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The geopolitical ripple effect of Asia’s ageing population
lowyinstitute.org (28.09.2024) Economies, cultures and foreign policy objectives are set to evolve with the region’s shifting demographics.
India: Government To Bring Gig Workers Under Social Security Net Via e-Shram Portal
swarajyamag.com (02.09.2024) The government will soon allow gig and platform workers to register on the e-Shram portal, ensuring they are covered under social security schemes, Union Labour & Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Sunday (1 September). Mandaviya highlighted that aggregators — companies that employ gig and platform workers — will be asked to take the lead in registering their workers on the portal.
India: Govt mulls reworking migrant, gig worker definitions
hindustantimes.com (29.08.2024) The Union labour ministry is reviewing definitions of migrant and gig workers to enhance inclusivity and clarity, covering intra-state migrations and digital platforms.
Singapore: MOM announces implementation date for the Platform Workers CPF Transition Support
indiatimes.com (27.08.2024) The government will now offset 100% of the increase in CPF contributions for lower-income platform workers in 2025, up from the previously announced 75%. These initiatives mark a significant step towards improving the welfare and representation of platform workers in Singapore.
China plans "bigger, stronger"social security fund to aid ageing society
Reuters (20.08.2024) China will beef up its 2.88 trillion yuan ($406 billion) social security fund, making it bigger and stronger to help support its rapidly ageing population as the number of new births and younger workforce to support its seniors shrinks.
The National Social Security Fund will "effectively" respond to population ageing and "improve the policy mechanism for the development of the elderly care industry," the fund's party secretary Ding Xuedong said.
In major policy shift, Singapore announces unemployment support scheme
cnbc.com (18.08.2024) The implementation of the scheme marks a notable policy shift in the city-state, which has long resisted calls for unemployment support.
The scheme is aimed at helping lower- and middle-income workers, and will provide involuntarily unemployed workers a total of up to 6,000 Singapore dollars ($4,561) for six months, subject to conditions.
Philippines: From informal to formal: Angkas riders gain social security benefits
The Freeman (06.08.2024) Angkas, a prominent ride-hailing service in the Philippines, has taken a significant step towards enhancing the welfare of its riders by signing an agreement with the Social Security System (SSS) to provide social security coverage to around 50,000 riders. This initiative, championed by Angkas, marks a monumental shift in how gig economy workers are perceived and treated within the formal economic structure. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Rolando Macasaet, president and CEO of SSS, for his unwavering support and vision in making this partnership a reality.
Digital and innovative tools for better health and productivity at the workplace
oecd.org (14.08.2024)Promoting health and well-being at the workplace is a valuable investment for employees, employers, governments, and society. Healthy employees are less likely to be absent or have reduced productivity. Employers benefit from improved work outputs, and health systems see reduced treatment costs. Digital tools and innovative technologies can enhance the effectiveness of health promotion programs. The market for these tools is growing globally, with employers keen to improve health and productivity. This working paper, through four case studies, underscores how wearables, mobile applications for female health, AI-driven lifestyle management applications, and health insurance engagement platforms can be utilized to promote health at the workplace. These technologies present avenues for enhancing the efficacy, efficiency, and customization of health promotion interventions. Nevertheless, they also pose challenges such as privacy issues, the requirement for digital proficiency, the necessity for conducive organisational practices for healthier work environments, and the assurance of safety and clinical suitability of the proliferating health applications and tools in the market.
Pension Reforms and Inequality in Germany: Micro-Modelling
NBER (August 2024) Germany, like many other countries, has undergone a series of pension reforms since the 1980s which generally decreased benefit generosity and increased the retirement age due to demographic pressures. This paper investigates whether these reforms have increased income and wealth inequality among retirees. In order to answer this question, we employed counterfactual simulations in which we predict how the income and social security wealth distributions would have developed if these reforms had not taken place, compared to the actual development of the income and social security wealth distributions.
