scholarly journals The Benefit non-take-up in the Context of Cash Social Assistance Reform in Lithuania

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 96-121
Author(s):  
Tautvydas Vencius ◽  
Vitalija Gabnytė ◽  
Jekaterina Navickė
Keyword(s):  
Social Assistance ◽  
Growth Cycle ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
System Reform ◽  
Economic Cycle ◽  
Annual Average ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Single Person ◽  
The Right ◽  
Annual Average Number

The purpose of this article is to present the results of cash social assistance (CSA) benefit non-take-up in the context of the CSA system reform in Lithuania. The right to adequate minimum income benefits is one of the 20 key principles under the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). Using the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD we seek to identify all those eligible to CSA benefit and to analyse its non-take-up rates in Lithuania. The analysis for 2016 showed that CSA benefit non-take-up in Lithuania was around 22%. This means that around one fifth of those who are entitled to this benefit do not get it for various reasons. The results show that there are two types of households, with a non-take-up rate exceeding 30%: single person and lone parent households. The dynamics of CSA benefit non-take-up between 2007-2016 were strongly negatively correlated to the annual average number of recipients of the CSA benefit. This makes for a counter-cyclical dynamic of the CSA non-take-up relative to the economic growth cycle. We find some evidence of an increase in the CSA non-take-up rate following the recent CSA reform in Lithuania. Further analysis is needed to distinguish between the effects of the economic cycle and the CSA reform.

Different Methods, Different Standards? A Comparison of Two Finnish Reference Budgets

2021 ◽  
pp. 138826272110485
Author(s):  
Lauri Mäkinen
Keyword(s):  
Single Woman ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Strong Basis ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Heterosexual Couple ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Right ◽  
Reference Budgets

According to Principle 14 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, everyone should have the right to adequate minimum income benefits that ensure a life in dignity. Reference budgets have been proposed to monitor this principle. Reference budgets are priced baskets of goods and services that represent a given living standard. At the moment, no common methodology for constructing reference budgets exists; instead, different methods are used to construct them. This study sought to compare the approaches and results of two Finnish reference budgets: one created by the Centre for Consumer Society Research (CCSR), and the second by the ImPRovE project. The purpose of the article is to respond to a gap in existing literature around how different methods for constructing reference budgets impact their outcomes. The two reference budgets offer a strong basis for comparison because they both sought to capture the same living standard in the same context for similar household types (single woman, single man, heterosexual couple, and heterosexual couple with two children), while using different approaches. The results suggest that the two reference budgets arrive at different estimates of what is needed for social participation. Ultimately, we found that the most significant differences between the budgets were housing and mobility costs for the couple with two children due to differences in information bases, selection criteria, evaluators, and pricing. The study makes a significant contribution to the literature because it is one of the first to explore how different approaches to constructing reference budgets affect their outcomes. The results suggest that clear criteria for constructing reference budgets are needed to monitor Principle 14 of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

scholarly journals Violencia de género y efectividad de los derechos sociales. Posible protección a través de las políticas de rentas mínimas lato sensu | Gender Violence and Social Rights Effectiveness. Protection through Minimum Income Policies Lato Sensu in Spain

2018 ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
David Vila Viñas
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Violence Prevention ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Autonomous Communities ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
The Right ◽  
Socioeconomic Risk

Resumen: El derecho a una vida libre de violencia ha alcanzado importancia en la consideración jurídica de la violencia de género, al ajustarse mejor a las dinámicas de violencia de género. Desde este enfoque se pone la atención sobre qué protecciones materiales pueden ser factores preventivos de la violencia. En particular se exploran las vías de protección frente a la violencia desde las políticas de rentas mínimas lato sensu desde las Comunidades Autónomas. A pesar de la renovada importancia de estas políticas desde 2015, las reformas no han tenido en cuenta su capacidad para prevenir la violencia de género. Abstract: Through the relations between gender violence y socioeconomic risk factor, this paper analyzes if minimum income policies are able to contribute to gender violence prevention and to the effectiveness of the right to a life free of violence. After the affirmation of this possibility, the paper considers characteristics that this policies from Autonomous Communities should have in order to achieve these goals.

