Reuters (22.03.2022) The Chilean government will send a long-awaited bill to reform the country's controversial private pension system to congress next year, Finance Minister Mario Marcel said on Tuesday.

 NBER (March 2022) We conduct a benefit-cost analysis of a U.S. child allowance, based on a systematic literature review of the highest quality available causal evidence on the short- and long-term effects of cash and near-cash transfers. In contrast to the previous studies we synthesize, which tend to measure a subset of benefits and costs available in a particular dataset, we establish a comprehensive accounting of potential effects and secure estimates of each. We produce core estimates of the benefits and costs per child and per adult of increasing household income by $1,000 in one year; these can be applied to value any cash or near-cash program that increases household income. Using microsimulation, we then apply these estimates to determine net aggregate benefits of three child allowance policies, including the expanded Child Tax Credit as enacted for the year 2021 in the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Our estimates indicate that making that expansion permanent would cost $97 billion per year and generate social benefits with net present value of $982 billion per year. Sensitivity analyses indicate that our estimates are robust to alternative assumptions and that all three child allowance policies we evaluate produce very high net returns for the U.S. population.

Ahram Online (21.03.2022) Egypt’s Ministry of Finance approved on Monday a package of financial and social protection procedures, worth EGP 130 billion, to address the ongoing global economic challenges and their repercussions.

Journal of International Development (nov 2021) As many other countries, India leverages on a pre-existingworkfare programme as a COVID-19 response. We com-bine monthly administrative data with migration and pov-erty statistics and provide four insights on the recent expansion of the programme. First, poorer districts includemore households, that is, increasing extensive margin. Sec-ond, in districts with a high proportion of return migrants,there is no increase, and third, unmet demand for work is higher than the national average of 22.7%. Fourth, despite the expansion, the programme provided just 13.5 days per rural household. The programme requires attention to fulfilits promise as a credible safety net.

- Independent.ie EU legislation which gives effect to a new European pensions savings regime is being introduced this week The Pan-European Personal Pension (PEPP) is a voluntary retirement savings option for EU citizens that complements existing pension schemes. It allows people to pay into the same scheme throughout the EU,  even if they move countries.

Lexology (17.03.2022) Establishing a system of “pension dashboards” to enable individuals who have yet to take retirement benefits to find clear, standardised information about all their pension arrangements (including rights to state pension) in one place is a key element of the government’s pension strategy. The ambition is laudable but achieving it will be a mammoth task, requiring significant time and resource from occupational pension scheme trustees, pension managers and administrators. All UK occupational pension schemes with 100 or more non-pensioner members must participate and must comply with stringent information and technical requirements. Pension scheme trustees should consider now what action they will need to take to ensure that they are ready to meet the new obligations. When do the requirements apply?

 EURACTIV.com (03.03.2022) the Council gave the final green light to an update on the EU rules on reducing workers’ exposure to carcinogens, mutagens, or reprotoxic substances, addressing the first cause of work-related deaths in Europe.

Center For Global Development (16.02.2022) South Africa responded to the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown using a combination of existing social protection programmes, unemployment insurance, and additional measures to support those most affected. This paper reviews policies and implementation with the objective of highlighting lessons for the global community, including on the use of digital mechanisms. The government adopted a two-pronged and largely cash-based approach: unemployment benefits for formal sector workers and cash transfers to vulnerable individuals, informal workers, and beneficiaries of existing grants. Top-up payments for existing grants were rolled out efficiently; the new Special Relief of Distress (SRD) grant posed challenges but ultimately succeeded in reaching over six million previously uncovered beneficiaries. It may even become a permanent feature of South Africa’s social protection system.

Asian Development Bank (December 2021) Examples from low- and middle-income countries in the region and beyond are drawn to demonstrate how digital solutions have improved health insurance management and administration. To support decision-making on potential investments, the report identifies key success factors for integrating new technologies into public health insurance schemes.

 WTW (28.02.2022) Provincial and municipal governments throughout China are extending parental and childcare leave to encourage more births.

brookings.edu (23.02.2022) Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) as an instrument for improving efficiency in the public sector is at an all-time high. This interest is motivated by the ambition to develop neutral, scientific, and objective techniques of government decisionmaking (Harcourt 2018). As of April 2021, governments of 19 European countries had launched national AI strategies.