Our analysis reveals that the pension reforms has led to an increase in inequality in terms of social security wealth between the 1990s and 2000s and decreased inequality thereafter. The decrease in inequality is mainly driven by social assistance as it represents a lower bound for benefit size and thus mitigates the effect of benefit-reducing reforms for lower income groups. We further divided the total effect of the pension reforms into two components. The first component is the mechanical effect, which keeps retirement probabilities constant and only considers changes in benefit calculation. The second component is the behavioral effect, which describes how SSW differs because of altered retirement probabilities. Our findings indicate that in the German context the behavioral effect is statistically significant but economically small.
Maternity and Paternity benefits launched in Oman: pioneering social insurance reforms in the Gulf region
International Labour Organization (17.07.2024) Oman has launched the implementation of new social insurance maternity benefits that are set to significantly improve labour market opportunities for women in the Sultanate.
The new scheme is part of ambitious and wide-ranging social protection reforms in Oman, developed with the support of the ILO and adopted in July 2023. It improves and expands maternity benefits for mothers employed in full-time jobs and includes a provision for paternity leave.
The system is in line with key requirements of ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), including through covering migrant workers alongside nationals. Earlier this month, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also announced legislation that will establish a similar maternity insurance system.
“The introduction of the parental leave branch under the Social Protection Law is not only aimed at increasing women's participation in the workforce but also at improving the well-being of families and ensuring the future prosperity of our nation,” said Fasil Al-Farsi, CEO of the Social Protection Fund. "Ensuring close alignment with national objectives, international social security standards of the International Labour Organization, and best global practices are guiding principles of all social protection reforms in Oman,” he added.
The new scheme provides Omani and non-Omani mothers who are in full-time employment with longer, fully paid maternity leave, equal to 14 weeks as consistent with the requirements of ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183). It also includes the option of unpaid, job-protected leave for up to 98 additional days, which can be shared between father and mother. In order to avoid negatively impacting women’s future pension entitlements, the Social Protection Fund will cover the cost of pension contributions during maternity leave.
Aging Well in Asia: Development Policies for Asia and the Pacific
Asian Development Bank (02.04.2024) Developing Asia and the Pacific is unprepared to secure the well-being of its rapidly aging population as the growing share of older people in the region face challenges from low pension coverage to health problems, social isolation, and limited access to essential services.
While longer lifespans reflect the region’s development success, comprehensive policy reforms are urgently needed to support the welfare of older people, according to Aging Well in Asia: Asian Development Policy Report, released today by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at its 57th Annual Meeting.
The number of people aged 60 and older in developing Asia and the Pacific is set to nearly double by 2050 to 1.2 billion—or about a quarter of the total population—significantly increasing the need for pension and welfare programs as well as health care services. At the same time, economies have an opportunity to reap a “silver dividend” in the form of additional productivity from older people, which could boost gross domestic product in the region by 0.9% on average.
“Asia and the Pacific’s rapid development is a success story, but it’s also fueling a huge demographic shift, and the pressure is rising,” said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park. “Governments need to prepare now if they’re going to be able to help hundreds of millions of people in the region age well. Policies should support lifetime investment in health, education, skills, and financial preparedness for retirement. Family and social ties are also important to foster healthy and productive populations of older people and maximize their contribution to society.”
Content or Discontent? Perceptions of Social Protection in France, Germany and the United Kingdom
OECD iLibrary (12.07.2024) What factors influence satisfaction with social protection? This report investigates differences in perceptions of social protection across countries, with a focus on France, using novel data from the OECD’s Risks that Matter Survey. Compared to respondents in Germany and the United Kingdom, French respondents are systematically the least satisfied with social protection in their country, even as France performs well on many social programme outcome indicators. This report explores a range of different factors influencing perceptions of social protection, including individual risk perceptions; the shape, size and cost of social programmes; frictions in application and service delivery in social programmes; and socio-economic and cultural factors.
Oman launches platform to empower gig economy
The HR Observer (24.01.2023) The Omani’s National Employment Programme launched a self-employment platform collaboration with AWJ Innovation and Occidental Oman to encourage the self employed individuals to connect with potential employers.
“Self employment is one of the initiatives launched by the National Employment programme in partnership with the concerned authorities with the aim of providing integrated and interrelated facilities for self employed individuals in the Sultante of Oman,” said Azhar al Kindi, Executive Director of the National Employment Programme.