Is There a Way Where There’s a Will? The Tensions between the Court’s Case Law and the Pillar in Delimiting Transnational Solidarity

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-539
Author(s):  
Ane Aranguiz ◽  
Miriam Quené
Keyword(s):  
Economic Status ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
European Citizenship ◽  
The Right ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The Eu

Abstract European citizenship has often served as a proxy for political visions of far-reaching social integration within the EU. Over the last years, this has been challenged by a number of judgments of the CJEU, which appear to increasingly restrict the access of economically inactive mobile EU citizens to social benefits under the Citizens Directive. By contrast, the more recent European Pillar of Social Rights enshrines the right to a minimum income for all citizens of the Union, regardless of their economic status or the legality of their residence. This article aims to address the resulting asymmetry between the Pillar and the CJEU’s current interpretation of the Citizens Directive, examining whether and to what extent the former could influence the latter. In doing so, it will discuss the background, objectives and interpretation of the Citizens Directive’s right to equal treatment, examine the scope of the minimum income principle contained in the Pillar, and highlight the key differences between the two.

scholarly journals Administering the Union citizen in need: Between welfare state bureaucracy and migration control

2021 ◽  
pp. 095892872199961
Author(s):  
Dion Kramer ◽  
Anita Heindlmaier
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Member States ◽  
Welfare Systems ◽  
Comparative Case Studies ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Union Citizen ◽  
The Right

How to determine whether mobile Union citizens have a right to social assistance? Research has shown how Western European Member States have made efforts to restrict Union citizens’ access to their welfare systems over the past decade, whereby lawful residence has increasingly become the linchpin for entitlement. Member States have responded strikingly differently, however, to the complex administrative puzzle of dealing with open borders, the ability to verify lawful residence and the right to social assistance over time. This article makes an analytical and empirical contribution to existing literature by asking how Member States adjust their welfare/migration administrations to fit the Union’s free movement regime and what implications this has for Union citizens. Based upon comparative case studies into the administration of social assistance rights in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the article develops a typology of three different models of administering Union citizens’ access to the welfare state: the form, signal and delegation models. Demonstrating how bureaucratic design impacts the stratification of social rights in the Member States in different ways, the article concludes that studying alternative administrative models offers important insights into the functioning of territorial welfare states in open border regimes.

scholarly journals The content and potential of the right to social assistance in light of Article 13 of the European Social Charter

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Dalli
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Financial Independence ◽  
European Committee ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Monitoring Activity

This article explores the current development of the right to social assistance as well as its potential for improving income support policies. Focusing on Article 13 of the European Social Charter (ESC), it aims to shed light on the content of such provision by identifying a list of comprehensive defining standards from the monitoring activity conducted by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR). Secondly, it asks whether the right can effectively enhance access to social assistance in practice by studying the implementation of the right in two national cases, the UK and Spain. The article concludes that Article 13 ESC imposes clear obligations on States Parties regarding aspects of the implementation of assistance schemes, such as the level of assistance and the right to appeal. Nevertheless, practical aspects of implementation should be taken into account for the effective realisation of the right. The ESC provisions, as well as the ECSR’s Conclusions, should be enforced by States at the national level. Furthermore, the standards developed by the ECSR for Article 13 can be complemented by recommendations currently suggested by civil society, such as the increased flexibility of activation measures for households with parenting duties, and the splitting of payments to achieve financial independence.

scholarly journals Activation policies and social inclusion in Denmark and Portugal

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 054-073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Hespanha ◽  
Iver Horneman Møller
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Labour Market Policies ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Social Insertion

