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September 2020

The Battle for Social Investment

By Emilio Basavilbaso Today we find different visions regarding investments in Social Welfare Policy. So far we are fine, the problem begins when we cannot listen to those who think differently. Some phenomena that are occurring in the world make this more and more complicated. We tend to associate with people who think like us and agreeing is increasingly difficult. A ¨crack¨ opens between one another, which is increasingly difficult to close. And by not knowing, we tend to...

August 2020

Job and Wage Losses in Informal Sector due to the COVID-19 Lockdown Measures in India

By Xavier Estupinan, Mohit Sharma This paper estimates the job and wage losses of workers, using the lens of informality, due to lockdown measures undertaken by the Government of India to tackle the spread of COVID-19. It focuses on the first two lockdowns when containment measures in India were most stringent in the world. We estimate that 104 million and 69.4 million informally employed workers were at risk of job loss in Lockdown 1.0 and Lockdown 2.0 respectively. Informal...

COVID-19 Infections, Labour Market Shocks, and Subjective Well-Being

By Ferdi Botha, John P. Haisken-DeNew This is the first paper to present novel findings on how simultaneously (a) labour market shocks and (b) infections in the household, directly due to COVID-19, have impacted on life satisfaction and domain satisfactions. Using data from a world-wide online survey of almost 5,700 respondents across six countries, we estimate the associations of COVID-19-related labour market shocks and COVID-19 infection with life satisfaction and a range of domain satisfactions. Directly due to COVID-19,...

After Private Pensions, Peru’s Congress Turns to Public Funds for COVID-19 Relief

Peru's Congress approved a law on Tuesday that allows citizens to partially draw down their contributions to the state pension fund, a few months after doing the same with the private system and despite fierce opposition from the government. Read also What The Pandemic Has Revealed About Retirement Plans With 106 votes in favor, three against and 15 abstentions, the fractured, opposition-dominated chamber gave the go-ahead for Social Security Office (ONP) affiliates to withdraw up to $4,300 ($1,200) to mitigate...

Where Did the Pre-COVID World Stand on Protecting the Seniors?

By Natalia Milovantseva, PhD By 2050, the elderly population is expected to reach 2 billion, with 80% living in low- and middle-income countries. In today’s COVID-19 pandemic reality, income and health support for these older adults is a critical concern. What have the world’s countries been doing to ensure that their elderly do not live in poverty? Are there national policies to ensure their health needs are adequately met? How are the countries helping working adults who are responsible...

How to Improve Women’s Retirement Savings: Brookings

Women get the short end of the stick when it comes to retirement. It starts with differences in earnings and, thus, less money to save for retirement. But other factors come into play: They are more likely to leave the workforce to care for children or parents, and they live longer. But a Brookings Gender Series paper recommends several policy changes that could address these issues. “Public policies that aim to boost women’s status in retirement should focus on...

India. Panel on labour suggests social protection for informal workers

The panel called for a framework of a model composite scheme to bring greater uniformity among states The committee sought the creation of a social security fund for unorganized sector workers The parliamentary panel on labour has batted for universal social protection for unorganized sector workers and has proposed a blueprint for the Centre to include gig-economy workers, while acknowledging rapid changes in the labour market. The parliamentary panel, which submitted its report to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla...

July 2020

Greece to return 1.4 bln euros to pensioners hit during debt crisis

Greece will this year return 1.4 billion euros to pensioners whose income was slashed during the financial crisis of the past decade, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservative government made the decision following a top court ruling which said that some pension cuts imposed in 2015-2016 were illegal. Mitsotakis said the one-off payment applies only to main pensions - not supplementary pensions or benefits. The money will be distributed to about 2 million...

Social Protection for All: The Next Step for the Malaysian Welfare

By Evangelos Koutronas This report aims to support policymakers, program designers, and evaluators to develop a comprehensive social protection mechanism. The past decade has seen a marked spike in policy momentum around the importance of social protection policies and programs yet there has been very little attention to social protection’s role in tackling experiences of poverty and vulnerability. Social protection is recognized as a key policy tool to help achieve the Malaysia Development Goals; as a policy approach underpinned by...

Supporting Seniors: How Low-Income Elderly Individuals Respond to a Retirement Support Program

By Sumit Agarwal, Wenlan Qian, Tianyue Ruan, Bernard Yin Yeung Insufficient savings for retirement expose individuals to financial vulnerability in the post-retirement years and prompt governments to consider support measures. We study a government cash subsidy program for the low-income elderly population in Singapore. Using comprehensive, high-frequency transaction data, we find that elderly individuals increase spending by 0.7 dollars per dollar of subsidy received. We also show that they increase food expenditure and the variety of retail purchases. The...