International Social Security Review最新文献

This paper examines disparities in longevity among Spanish retirement pensioners aged 65+, focusing on pension income and gender between 2008 and 2021. Using linked administrative records, we estimate life expectancy and complementary indicators (median, modal age at death, interquartile range). Results show persistent income-related gaps, especially for men, who face both shorter and less predictable lives, while female inequalities are smaller and tend to converge. Compared internationally, Spain displays distinctive narrowings for women but a widen-then-narrow pattern for men. Beyond documenting disparities, the article highlights how each longevity indicator offers distinct policy uses – for actuarial fairness, pension liabilities, and health and elderly care aimed at enhancing the well-being of disadvantaged groups.

The solo self-employed workforce is growing across Europe, a group which often faces greater individual responsibility for retirement preparation than employees. Using a situational strength framework, this study investigates psychological mechanisms behind retirement planning among employees and three types of solo self-employed workers: voluntary, natural, and forced. Based on survey data from 3,450 Dutch workers aged 40–67, a multi-group structural equation model reveals that, compared to employees and other types of solo self-employed workers, future time perspective influences perceived retirement savings adequacy considerably more strongly among voluntary self-employed workers. These findings underscore the situational-contingent nature of retirement planning and highlight the vulnerability of certain self-employed groups in pension policy debates.

In this study, we use unique research data to investigate the risk of exit from the workforce on the grounds of the award of a disability pension under the statutory public-sector pension scheme in Finland. Statistical analysis yields two indicators: the risk for permanent disability retirement and the critical duration of sickness absence days in public-sector occupations. The analysis is based on a logistic regression model where the outcome is retirement on a disability pension, with sickness benefit spells and other individual background information used as covariates. The results underline the importance of minimizing sickness absences and their duration and reveal differences in the risk rate between occupations. We conclude that the proposed risk model is a promising tool that can help employers and the pension industry prevent permanent disability.

This article critically examines perspectives on social protection’s role in strengthening resilience capacities in protracted crises – contexts where conflict and displacement persist for five years or longer. These crises shape how stakeholders navigate their mandates to provide support, while influencing how affected communities seek to withstand, recover from, and adapt to ongoing shocks. International actors have promoted social protection as a means to strengthen absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience capacities at household and community levels. While resilience has become a central concept in social protection policy and programming, much underlying evidence and assumptions stem from stable settings. Protracted crises introduce increased and distinct challenges, including conflict-related insecurity, disrupted public services, and legal uncertainty for displaced populations. Despite these difficulties, social protection for resilience-strengthening is still encouraged as an alternative to piecemeal humanitarian assistance. Drawing on global policy and research reports, and empirical evidence from a multi-country research programme, this article identifies four key limitations in approaches that aim to strengthen resilience through social protection in protracted crises. First, many approaches focus on supporting absorptive capacities. Second, there is often misalignment between the nature of interventions and the drivers of vulnerability. Third, current sectoral approaches work in silos. Finally, there is insufficient attention to local support mechanisms. By critically engaging with these limitations, this article contributes to debates on the relationship between social protection and resilience. It concludes by offering reflections on how aid actors can reconsider their approaches, advocating for strategies that are more collaborative, understanding of, and adapted to local contexts.

The channels through which shocks and stressors affect individual’s health and socioeconomic vulnerability are often similar or closely intertwined. Similarly, the effectiveness of the respective responses of social protection and health systems to shocks and stressors are highly interdependent or mutually reinforcing. The effectiveness of a social protection system response in supporting income security and ensuring continuous access to health and other essential services is itself strongly dependent on the ability of the health system to continue delivering quality services. In turn, the effectiveness of public health measures during crises are bolstered by social protection responses that support income security and access to essential services with an impact on nutrition, housing, and other social determinants of health. Yet, such responses are too often implemented in siloes and policies to strengthen those systems are too often competing. In the face of ongoing megatrends that increasingly drive shocks and stressors and enhance vulnerabilities, the article addresses the question of how health and social protection systems can better coordinate to strengthen the resilience of populations.

The channels through which shocks and stressors affect individual’s health and socioeconomic vulnerability are often similar or closely intertwined. Similarly, the effectiveness of the respective responses of social protection and health systems to shocks and stressors are highly interdependent or mutually reinforcing. The effectiveness of a social protection system response in supporting income security and ensuring continuous access to health and other essential services is itself strongly dependent on the ability of the health system to continue delivering quality services. In turn, the effectiveness of public health measures during crises are bolstered by social protection responses that support income security and access to essential services with an impact on nutrition, housing, and other social determinants of health. Yet, such responses are too often implemented in siloes and policies to strengthen those systems are too often competing. In the face of ongoing megatrends that increasingly drive shocks and stressors and enhance vulnerabilities, the article addresses the question of how health and social protection systems can better coordinate to strengthen the resilience of populations.

Los canales a través de los cuales las perturbaciones y los factores de estrés afectan a la vulnerabilidad sanitaria y socioeconómica de las personas a menudo son similares o están interrelacionados. De igual manera, la efectividad de las respuestas de los sistemas de protección social y de salud a las perturbaciones y a los factores de estrés son muy interdependientes, o se refuerzan mutuamente. La efectividad de la respuesta del sistema de protección social a la hora de apoyar la seguridad del ingreso y garantizar el acceso continuo a servicios de sal

The 2024 floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, prompted the largest and most rapid response to an extreme weather event in the country’s history. Brazil is a compelling case for analysing shock-responsive and climate-adaptive social protection because of its high level of decentralization and significant maturity of its social protection system. Brazil is also highly susceptible to climate risks, and as climate change intensifies, bringing more frequent and severe weather events, strengthening the resilience of social protection systems becomes increasingly vital. This case study examines the Brazilian government’s emergency responses, with a particular focus on the federal and state interventions, drawing from an analysis of the official literature and key informant interviews. The analysis shows how significant levels of emergency support were mobilized by federal and state governments, and the system features that enabled a quick response, such as the use of technology for mapping affected areas and the use of existing government databases. Nonetheless, actors faced challenges in terms of coordination between different levels of governance and in terms of emergency preparedness. This study provides some reflections on the obstacles encountered by federal and state actors and points to areas for further improvement at the system level.