EU takes Germany and Italy to court over migrant worker ‘discrimination’
politico.eu (25.07.2024) The European Commission said Thursday it is taking legal action against Germany and Italy, accusing both countries of discriminating against EU migrants regarding social security.
In 2018 and 2022, respectively, the German state of Bavaria and Italy passed laws reducing the amount of family benefits paid to mobile workers — a term referring to EU nationals working in a country where they are not citizens.
As a result, the Commission referred Italy and Germany to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), calling the schemes “discrimination.”
Economic Policy Making to Pursue Economic Welfare
OECD (May 2023) Effective welfare policies need to consider interactions among economic, social and environmental outcomes. This paper, prepared to support Finance track discussions during Japan’s 2023 Presidency of the G7, describes a variety of national and international initiatives to improve the measurement of multidimensional welfare and well-being "beyond GDP". For example, the 2025 System of National Accounts (SNA) will provide greater visibility to the digital economy and free digital services, unpaid household activities, and the depletion of natural capital. More than two-thirds of OECD countries have also developed national frameworks, development plans or surveys with a multidimensional well-being focus, spanning a broad range of economic, social and environmental outcomes and inequalities that matter to people’s well-being and its sustainability. Some G7 and OECD economies have started using this evidence to inform budgeting, enhance policy appraisal and evaluation tools (including cost-benefit analysis), and to guide government performance management frameworks and inclusive growth strategies.
Society at a Glance 2024 : OECD Social Indicators
oecd (20.06.2024) Society at a Glance 2024: OECD Social Indicators, the tenth edition of the biennial OECD overview of social indicators, addresses the growing demand for quantitative evidence on social well-being and its trends. The report features a special chapter on fertility trends which discusses evidence from recent OECD analysis on the effect of labour market outcomes, housing costs and different aspects of the family policy framework (e.g. parental leave, childcare, and financial supports) on fertility trends and highlights key policy challenges. This edition of Society at a Glance also includes a special section based on the 2022 OECD Risks that Matter Survey on people’s perceptions of social and economic risks and the extent to which they think governments address those risks effectively. Society at a Glance presents 25 social indicators, 5 each in chapters on General context, Self-sufficiency, Equity, Health, and Social cohesion.
The United States will need 7 million migrants to cover old age support programs for baby boomers
elpais.com (21.06.2024) The country’s aging population and low fertility rate jeopardizes the solvency of Social Security and the Medicare program, according to a new study by Brookings
EU: Pension adequacy report underlines importance of resilient European pension systems in the face of global challenges
European Commission (20.06.2024) The report highlights that European pension systems have protected retired Europeans’ living standards in the face of global challenges. Resilient public pensions, indexation, and redistribution mechanisms have maintained pension adequacy during crises.
However, pensions are predicted to decrease, calling for reinforced policies to promote longer careers, healthy ageing policies, inclusive labour markets, and greater flexibility in retirement pathways. The report calls for further reforms to ensure fair retirement security for all and prevent socio-economic inequalities from increasing with age, amid demographic and labour market changes.
Making Pension Savings Easy and Efficient for Informal Sector Workers - Learning from Kenya’s Haba Haba Pilot
worldbank.org (21.05.2024) Haba Haba, which means “bit by bit” in Swahili, is a voluntary pension scheme in Kenya for workers in informal employment and promises to be a scheme through which they can slowly but surely save for their old age. The scheme, administered by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) was launched as a pilot in 2019. Haba Haba allows for easy, anytime, anywhere savings by informal economy workers. Registration, contributions, and access can be handled via mobile phone by dialing USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) *303# or by contacting the NSSF via WhatsApp. The registration process only requires an individual’s first and last names, and government identification (ID) number. Contributions can be paid in person at NSSF offices or through the mobile money platform M-Pesa.
Rwanda's Innovative Approach to Early Childhood Development Through Social Protection
worldbank.org (14.06.2024) Through its Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) Program, supported by the World Bank under the Social Protection Transformation Project, Rwanda is successfully providing high-quality care and early stimulation for children, helping parents access resources necessary for proper family nutrition. Consequently, the country has made significant strides in its commitment to early childhood development reforms and is setting an example worldwide.