First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
286 results found
The role of mutuals and community-based insurance in social health protection systems: International experience on delegated functions
Authors:
Marietou Niang
Emilie Gélinas
Oumar Mallé Samb
Lou Tessier
Mathilde Mailfert
Aurore Iradukunda
Olivier Louis dit Guérin
Valéry Ridde
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 2
The institutional architecture for the provision of social health protection varies across countries, as do the actors and organizations involved. In some countries, mutual benefit societies and community-based health insurance organizations (CBHI) play a role in this area. In the 1990s, these were promoted particularly as a means of extending social security coverage, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In the current context, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, as well as renewed political will to realize universal coverage, has led to a questioning of the role of mutuals/CBHI. However, the literature on the roles they play in national social security systems remains limited. For this scoping review, 49 documents were analysed, covering 18 countries worldwide, focused on the delegation of functions to mutuals/CBHI in national social health protection systems. The results reveal the dynamics of the delegation of functions within social protection systems over time and their implementation processes. These provide areas for reflection that can inform policy processes.
Topics:
Health insurance
Mutual benefit societies
Keywords:
mutual benefit society
social protection
health
social security schemes
health insurance
Regions:
International
Work histories and workers’ failure to satisfy pension contribution requirements: A comparison of Mexico and Uruguay
Authors:
Ignacio Apella
Gonzalo Zunino
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 2
Comparing Mexico and Uruguay, this article examines the work history of workers and the challenges they face to satisfy the minimum contribution period for eligibility to receive a contributory old-age pension. Administrative data on work histories is used to formulate a survival model aimed at estimating hazard rates of entering and transitioning out of a given contribution status. This model is then used to perform a Monte Carlo simulation to forecast contribution histories. Results suggest that the hazard rate is negatively associated with the length of a worker’s spell in his or her current status and warn that, both in Mexico and Uruguay, a significant group of workers will find it difficult to gain entitlement to a contributory pension in old age. The manner in which each of these national systems has addressed the challenges associated with low contribution densities may explain the two countries’ very different coverage results.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Extension of coverage
Keywords:
pension scheme
old-age benefit
contributions
eligibility
coverage
Countries:
Mexico
Uruguay
Argentina’s Emergency Family Income (IFE): An opportunity for women’s empowerment
Authors:
Vanesa D’Elia
Julio Gaiada
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 2
This article provides empirical evidence regarding the impact of the Emergency Family Income (Ingreso Familiar de Emergencia – IFE), which was implemented in Argentina in 2020. Investigated is the impact of the IFE on women’s role in providing household income and on the distribution of roles within households, as a reflection of women’s empowerment. Drawing on various household surveys, the study compared those women eligible to receive the transfer with those who were not. A difference-in-differences (DID) methodology was used to measure the impact. Following the implementation of the IFE, women’s share of couple income and household income is found to have increased by some 8 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, while the probability of women being solely responsible for household chores has fallen by 4 per cent.
Topics:
Family benefits
Gender Inequalities
Keywords:
cash benefit
women’s empowerment
women
COVID-19
Countries:
Argentina
The potential impact of introducing a social security system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: A computable general equilibrium approach
Authors:
Tareq Sadeq
Mohanad Ismael
Ali Jabarin
Lulit Mitik
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 2
This article assesses the potential impact for the Occupied Palestinian Territory (West Bank and Gaza) of enforcing the enactment of the currently suspended Social Security Law (No. 19 of 2016). Using a computable general equilibrium model, we simulate different scenarios associated with the enactment of the social security system on key macroeconomic variables, such as GDP, private consumption, government spending, investment and employment, for the period 2020–2030. We evaluate the influence on the economy of introducing a social security system for private-sector workers, as set out in the 2016 law, and compare the simulation results of each scenario to the baseline. In each scenario, we consider different options concerning severance payment duration and different options for the investment strategy of social security contributions. However, for employees in Gaza, the article does not consider severance payments due to economic difficulties and the Israeli closure policy.