In recent years labour market policies have shifted from a philosophy of material compensation for the loss of a job to a philosophy of promoting new opportunities for employment through activation programmes for unemployed workers or social assistance recipients. The discourse of activation is compelling and it contains very positive arguments for the materialisation of basic social rights, or even of new social rights such as the right to work and to social insertion. Its practice, nonetheless, raises serious problems given its permeability to ethical, financial and bureaucratic distortions. In this article the inclusionary impact of activation programmes for the unemployed is analysed in two quite different social and political contexts: Denmark and Portugal.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian MacNaughton ◽  
Mariah McGill
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
United Nations High Commissioner ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Right

For over two decades, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has taken a leading role in promoting human rights globally by building the capacity of people to claim their rights and governments to fulfill their obligations. This chapter examines the extent to which the right to health has evolved in the work of the OHCHR since 1994, drawing on archival records of OHCHR publications and initiatives, as well as interviews with OHCHR staff and external experts on the right to health. Analyzing this history, the chapter then points to factors that have facilitated or inhibited the mainstreaming of the right to health within the OHCHR, including (1) an increasing acceptance of economic and social rights as real human rights, (2) right-to-health champions among the leadership, (3) limited capacity and resources, and (4) challenges in moving beyond conceptualization to implementation of the right to health.

Economic and Social Rights, Budgets and the Convention on the Rights of the Child

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aoife Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Child Rights ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Budget Analysis ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Significant Obstacle ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

Recent years have seen an explosion in methodologies for monitoring children’s economic and social rights (ESR). Key examples include the development of indicators, benchmarks, child rights-based budget analysis and child rights impact assessments. The Committee on the Right of the Child has praised such tools in its work and has actively promoted their usage. Troublingly, however, there are serious shortcomings in the Committee’s approach to the ESR standards enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which threaten to impact upon the efficacy of such methodologies. This article argues that the Committee has failed to engage with the substantive obligations imposed by Article 4 and many of the specific ESR guaranteed in the CRC in sufficient depth. As a result, that body has not succeeded in outlining a coherent, comprehensive child rights-specific ESR framework. Using the example of child rights-based budget analysis, the author claims that this omission constitutes a significant obstacle to those seeking to evaluate the extent to which states have met their ESR-related obligations under the CRC. The article thus brings together and addresses key issues that have so far received only very limited critical academic attention, namely, children’s ESR under the CRC, the relationship between budgetary decision-making and the CRC, and child rights-based budget analysis.

Overcoming Extreme Poverty by Social Protection Floors – Approaches to Closing the Right to Social Security Gap

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Kaltenborn
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Extreme Poverty ◽  
The Right ◽  
Security Guarantees ◽  
Security Gap

AbstractThe 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development contains a very ambitious poverty reduction schedule: According to Sustainable Development Goal 1 extreme poverty shall be completely eradicated within the next 15 years (SDG 1.1), and also other forms of poverty shall be reduced within the same period at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages (SDG 1.2). Governments are requested to “(i)mplement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable” (SDG 1.3). The authors of the Agenda refer to the concept of so-called social protection floors which has been identified as an important instrument in the fight against extreme poverty and therefore has attracted much attention in recent development policy debates. In June 2012 the General Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) had adopted the Social Protection Floors Recommendation. In this document ILO members are urged, as a first step, to establish basic social security guarantees, including access to essential health care and basic income security for all residents of their countries and, as a second step, to systematically extend these basic social security guarantees into more comprehensive strategies. If we look for legal answers to the global challenge of extreme poverty, then social protection law – and in particular the human right to social security – deserves special attention. Based on the research framework which has been presented by Haglund and Stryker in their book Closing the Rights Gap. From Human Rights to Social Transformation (2015) this article will try to analyze which role the legal systems in the Global South will play in implementing SDG 1 at the national level and in closing the “right to social security-gap”. Haglund and Stryker describe, inter alia, two models for social rights realization which represent alternative approaches to the MDG/SDG concept: (a) the so-called multistage spiral model whose main focus lies on the different phases which new norms have to go through when they are implemented in a state’s society, and (b) the “policy legalization model” which highlights the role of litigation in ensuring social rights compliance. Furthermore the article will deal with the responsibility of the international community in this area of development policy.

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