aseanbriefing.com (21.10.2022) Singapore has recently announced a new healthcare reform plan that will shift the country’s healthcare strategy towards preventive care. The program is called Healthier SG and aims to provide a family physician and one health plan for every resident. The hope is…

worldbank.org (2022) The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in vast numbers of people in need of social assistance, many of whom were not previously covered by social safety nets. To meet this unprecedented level of need, governments quickly scaled social assistance reaching over 1.7 billion people in…

worldbank.org (03.10.2022) The COVID-19 crisis highlighted how digital public infrastructure (DPI) can play a critical role for governments to deliver social assistance quickly and safely.  DPI not only allowed governments to reach an unprecedented number of new beneficiaries, it also allowed…

Social Security beneficiaries can expect an 8.7% boost to benefits in 2023, the Social Security Administration announced. The increase tops the 5.9% cost-of-living adjustment for 2022, which at the time was the highest in four decades.

The government has approved the details of its new pension auto-enrolment scheme in what Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys described as a “generational reform” of the Irish pensions system. The General Scheme of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System has now been…

vidhilegalpolicy.in (22.09.2022) Many governments now use digital technology for means testing. For instance, the US uses an Income Eligibility Verification System that links several databases to verify beneficiary income. It also uses a Prisoner Verification System linked to prisoners’…

IZA (Oct 2022) In response to strong revenue and income losses that a large share of the self-employed faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the German federal government introduced a €50bn emergency aid program. Based on real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations, we…

ipcig.org (03.10.2022) COVID-19 has affected all countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and groups already vulnerable before the crisis, such as children, have been particularly affected. Social protection can promote children’s well-being and reduce the negative impacts of…

Pension Policy International (30.09.2022) Some of Europe’s biggest pension funds are not actively engaged in emerging EU-level sustainable finance policy, according to climate think tank InfluenceMap. As reported by European Pensions, the research, which covered 25 of Europe’s largest pension…

iza.org (Sept 2022) This paper provides an overview on the income support measures for non-covered workers implemented in response to the COVID-19 crisis, describing the collection of measures and policies in place in each selected country. This document provides a comparative overview of the…

SaltWire (20.09.2022) Ireland will offer anyone over 66 a higher state pension the longer they stay in work, sidestepping a recommendation by a government-appointed commission to gradually increase the retirement age to 68 to help fund the ageing population. Under the proposed flexible model…

pensionpolicyinternational.com (19.09.2022) The share of Japan’s older adult population, those over age 65, has been increasing every year since 1950 and is expected to reach 35.3% of the total population in 2040. For the first time, Japan’s over 75s account for over 15% of the population, after…

tandfonline.com (31.03.2021) What are the effects of biometric and digital technologies on social protection for the poor in India? Drawing on ethnographic research from rural Tamil Nadu, this paper presents evidence of how new technologies are experienced by beneficiaries of the Public…

ilo.org (32.08.2022) A new study by the International Labour Organization finds that, with the right tools, data from online jobs platforms can provide important information about current and future demand and supply of skills in the labour market

ipcig.org (01.09.2022) Economic Impact Payments (EIPs)—commonly referred to as ‘stimulus checks’—were one of the key measures adopted by the US government to ease the crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. By May 2022, USD817 billion had been distributed to about 85 per cent of US…

AP News (06.09.2022) The Spanish government on Tuesday passed a law giving hundreds of thousands of domestic cleaners and carers the right to unemployment benefits and other job protection measures for the first time. Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz said the law would benefit more than 370,000…

europa.eu (05.09.2022) The report examines long-term care systems for people aged 65 or above in the 27 EU Member States. It reveals that long-term care challenges have become increasingly salient in recent decades in EU Member States’ policy and political agendas. At the same time, in many…

europa.eu The report explores how 35 European countries monitor social spending through dedicated national frameworks, and investigates the processes assessing the outcomes and effectiveness of public social spending. While these are fairly diverse, the report identifies two broad categories of…

rtl.fr (02.09.2022) Le ministre des Solidarités, Jean-Christophe Combe, veut revoir le mode de versement de certaines prestations sociales car il trouve "anomal que 30% des personnes qui ont droit à des aides ne les réclament pas".

ammannet.net (05/09/2022) Over the past years Jordan has been facing many challenges including a substantial population increase that includes many refugees; lower rates of economic growth; rising public debt, unemployment and poverty; the COVID-19 pandemic; and challenging geopolitical regional…

saspen.org (2022)  This Brief examines social assistance spending in Africa before, during and post-COVID-19 and uses the same to demonstrate how social protection experts in Africa can build on this spending momentum to improve the adequacy and reach of social assistance.

thecable.ng (29.08.2022) The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says it is planning to provide incentives to contributors under the micro pension plan (MPP). The commission said incentives such as health insurance would increase participation in the scheme. Dahir-Umar said the MPP was…

dw.com (August 2022) An aging population, a dramatic labor shortage and a pension pot shortfall are an explosive mix for German economy and society. Would raising the age of retirement to 70 kill all those birds with one stone?

The Economic Times (26.08.2022) The government plans to integrate e-Shram portal with state portal for onboarding social security schemes run by the central government and the state governments to universalize social protection to workers and to improve employment opportunities for them.

Asia and the Pacific is the most disaster-prone region in the world. It also happens to be the most populous, leaving it disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In fact, of the 10 countries most affected by climate change in the last 20 years, six are in Asia.