implications that could be of interest to policy-makers, given that it integrates actuarial and social aspects of public pensions and discloses the real cost of redistribution through minimum pensions.
Topics:
Disability
Old-age pensions
Actuarial
Keywords:
old age risk
notional defined contribution
pay as you go system
pension scheme
retirement
risk of disability
adequacy
accounting
Regions:
International
The ABCs of nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) schemes
Authors:
Robert Holzmann
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 3
Nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) pension schemes have been successfully implemented since the mid-1990s in a number of European countries such as Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Sweden. The NDC approach features the lifelong contribution–benefit link of a financial defined contribution (FDC) personal account scheme, but is based on the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) format. At its start out, the PAYG commitments of the preceding defined benefit (DB) system are converted into individual personal accounts, allowing for a smooth transition from the DB to the DC format, while avoiding the very high transition costs inherent in a move from a traditional PAYG DB scheme to a fully funded FDC scheme. The NDC approach implemented by the rule book is able to manage the economic and demographic risks inherent to a pension scheme and, by design, creates financial sustainability. As in any pension scheme, the linchpin between financial stability and adequacy is the retirement age; in the NDC approach the individual retirement age above the minimum age is by design self-selected and by incentives should increase the effective retirement age in line with population ageing. As a systemic reform approach NDC has become a strong competitor to piecemeal parametric reforms of traditional nonfinancial DB (NDB) schemes. While frequent, these reforms are far from transparent and usually too timid and too late to create financial sustainability while providing adequate pensions for the average contributor. This article offers a largely non-technical introduction to NDC schemes, their basic elements and advantages over NDB schemes, the key technical frontiers of the approach, and the experiences of NDC countries.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Keywords:
social security reform
pension scheme
notional defined contribution
social security financing
individual account
Regions:
International
Countries:
Italy
Latvia
Norway
Poland
Sweden
Does trust increase willingness to pay higher taxes to help the needy?
Authors:
Alena Auchynnikava
Alex Cheung
Nazim Habibov
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 3
The article studies the causal effect of trust on the willingness to pay higher taxes to help the needy in a sample of 29 countries of Eastern and Southern Europe, and the former Soviet Union and Mongolia. It is hypothesized that interpersonal trust leads to a greater willingness to pay taxes to help the needy since (i) trust increases the likelihood of helping strangers; (ii) trust fosters solidarity and cooperation when working to solve common problems in society; and (iii) trust reduces suspicion with respect to the perceived misuse of redistributed money. Three key findings are that the more people trust each other, the more they are ready to support the welfare state; the effect of trust on welfare state support holds even in a contextual environment characterized by rather lower levels of trust and relatively underdeveloped systems of redistribution; and higher individual-level trust fosters tax morale and helps deter tax evasion.
Keywords:
social capital
social security planning
welfare state
social solidarity
public opinion
Regions:
Europe
Countries:
Mongolia
Pension reforms in EU11 countries: An evaluation of post‐socialist pension policies
Authors:
Stefan Domonkos
András Simonovits
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 2
This article evaluates the pension policy pathways of the 11 former state socialist nations that have joined the European Union since 2004. Focusing primarily on the post‐2004 period, the analysis discusses the most important measurable outcomes of these countries’ pension reforms, in terms of poverty alleviation, pension adequacy and fiscal sustainability. Going beyond the quantifiable concepts, we also investigate the quality of the 11 countries’ pension systems in terms of equity as well as efficiency, emphasizing the less conspicuous design errors present in these systems. Although these errors have received little attention to date, they may harm pension schemes along several dimensions, including their fiscal sustainability.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Keywords:
social security reform
pension scheme
adequacy
social security planning
Developing a compliance‐based approach to address error, evasion and fraud in social security systems
Authors:
Luana Goveia
Anahí Sosa
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 2
To support the improved administration of social security programmes, this article presents a preliminary compliance risk management (CRM) model for social security institutions to use as a tool to help address the operational challenges of error, evasion and fraud. Within the model, error, evasion and fraud are collectively referred to as issues of non‐compliance. The model's framework addresses non‐compliance in an integrated manner with regard to the main functions of contribution collection and benefit administration. The model aims to facilitate tackling these important issues by better permitting the identified challenges to be prioritized and, thereafter, addressed based on the assessed severity of their impacts and the cost‐effectiveness of the selected responses. Three generic types of intervention are recommended to tackle non‐compliance worldwide: prevention, detection and deterrence. The article's objective is to contribute to ongoing work to develop an encompassing CRM framework for all social security systems.
