International Social Security Review最新文献

The Netherlands is on the brink of reforming its system of occupational pensions as part of a more general reform of its three-pillar pension system. This reform features important changes to first pillar pension benefits. The focus of this article is however on the coming reform of occupational pensions, the second pillar of the system, which concerns both pension contributions and benefits. This reform is related to a series of reforms that have gradually transformed the pension contract that was dominant 20 years ago, a final salary defined benefit contract, into a collective defined contribution contract. We argue that these reforms are a response to changes in the external environment, such as population ageing and a secular decline of interest rates. The coming reform responds to the call for a pension scheme that is more individualistic, more closely connected to the labour market, and which does not share interest rate risks between generations. The New Pension Contract remains in part collective, since the assets of participants are invested collectively, and a mandatory solidarity fund can be used for intergenerational risk sharing.

In recent years in Latin America, a small number of contributory social protection programmes have been extended on a voluntary basis to cover migrant workers, with affiliation financed by these workers’ remittances. That remittances offer a means to finance social protection programmes demonstrates the possibilities presented by international migration not only as regards improving social protection coverage but in contributing towards achieving target 1.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda. This article addresses voluntary insurance programmes introduced in Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico for nationals working abroad and by means of which the families of such international migrant workers can also access health care and benefits in their home countries. In turn, international migrant workers on returning home can gain eligibility for a contributory retirement pension and disability benefits if they satisfy eligibility as well as the contribution conditions.

Les Pays-Bas s’apprêtent à réformer leur régime de pensions professionnelles dans le cadre d’une réforme plus vaste du système de retraite à trois piliers. Cette réforme transformera en profondeur les prestations versées par le premier pilier. L’article porte cependant sur les changements qui toucheront le deuxième pilier, formé des pensions professionnelles, et qui concerneront à la fois les cotisations et les prestations. Ce projet s’inscrit dans le prolongement d’une série de réformes qui ont progressivement fait évoluer le modèle à prestations définies basé sur le salaire final qui était dominant il y a 20 ans pour le transformer en un modèle collectif à cotisations définies. Nous avançons que ces réformes constituent une réponse aux mutations de l’environnement extérieur, par exemple au vieillissement de la population et à une baisse séculaire des taux d’intérêt. La réforme à venir répond à la volonté de créer un régime caractérisé par une dimension individuelle plus forte et par un lien plus étroit avec le marché du travail, et dans lequel les risques de taux d’intérêt ne sont pas partagés entre les générations. Néanmoins, le nouveau contrat de pension demeure en partie collectif puisque les actifs des cotisants sont investis collectivement et qu’un fonds de solidarité peut être utilisé pour assurer un partage intergénérationnel des risques.

En los últimos años, un pequeño número de programas de protección social contributivos en América Latina se ha extendido a los trabajadores migrantes de forma voluntaria, cuya afiliación se financia gracias a las remesas de estos trabajadores. La posibilidad de financiar los programas de protección social mediante remesas pone de manifiesto las oportunidades que ofrece la migración internacional, no solo para mejorar la cobertura de protección social, sino también para contribuir a la consecución de la meta 1.3 de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de la Agenda 2030. En este artículo se examinan los programas de segur

Social protection has gained global recognition for its role in addressing poverty, yet delivering social protection remains an intractable challenge for governments in the Global South. In this article, we assess the performance of government-run social assistance in Zimbabwe. Our assessment begins in 2016 when the National Social Protection Policy Framework (NSPPF) was promulgated to maximize returns on social investments. Utilizing a systematic review approach, we collated literature published between 2016–2023. We find that despite adopting the NSPPF, social protection programming remains a challenge in Zimbabwe. We find that the disbursement of transfers to beneficiaries are delayed, benefits are misaligned with market forces due to inflation, most programmes are run without monitoring and evaluation structures, funding in the sector remains inadequate to reduce poverty and vulnerability, and no grievance and redress mechanisms exist. Our synthesis underscores the need for the refreshment of the social contract in Zimbabwe, a renewal of political will to finance social assistance programmes, engagement to transform policy into action, the expansion of the civic space to ensure citizens effectively participate in calling for social assistance, as well as concerted efforts towards harmonizing existing social assistance programmes. We highlight the need to embed social protection within a human rights-based framework, and the need for robust monitoring frameworks along with predictable and dedicated financing.