Xinhua (21.02.2022) China's State Council has released a plan for the development of the country's elderly care services system during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), in its latest step to implement a national strategy to address population aging. The plan specifies major goals and tasks for the five-year period, including expanding the supply of elderly care services, improving the health support mechanism for the elderly, and advancing the innovative and integrated development of service models.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (10.02.2022) The COVID-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan, capital of the Hubei Province in China in early 2020. This One Pager discusses factors that enabled the country to support affected groups in a timely manner and how this experience could inform social protection expansion efforts elsewhere.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (10.02.2022) The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all countries of the world, with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. The region is experiencing deteriorating levels of poverty and extreme poverty, most significantly affecting children and adolescents. This One Pager discusses digital payment systems for social protection interventions in the region.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)  (10.02.20222) This One Pager reflects on how to improve social protection systems in Latin America and the Caribbean after the COVID-19 pandemic, analysing how it can ensure food security and social and economic ‘double inclusion’. In particular, it provides a regional overview of the social protection measures to respond to COVID-19 in rural areas, and analyses four country-level examples that show promising features for building back better during the recovery process. Finally, it delivers policy recommendations to enhance the design and implementation of rural social protection schemes to protect rural households’ food security and enable their ‘double inclusion’.

brookings.edu (17.02.2022) The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed an estimated 124 million people into extreme poverty globally, the first increase in extreme poverty in 20 years. To meet the magnitude of this need, governments around the world have dramatically ramped up social protection measures, and in particular cash transfers, which comprised one-third of all COVID-related social protection programs. A staggering 17 percent of the world’s population, or 1.3 billion people, were covered by at least one COVID-related cash payment between 2020 and 2021.
Fortunately, several examples have demonstrated that investing in digital cash transfers can help governments expand social assistance at unprecedented speed and scale. 

africanarguments.org (10 febrary 2022) In 2020, when the pandemic began, many governments worldwide undertook the task of channeling emergency support to their most vulnerable citizens. This task, made more difficult by the unprecedented public health restrictions implemented in various settings, was fraught with difficulties. This included ensuring that help reached those who needed it the most, and that precious resources did not go to people who did not need support. Indeed, beyond this recent context, every government in the world faces two major challenges when implementing targeted anti-poverty programs. The first is defining poverty, appropriate thresholds and measures. The second is identifying benefiting individuals and families themselves.

unicef-irc.org (2022) Financing quality social services will require increased public investment and greater mobilization of both domestic and international resources in the post-COVID era. Currently, low- and middle-income countries invest, on average, just one third of their total government expenditure in social spending on education, health and social protection. However, the fiscal space to enhance social spending remains constrained in many parts of the world. Given the scale of the challenge facing many countries, a renewed focus on financing social spending is needed to address widening inequalities. This policy brief is the second in a series that assesses key issues affecting social spending as part of UNICEF’s work on Public Finance for Children. The brief examines how recent trends are impacting on the financing available for, and directed to, social spending in low- and middle-income countries in different regions, using secondary analysis of public expenditure data collected by international organizations. It calculates median spending figures by region and income group, using World Bank regional aggregates for domestic spending.

UN News (07.02.2022) Opening the session, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Liu Zhenmin, argued that the pandemic had highlighted the critical role of social policies.  “The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated inequalities, and multiple forms of deprivation”, Mr. Zhenmin said, remembering that many countries reacted by instituting emergency measures.  “One key lesson is the importance of universal access to social protection, to enhance economic and food security, in times of crisis”, he said. 

LSE Business Review (11.02.2022)  High automation risk discourages older workers from remaining in employment. In technologically advanced countries such as Finland, generous unemployment benefits to people 59 and over ends up creating a retirement pathway. Simply pushing that age limit back increases the probability that older workers facing higher risk of automation will remain in employment. Naomitsu Yashiro, Tomi Kyyrä, Hyunjeong Hwang, and Juha Tuomala write that as governments move to discourage early retirement, employers will need to work together with employees to support longer working lives.

thelocal.it (31.12.2021) From Saturday, the single universal child benefit (L’assegno unico e universale) is open for applications and will be distributed from March 1st 2022. The measure forms part of Italy’s overall Budget Law 2022, which has established tax and pension reforms as well as extended some tax breaks for home renovations and help with buying a first home.  The new single allowance replaces a raft of other so-called ‘baby bonuses‘, unifying a series of measures to support families – hence the term ‘unico‘. It’s also called ‘universal’ because it is granted to all families with dependent children resident in Italy.

Cet espace personnel sera créé automatiquement pour chaque personne couverte par l’Assurance-maladie, centralisant ses informations médicales.

wtwco.com  (24.01.2022) A large majority of the political parties in parliament have agreed on a new model to equalize family leave benefit entitlements between both parents, adopting almost in its entirety a proposal from the two main social partners. The bill required to amend current family leave legislation was submitted to parliament on December 22, 2021. The agreement is intended to meet the requirements of the 2019 EU Work-life Balance Directive that European Union member states provide, among other things, paternity leave of at least 10 working days and a minimum of two months of nontransferable parental leave for each parent, by August 2, 2022.

Project Syndicate (29.12.2021) Even though governments do not provide all pension income in most national systems, they have good reasons to be involved in reform efforts. And one of the best things governments could do is to ensure that workers have the information and financial education they need to make the best decisions about their retirement.

lse.ac.uk (25.01.2022) The concept of a universal basic income has received increased attention since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. But what do the public think about the proposal? Drawing on a new study, Leire Rincón illustrates that a key factor affecting support for a universal basic income is the way it is funded, with more people likely to back the policy if it is funded by increasing taxes for those on higher incomes.