Topics:
Governance and administration
Error, evasion and fraud
Keywords:
social security administration
compliance
abuse of social security
organisation and methods
Regions:
International
The gender gap in pensions in Latin America
Authors:
Verónica Amarante
Maira Colacce
Pilar Manzi
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 2
Lower female lifetime labour market participation rates, greater interruptions during their working lives, and wage gaps contribute to create gender gaps in pensions at the time of retirement. The design of social security systems may reinforce or attenuate these gaps. This article provides new evidence on gender gaps in access to pensions and in pension income in four Southern Cone countries in Latin America and analyses their evolution between 2000 and 2013, showing significant improvements in both gaps, with differential patterns by countries. The decrease in the gender gap in pension income has been particularly significant in Argentina and Brazil. In both cases, the largest increases in pension values during the period correspond to the lowest income percentiles, where women are overrepresented. The application of redistributive policies in these countries, aimed at reducing poverty and inequality but not necessarily focused on gender equity, has had positive and probably unintended consequences in terms of reduction in gender gaps in pensions.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Keywords:
pension scheme
women
gaps in coverage
Countries:
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Uruguay
Work/life balance policy in Germany: Promoting equal partnership in families
Authors:
Willem Adema
Chris Clarke
Valerie Frey
Angela Greulich
Hyunsook Kim
Pia Rattenhuber
Olivier Thévenon
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 2
Across the OECD, public policies seek to support parents in achieving their desired work/life balance. This article introduces the background to and issues at stake in promoting equal partnerships in families in Germany. Families in Germany face considerable challenges to spending more time together and achieving a more gender‐balanced reconciliation of work and family life, as paid work hours for fathers are long on full‐time jobs and many women are in part‐time jobs. Family policy can play an important role and Germany has made substantial progress in supporting families ahead of and after the birth of a child. Important in this regard are the parental leave reforms of 2007 and 2015 and the extension of childcare supports that better enable fathers and mothers to combine work and family commitments. The article assesses recent developments in family policies in Germany while also drawing from the experiences of countries with longstanding policies to support work/life balance and strengthen gender equality.
Topics:
Family benefits
Keywords:
family policy
work life balance
dual career couple
Countries:
Germany
Electronic payment mechanisms in social security: Extending the reach of benefit and contribution transactions
Authors:
Paul Waller
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 2
More often than not, the existing modes of contribution collection and benefit payment of social security organizations are adapted to the collective arrangements that characterize employer‐employee relationships. Extending coverage to individuals in difficult‐to‐reach groups, however, may require new modalities of service that can cope with many separate, secure transactions rather than a few bulk data transfers between organizations. Recent developments in electronic payment show its wide applicability in enabling huge volumes of such individual transactions. It is in this light that the article explores the potentials of this technology and identifies possible arrangements through which electronic payments could surmount barriers that stand in the way of covering difficult‐to‐reach groups. The high level of mobile phone penetration on a global scale augurs well for using e‐payment mechanisms to collect social security contributions and to deliver social security benefits and services. A generic model is used to describe the requisite elements to implement electronic payments in social protection programmes. Based on empirical evidence of current social protection practices from around the world, five scenarios are presented to describe possible configurations for electronic payment, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. The broader objective is to contribute in a practical manner to the international commitment to extend social protection to all, as defined by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Topics:
Information and communication technology
Extension of coverage
Contribution collection and compliance
Keywords:
gaps in coverage
information technology
telecommunications
contributions
benefit administration
social security administration
Regions:
International
The challenge of pension reform in Georgia: Non-contributory pensions and elderly poverty
Authors:
Khatuna Nutsubidze
Tamila Nutsubidze
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 1
Georgia’s national social security system offers almost complete non-contributory basic pension coverage. The basic pension has, to date, proved effective in dealing with poverty. But Georgia’s fiscal constraints and ageing population also highlight the importance of improving the pension system, in order to ensure its sustainability. This article presents policy reform choices, which suggest that, in Georgia, pension reform might include increasing the statutory retirement ages and reducing the generosity of benefits through means testing. The case of the Georgian non-contributory basic pension might hold value for some low- and middle-income countries that are considering the implementation of, or expanding coverage under, a non-contributory pension programme.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Keywords:
social security reform
non‐contributory scheme
pension scheme
poverty
Countries:
Georgia
The evolution of the Georgian social protection system since independence: An unclear future despite recent expansion
Authors:
Dimitri Gugushvili
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 1
In the first decade of transition, the Georgian social protection system experienced a major retrenchment as the government struggled to finance welfare provision in the face of massive economic contraction and the near collapse of public institutions. Since 2004, this trend has been reversed, with the economy returning to a fast growth path and public administration improving considerably. Recent reforms, including the notable introduction of universal public health insurance, are welcome steps towards building a modern welfare state. Major challenges still remain, however, especially in relation to the system’s limited effect on widespread poverty. Decelerating growth, the lack of strong pro-welfare actors, and the absence of positive external pull factors may stall or prevent future growth, but the changing nature of the social contract between the people and government, as well as Georgian politicians’ growing recognition of the importance of the welfare system for inclusive growth, leaves ample space for optimism.
Topics:
Health
Governance and administration
Keywords:
social security administration
social security planning
welfare state
Countries:
Georgia
Survivors’ pensions and their impact on the Brazilian labour market
Authors:
Julimar Da Silva Bichara
Rogerio Nagamine Costanzi
Graziela Ansiliero
Issue:
Volume 70 (2017), Issue 1
In many countries the regulations governing survivors’ pensions were established in periods when female labour market participation was lower than at present. However, the current trend in many Latin American countries is for growing levels of female labour participation. In Brazil, where there are no restrictions on the concurrent receipt of retirement and survivors’ pensions, and where until recently lifelong pensions could be obtained without any conditionality, not only has the accumulation of such benefits grown, but there are indications that these rules have had a negative impact on women’s labour market participation. Analysis of the case of Brazil shows the need for social security regulations to adapt to labour market changes, and underlines the need to acknowledge that social security regulations can actually have an impact on the labour market.