Canada responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a series of supports, including direct payments to workers displaced by public health measures. While not a true basic income, the experience highlighted a number of issues including challenges with implementation and intergovernmental relations that affected public opinion and must be dealt with by basic income advocates. The operation of the Canadian social-liberal welfare state informed pandemic policy making and exhibited the path dependence of a deserving/undeserving binary that resulted in conditionality. The income supports associated with the pandemic represent a pragmatic response to an exogenous shock that highlights the inadequacies of existing policy and offers the possibility of change.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread social and economic policy experimentation as governments sought to protect household finances while locking down economies. Cash transfers emerged as one of the most popular policy measures, leading many to reflect on new possibilities for enacting universal basic income through temporary or emergency interventions. We take Australia’s pandemic response, and particularly its Coronavirus Supplement, as an example of this broader experimentation. We analyse the Supplement through the lens of an emergency basic income, arguing the measure reflected existing institutional structures and norms, forms of national and international policy learning, and vulnerabilities in Australia’s liberalized housing and labour markets. While temporary, we consider how its apparent success might suggest ongoing policy relevance, either as a form of capitalist “crisis management” or as an alternative pathway for implementing forms of basic income.

This article explores the connection between two related but distinct models of basic income proposals in the context of a pandemic emergency. While COVID-19 appears to have increased interest in basic income, this often ended up taking the form of a temporary emergency basic income (EBI) instead of a permanent universal basic income (UBI). In this article we argue that the “dial up/dial down” model of basic income allows us to link EBI and UBI in a way that offers both a practical response to important implementation challenges in emergency policy making and a strategic argument in favour of UBI as a pandemic policy instrument. We illustrate our argument by contrasting the Renda Básica de Cidadania (RBC) in the municipality of Maricá, Brazil, with two comparable programmes in the same region.

This themed issue, guest-edited by Jurgen De Wispelaere and Troy Henderson, is devoted to examining, first, whether the widespread use of immediate and unconditional cash transfers as a policy response to the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis has provided a boost to cash transfer programmes generally and to emergency basic income (EBI) policies more specifically. The set of articles then charts the reception of EBI-type policies as a pandemic response in specific country or regional contexts, and reflects on their relevance for the future development of universal social protection and, especially, universal basic income (UBI). While the contribution to be made by basic income to realizing resilient and agile social protection policy responses merits serious consideration, in particular in a context where existing social protection systems are patchy and fragmented, important questions remain as to how to evaluate the time-limited EBI crisis response in light of the more durable needs which a permanent UBI purports to address.

Cette édition thématique spéciale, dirigée par les auteurs invités Jurgen De Wispelaere et Troy Henderson, est consacrée à l’examen, dans un premier temps, de la question de savoir si l’utilisation généralisée de transferts monétaires immédiats et inconditionnels en tant que réponse politique aux impacts socio-économiques de la crise due à la COVID-19 a donné un nouvel élan aux programmes de transferts en espèces en général, et aux politiques de revenu de base d’urgence en particulier. La série d’articles décrit ensuite l’accueil réservé aux politiques proposant un revenu de base d’urgence en réponse à la pandémie dans des contextes nationaux ou régionaux spécifiques, et réfléchit à leur utilité pour les futurs développements de la protection sociale universelle et, notamment, du revenu de base universel. Si la contribution du revenu de base à la mise en place de politiques de protection sociale résilientes et souples mérite d’être sérieusement envisagée, en particulier dans un contexte où les systèmes de protection sociale existants sont inégaux et fragmentés, d’importantes questions subsistent quant à la manière d’évaluer la réponse à la crise limitée dans le temps apportée par le revenu de base universel à la lumière des besoins plus durables qu’un revenu de base universel permanent vise à satisfaire.

En este número temático especial, editado por los autores invitados Jurgen De Wispelaere y Troy Henderson, se analiza en primer lugar si el uso extendido de las transferencias en efectivo inmediatas y no condicionadas como respuesta política a los efectos socioeconómicos de la crisis de COVID‑19 ha impulsado los programas de transferencias en efectivo en general y las políticas de renta básica de emergencia (Emergency Basic Income, EBI) en particular. A continuación, en el conjunto de artículos se describe la acogida que tuvieron las políticas de renta básica de emergenci