European Journal of Social Security

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Latest documents

• Book Review: Law and Social Policy in the Global South by Ulrike Davy and Albert H.Y. Chen (eds.)
• The impact of taking up care tasks on pensions: Results of typical-case simulations for several European countries1

  Informal care is often accompanied by a reduction or abandonment of professional activity by the caregiver. Therefore, caregiving may be associated with a lower pension for the former caregiver than for people without care obligations. There is a large gender difference in informal care responsibilities, and this may contribute to the gender pension gap. As the impact of care-related labour market decisions depends on the design of the pension system, we carry out a cross-country comparison, in which we analyse the impact of care obligations in countries with high (Luxembourg), middle (Liechtenstein, Belgium, Portugal) and low (Slovenia) gender pension gaps. Using typical-case simulation models, we examine how the impact of care-related events is mediated by pension rules, given women's labour market decisions. To what extent does working part time or interrupting one’s career at the age of 30 or 54 reduce the later pension benefit? How are these losses mitigated by pension credits that are conditional on caregiving? We find that the mitigating effects are generally strongest in Belgium, followed by Luxembourg and Slovenia. Such credits hardly exist in Portugal, while in Liechtenstein they have only a small impact. However, the consequences of either working part time or interrupting work can also be mitigated via general rules in the system that are unrelated to caregiving (such as in Portugal and Liechtenstein). They can, on the other hand, be aggravated by the existence of higher accrual rates for individuals who extend their careers, as in Luxembourg and Slovenia.

• Overview of recent cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee of Social Rights (June 2023 – December 2023)
• Book Review: The lighthouse function of social law. Proceedings of the ISLSSL XIV European regional congress Ghent 2023 by Yves Jorens (ed.)
• Social assistance and the end of poverty

  This article aims to address the stigma and stereotypes inherent in the system of social assistance by addressing poverty as a matter of discrimination. Through the lens of discrimination, the article argues that the welfare system reproduces the very structures it aims to abolish in its alleged care for people living on the margins.

• Book Review: Handbook on Migration and Ageing by Sandra Torres and Alistair Hunter (eds.)
• Book Review: Structural Injustice and Workers’ Rights by Virginia Mantouvalou
• Book Review: Research Handbook on European Union Citizenship Law and Policy. Navigating Challenges and Crises by Dora Kostakopoulou, Daniel Thym (eds)
• Mapping social protection coverage for platform workers: A comparative analysis of Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands

  The aim of this paper is to examine if and how the reclassification of platform workers from self-employment status to employment status can provide them with adequate social security protection. Little is known about how this transition would guarantee platform workers adequate social protection within the social protection scheme for employees. National social security schemes, in particular income replacement benefit schemes, often (still) depart from the standard employment relationship, leading to lower protection for atypical work forms. Platform workers combine several of the characteristics of atypical forms of work, such as low earnings, irregular working patterns and working. Integrating platform workers into employee social security schemes faces additional challenges due to the online nature of their work, algorithmic management, high levels of unpaid labor, and employer identification difficulties. This paper focuses on unemployment protection, as EU Member States struggle to provide adequate protection for workers with irregular work patterns and income fluctuations, in the case of (short term) income replacement benefits. By constructing nine ideal work patterns reflective of diverse nature of platform work and current practices among platform work, we analyse how different types of ‘employed’ platform workers may fare within the legislation of three EU countries (Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands). This approach allows us to assess the applicability of unemployment protection to different working patterns among 'employed' platform workers, considering formal, effective, and adequate access to unemployment schemes as outlined in the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed (2019).

• Book Review: Human Dignity and Democracy in Europe. Synergies, Tensions and Crises by Daniel Bedford, Catherine Dupré, Gábor Halmai and Panos Kapotas (eds)

Featured documents

• Book Review: Population Ageing – A Threat to the Welfare State? The Case of Sweden
• Book review: Self-Employment as Precarious Work: A European Perspective
• Book review: Advanced Introduction to Social Policy
• Recent cases before the European Court of Human Rights
• News and Cases
• Overview of recent cases before the European Court of Human Rights (March 2019 – July 2019)
• Editorial
• Increasing Roles for Municipalities in Delivering Public Employment Services: The Cases of Germany and Denmark

  Literature on labour market policy reforms and, in particular, on ‘activation has tended to treat the ‘state’ or ‘public authorities’ as given actors, no matter how much their roles may change in the process. However, ‘the state’ may have several faces in countries with strong legacies of municipal ...

• Overview of Recent Cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice (October–December 2008)
• Why People Don't Choose Private Pensions: The Impact of ‘Contagion’

  Pension privatisation requires that people exercise choice. They might have to choose whether to opt out of a public scheme into a private scheme, or whether to supplement public pension contributions with private pension contributions. If they do choose to participate in a private scheme, they are ...