Topics:
Social policies & programmes
Keywords:
social security schemes
investment policy
severance pay
contributions
Countries:
Palestine, State of
The Work Profiler: Revision and maintenance of a profiling tool for the recently unemployed in the Netherlands
Authors:
Martijn A. Wijnhoven
Elise Dusseldorp
Maurice Guiaux
Harriët Havinga
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 2
For the public employment services of many Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the importance of using profiling tools for job seekers is increasing rapidly in importance. With this trend, there is also widening concern about the risks of an over reliance on such tools. Part of the concern lies with a lack of transparency concerning how such tools work. This article aims to address this by offering a detailed investigation of the Work Profiler – the instrument used in the Netherlands by the Institute for Employee Benefits (Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen – UWV) to predict re-employment success and provide a diagnosis of key factors hindering job seekers’ return to work. Professionals use these insights to deepen their understanding of the situation of job seekers and decide together with job seeker how to support their return to work. UWV decided to maintain and revise the Work Profiler through a large-scale study involving a sample of 53,238 people. Work Profiler 1.0 was developed in 2007–2010 and has been in use on a regional basis since 2011 and nationwide since 2015. This article explains how the new tool (version 2.0; implemented in 2018) works and, most importantly, demonstrates the choices made to ensure that it functions well and is used effectively by professionals. These latter two aspects are rarely discussed in the literature.
Topics:
Employment
Unemployment
Return to work
Information and communication technology
Keywords:
statistical method
job seeker
unemployment benefit
unemployed
Countries:
Netherlands
Social security coverage for couriers who work through digital platforms in Mexico: A role for a special scheme?
Authors:
Víctor G. Carreon-Rodríguez
Mauricio F. Coronado-García
Miguel A. Guajardo-Mendoza
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 1
The socio-demographic characteristics of couriers who work through digital platforms in Mexico reveal that more than 85 per cent of these workers have completed full-time secondary education and 83 per cent of these workers are young (aged 14 to 44). However, only 25 per cent are covered for health services and social security benefits. Against this backdrop, and guided by international experience, we set out a proposal to provide these workers with a tailored package of social security benefits. The proposal would require to categorize couriers who work through digital platforms as “digital workers”, introduce a special scheme for these workers based on voluntary affiliation, and offer a specific portfolio of benefits.
Topics:
Health insurance
Extension of coverage
Platform workers
Keywords:
platform workers
gaps in coverage
social security legislation
social protection
social security schemes
Countries:
Mexico
Special pension schemes for workers in arduous and hazardous jobs: Functions and conditions to ensure equal treatment
Authors:
Sergio Mittlaender
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 1
Most jurisdictions grant differentiated and more beneficial treatment – usually in the form of early retirement, and commonly under special pension schemes – to workers in arduous or hazardous jobs. Several justifications for such treatment have been advanced, including i) compensating the worker for the hardship, ii) protecting the worker from the hazard, and iii) realizing the principle of equality in the distribution of costs and benefits in the social security system. This article analyses these functions from a socioeconomic perspective and explains how early retirement for workers in arduous and hazardous jobs is necessary to ensure equality by treating “unequals unequally”, and in proportion to their inequality. Moreover, this article presents a precise formula to calculate when a worker should be allowed to retire, so that workers in occupational domains with a shorter life expectancy do not systematically enjoy lower expected benefits from the pension system while having contributed the same amount. Implications for the design and desirability of special pension benefits are discussed.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Safety and health at work
Keywords:
pension scheme
eligibility
equal treatment
occupational safety
Regions:
International
Curbing the demographic “drifting dune” in long-term care insurance financing: The case of Germany
Authors:
Lewe Bahnsen
Florian Maximilian Wimmesberger
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 1
Long-term care provision and financing are becoming increasingly important matters in all ageing economies. Therefore, a major challenge for policy makers is to strike a balance between adequate care and sustainable financing. In this study, we evaluate the proposal of a so-called sustainability factor in German long-term care insurance. Considering changes in the beneficiary-contributor ratio, it aims for a rule-based consideration of demographic dynamics to alleviate pressure on long-term care financing. Using the framework of generational accounting, we demonstrate that this proposal could have a relieving effect on finances, depending on the share of involvement of current and future generations. It may offer an option for pay-as-you-go long-term care insurance systems worldwide that need to curb the impact of ageing societies. Therefore, this article addresses policy makers tasked with designing a sustainable financing model for long-term care insurance. It demonstrates that the sustainability factor represents a step towards sustainable finances and, thus, it might be one component of a more comprehensive reform package.
