worldbank.org (14.05.2020) The economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is having a major impact on global labor and financial markets – which in turn will have significant effects on pension systems.  Crucially, policy responses will need to strike a balance between the immediate protection of vulnerable groups and ensuring that our pension systems remain able to deliver retirement income in the future as the global population ages. Here, we propose four important policy questions to be considered as governments grapple with this challenge:

Federal Public Service - Social Security (05.05.2020) Self-employed workers who fall ill during the coronavirus crisis can receive sickness benefits from the first day they actually fell ill; the date mentioned on the sickness certificate is no longer taken into account. Due to the specific measures which apply to a consultation with a doctor (general practitioner), it may indeed take a long time before a sick person can actually consult his doctor (general practitioner). Consequently, this specific crisis measure applies from the period from March 1 to the end of September 2020.

Federal Public Service - Social Security (20.05.2020) May 16, 2020, the Council of Ministers approved a temporary parental allowance for the self-employed. Self-employed workers who do not benefit (or no longer) from other crisis measure, and whose activity reduced due to the care for their child (ren) in the exceptional circumstances following the COVID-19 crisis are entitled to the allowance. This is a monthly allowance of 532.24 euros (875 euros for single-parent families) for the months of May and / or June 2020 for parents of a child under 12 or disabled.

ILO (13.05.2020) The pandemic has highlighted something that had been almost forgotten by policy makers across the world in the past few decades; the importance of expenditure in public health and social protection systems.

nationalgeographic.co.uk (20.05.2020)Spain has just taken the first step towards it. Many feel the UK needs it. So is UBI a Utopian ideal, or a necessary salvation?

pensionpolicyinternational.com (22.05.2020) The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, a regional organism of the United Nations Secretariat has declared itself in favour of a new regime of welfare and social protection that includes the gradual, progressive and sustained establishment of universal basic income in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

theconversation.com (18.05.2020) Dans les pays en développement, les activités informelles concernent les deux tiers de l’emploi, et les quartiers informels abritent entre un tiers et deux tiers des citadins, selon les pays. Ce secteur informel est touché de plein fouet par la crise liée au Covid-19. Les médias d’Afrique francophone parlent d’une épidémie de « PochVid-20 », plus dangereuse qu’un coronavirus.