Topics:
Demographic change
Long-term care
Keywords:
long term care
social insurance
social security financing
social security reform
demographic aspect
Countries:
Germany
The 2022 Greek pension reform: The rebirth of carve-out privatization in Eastern Europe
Authors:
Nikola Altiparmakov
Issue:
Volume 76 (2023), Issue 1
After a decade of unprecedented austerity, Greece abruptly changed the course of pension consolidation in 2022 and implemented the controversial carve-out pension funding approach, whereby a portion of existing pay-as-you-go (PAYG) contributions are diverted to fund individual pension savings, thus undermining the financing of existing PAYG pensions. Although inspired by the World Bank’s 1994 pension privatization blueprint, the Greek 2022 reform features a major policy shift by entrusting the management of individual pension savings to a dedicated government body, ostensibly to try to remedy inherent market failures in private pension provision. Similar to earlier reforms in Eastern Europe, the multi-decade transition costs of carve-out funding have been vastly underestimated in Greece, which will give rise to fiscal distress in the coming years when annual transition costs become sizeable and favourable international financing terms start to change. Unless firm political commitment is established to implement the measures necessary to finance the transition costs, Greece may have to resort to reform reversals similar to those already implemented across Eastern Europe.
Topics:
Old-age pensions
Financing
Keywords:
pension scheme
defined contribution plan
social security reform
social security financing
social security administration
Integrated long-term care partnerships between government social care and health agencies in Brazil: The Belo Horizonte model
Authors:
Peter Lloyd-Sherlock
Karla Giacomin
Poliana Carvalho
Quesia Nayrane Ferreira de Sousa
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
The article sets out key elements of the policy agenda for enhanced integration between health and social care for older people in high-income countries and demonstrates its wider relevance to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The article then explores the context for this agenda in Brazil, including growing demand for long-term care (LTC) and current institutional arrangements. It goes on to discuss a case study project of partnering for LTC between local social assistance and health agencies in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. It identifies challenges and potential benefits of this partnership model, offering policy insights for LTC policy in Brazil and other countries.
Topics:
Medical care
Long-term care
Keywords:
long term care
elder care
medical care
social services
social protection
Countries:
Brazil
Introduction: Making the case to formally revise the international social security standards to include long-term care for the elderly
Authors:
Roddy McKinnon
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
First published in April 1948 as the Bulletin of the International Social Security Association, this year marks the 75th anniversary of what, since January 1967, we have all come to know as the International Social Security Review. To mark this important anniversary, this special double issue, “The human right to long-term care for the elderly: Extending the role of social security programmes”, talks to current debates on social security coverage extension in a context of population ageing. There is a case to be made for revising the international social security standards to formally recognize long-term care for the elderly, possibly as a distinct branch of social security. At the heart of this discussion, the questions to be addressed by all countries are the roles that social security systems can and should play in helping to meet the long-term medical and social care needs of elders.
Topics:
Long-term care
Population ageing
Keywords:
long term care
population ageing
coverage
social security scheme
ILO Convention
Long-term care in the context of population ageing: What role for social protection policies?
Authors:
Lou Tessier
Nathalie De Wulf
Yuta Momose
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
With the acceleration of population ageing, healthy ageing is becoming an imperative for all. Social protection systems have an important role to play in this endeavour. Through a life cycle approach, social protection systems can support i) the prevention of disability in old age (i.e. by addressing the social determinants of health and rehabilitation), ii) effective access to long-term care without hardship for those who need it, and iii) decent work in the care economy. To do so will require adopting a gender-transformative approach. Indeed, women are disproportionately represented among both older persons and long-term care providers in their diversity. Further, to adequately contribute to healthy ageing and effective access to long-term care without hardship as a rights-based entitlement, social protection systems will need to build strong coordination between health care, social care and other social policies. This article highlights the key entry points for social protection systems to contribute to the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing, building on the rights-based approach of human rights and international social security standards.
Topics:
Long-term care
Population ageing
Keywords:
long term care
social protection
population ageing
coverage
gender
Regions:
International
Long-term care in India: Capacity, need and future
Authors:
Arunika Agarwal
David E. Bloom
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
The family is the dominant player in India’s current long-term care (LTC) system. Yet informal family-based arrangements will be insufficient to accommodate India’s growing need for LTC due to increasing longevity and geographic mobility, the prevalence of chronic disease and disability among the elderly, and the decline of extended family living arrangements. Addressing the growing need for LTC will require a robust expansion of the current LTC system, especially its non-familial components. This overhaul will require investments in infrastructure, human resources and legal and regulatory environments. The objectives of this study are to i) provide a descriptive summary and analysis of the LTC system in India, with attention to cross-state heterogeneity and to the financial, social and cultural factors that impede the operation of India’s LTC system; ii) estimate and assess the current and future need for LTC and its critical financial and human inputs; and iii) critically analyse and discuss the institutions and policies, technologies and behaviours needed to bring capacity comfortably into conformance with the need for LTC.
Topics:
Medical care
Long-term care
Keywords:
elder care
medical care
social services
social protection
Countries:
India
Understanding the “state of play” of long-term care provision in low- and middle-income countries
Authors:
Elena Glinskaya
Zhanlian Feng
Guadalupe Suarez
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
In this article, we provide an overview of the current long-term care (LTC) landscape across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), based on an analysis and synthesis of literature review findings. We begin with a brief assessment of LTC needs on the demand side, followed by a supply side assessment of the available mix of formal LTC services vis-à-vis informal care provision. Next, we describe and discuss the role of government policies in LTC provision and governance. We conclude by discussing and offering practical LTC policy considerations for LMICs, drawing on experiences, best practices and lessons learned from high-income countries.
Topics:
Long-term care
Population ageing
Keywords:
long term care
population ageing
coverage
developing countries
The role of health and social care workers in long-term care for elders in Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia: The transition from institutional to community care
Authors:
Zofia Szweda-Lewandowska
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
Care for the elderly is one of the most important socioeconomic issues arising from the ageing of the population. Given the declining workforce in the care and health sectors, difficulties exist already in fully meeting care needs. Moreover, deinstitutionalization, which involves a transition from institutional to community-based care, requires an increase in human resources in the care and health sectors. The article addresses long-term care systems for the elderly and the conditions affecting the possibility for the Visegrád countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) to transition from a post-socialist model (familialism by default/unsupported familialization) to a European care model based on deinstitutionalization. A further aim of the article is to show some differences in the provision of long-term care for the elderly that are observed in Central Europe, and to underline that their specific characteristics should be taken into account when planning and designing public policies and guidelines for social policy at the European Union level.
Topics:
Human resource management
Long-term care
Keywords:
care work
care worker
human resources planning
population ageing
Countries:
Czechia
Hungary
Poland
Slovakia
Providing long-term care: Options for a better workforce
Authors:
Ana Llena-Nozal
Eileen Rocard
Paola Sillitti
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
Older people and their care workers have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many OECD Member countries have taken measures to contain the spread of the infection and improve the care workforce. Yet the health crisis is highlighting and exacerbating pre-existing structural problems in the long-term care (LTC) sector. In many OECD Member countries, recruiting enough workers in LTC remains a challenge and care workers experience difficult working conditions. Skills mismatch and poor integration with the rest of health care lie at the root of preventable hospital admissions even in normal times. Such challenges are likely to become ever more acute if no further action is taken given the speed of population ageing. Policies to improve recruitment and which also address retention through training, improvements in coordination and productivity, leveraging the effect of digital technologies, are needed.
Topics:
Long-term care
A comparative perspective on long-term care systems
Authors:
Rainer Kotschy
David E. Bloom
Issue:
Volume 75 (2022), Issue 3-4 (Special issue)
This article investigates challenges of ageing for long-term care. The analysis proceeds in three steps. In the first step, we estimate the prospective care demand for 30 developed countries based on projected ageing and disabilities among the elderly. In the second step, we outline challenges for care systems with respect to shortages of care workers, increasing skill requirements for care workers, barriers to universal and equitable access to care, and cost containment subject to adequate care quality. In the third step, we identify solutions for these challenges by comparing the care systems of Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Korea.
Topics:
Long-term care
Population ageing
Keywords:
long term care
social insurance
population ageing
quality of care
independent living
Regions:
International
Income protection for self-employed and non-standard workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors:
Slavina Spasova
Pietro Regazzoni
Based on original evidence from the European Social Policy Network (ESPN), the article investigates the extent to which self-employed and non-standard workers, who are less protected by “ordinary” social protection, were included in “extraordinary” income protection and job retention schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom. When the crisis hit, countries quickly introduced unprecedented emergency income replacement measures for the self-employed. Nevertheless, most of these schemes provided only basic support through lump sums and were, in some cases, subject to a variety of eligibility conditions. Non-standard workers were in general included in job retention schemes, but substantial gaps remained in some countries. The article discusses how such gaps were addressed in five EU Member States. The article concludes by highlighting some policy pointers for better and more adequate “extraordinary” income protection for the self-employed and non-standard workers in times of crisis.
Topics:
Extension of coverage
COVID-19
Keywords:
self-employed
atypical work
social protection
short time working
employment subsidy
COVID-19
Regions:
Europe
Universal Health Coverage and Social Health Protection: Policy relevance to health system financing reforms
Authors:
Dorjsuren Bayarsaikhan
Lou Tessier
Aviva Ron
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Social Health Protection (SHP) are key policy foci that cut across all dimensions of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda. Understanding of these two concepts, their fundamentals and relations would improve health policy development and implementation to attain UHC and effectively protect the health of people and save lives and livelihoods. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided useful lessons to improve multi-sector activities to strengthen and finance health and social protection systems. The aim of this article is to provide conceptual clarity on the contribution of the global frameworks on SHP to the policy goal of UHC. In doing so, the article contributes to health financing and social security related policy discussions and advocates for much needed integrated policy actions at global as well as country levels. It discusses the origins of the two concepts and the relevance of SHP to health systems financing for UHC. Although country situations differ, the main findings, especially for low- and middle-income countries, are highlighted and summarized.
Topics:
Health
Financing
Keywords:
social protection
health
social security financing
universal benefit scheme
coverage
Regions:
International
Egypt’s reformed social insurance system: How might design change incentivize enrolment?
Authors:
Ghada Barsoum
Irene N. Selwaness
In 2019, the Government of Egypt issued a new legal framework for its social insurance system. Aside from providing a unified scheme covering different groups of workers, the new regulation allowed for systemic and parametric reforms that were aimed in large part at addressing the challenge of workers’ low enrolment in social insurance, with an emphasis on informal workers. The reforms reduced the rate of contributions paid by employees and employers, increased the penalties for employers who do not register their workers, and improved the benefits structure. The law also specified provisions to facilitate the enrolment of informal workers by offering to cover the employer’s share of their contributions. However, the law limited such improved access to nine specific categories of informal workers, a decision that fails to recognize the diversity of informal forms of work. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of contributors to the previous system, this article argues that structural barriers pertaining to the large numbers of low-earners and informal enterprises in the economy will likely hinder the expansion of system enrolment despite the legal reforms.