European Journal of Social Security, volume 26, issue 3, pages 347-368

Reaching the European 2030 poverty target: The imperative to balance the EU social agenda

Publication type: Journal Article
Publication date: 2024-08-14
scimago Q2
wos Q3
SJR: 0.354
CiteScore: 1.8
Impact factor: 1.5
ISSN: 13882627, 23992948
Abstract

Reaching the three targets of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) Action Plan is the litmus test for effective EPSR implementation. While the EPSR puts forward a prima facie balance between employment, equal opportunities and social protection, two important questions arise: a) whether and to what extent the resources available at EU level are sufficiently balanced across the different dimensions of the EPSR; and b) which implications this may have for achieving the 2030 poverty target. Analysing the three domains of the EPSR, its Action Plan and the wider EU legal framework of the principles contained in the EPSR, the paper argues that abundant EU resources are available for the areas of equality and employment, but fewer for social inclusion. The empirical evidence on poverty trends over the past decades, however, points to important successes in terms of employment and (gender) equality, but not with respect to social inclusion: a significant increase in employment and defeminisation of poverty have been accompanied by greater precarity for low-skilled men and women. Particularly striking is the rise in the risk of poverty among jobless households, linked with the weakening of the poverty reduction capacity of social protection for this group. Meeting the European social inclusion targets will thus require policies that duly focus on strengthening the framework for social inclusion and social protection.

Found 32
By date By citations
Wiley
Delivering on the European Pillar of Social Rights: Towards a needs‐based distribution of the European social funds?
Hermans K., Greiss J., Delanghe H., Cantillon B.
Social Policy and Administration scimago Q1 wos Q1 , 
2022-12-14,  citations by CoLab: 10 , 
Social Science Electronic Publishing
Poor Workers in Rich Democracies: On the Nature of In-Work Poverty and its Relationship to Labour Market Policies
Hick R., Marx I.
SSRN Electronic Journal , 
2022-05-28,  citations by CoLab: 11 , 
Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in European Union Law
Aranguiz A.
2022-02-03,  citations by CoLab: 14 , 
SAGE
A glass ceiling on poverty reduction? An empirical investigation into the structural constraints on minimum income protections
Cantillon B., Parolin Z., Collado D.
Journal of European Social Policy scimago Q1 wos Q1 , 
2019-11-25,  citations by CoLab: 22 ,  Abstract  
This article investigates whether declining or sluggish growth in earnings for low-wage workers contributes to declining levels of minimum income protections. Starting from the observation of lacklustre growth in minimum income protections, this article introduces a framework to conceptualize the tensions facing modern welfare states in their attempt to (1) provide poverty-alleviating minimum incomes, (2) achieve employment growth and (3) keep spending levels in check. We argue that, due to downward pressure on low gross wages compared to median household incomes, it has become more difficult to balance each of those three objectives. Estimation results from country-year panel data suggest that declines in minimum wages (or low gross wages) are associated with declines in minimum income protections for the jobless. When growth in minimum income protections does exceed growth in low gross wages, we find that welfare states also increase gross-to-net effort to subsidize the net income of low-wage earners. We argue that these findings point towards a ‘structural inadequacy’ around minimum income protections for the jobless.
Cambridge University Press
The European Pillar of Social Rights: An Assessment of its Meaning and Significance
GARBEN S.
Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies scimago Q1 , 
2019-05-21,  citations by CoLab: 31 ,  Abstract  
AbstractThe European Pillar of Social Rights is a high-profile political reaffirmation of twenty social rights and principles. Its implementation deploys the full EU governance arsenal: regulations, directives, recommendations, communications, new institutions, funding actions, and country-specific recommendations. As such, the static imagery evoked by a ‘pillar’ does not capture the true nature of the initiative, which is dynamic and fluid, wide-ranging, and permeating. An equation of the Pillar with the set of twenty rights and principles it proclaims similarly fails to capture its true significance, which lies in its programmatic nature. Several important measures have already been proposed as part of this new social action plan for Europe, some of which are close to adoption. This Article analyses the meaning of the Pillar and its potential significance, by considering its contentsensu largo, and its broader context. It argues that even if the Pillar cannot address all the EU's social failings, it has put a surprising social spin on the Better Regulation Agenda that was threatening to erode the socialacquis, it has rekindled the EU's relationship with the International Labour Organization and Council of Europe, and it helps rebalance the EU's output by reviving the use of the Treaty's Social Title.
Employment and Poverty Dynamics Before, During, and After the Crisis
Gábos A., Branyiczki R., Binder B., Tóth I.G.
2018-12-20,  citations by CoLab: 11 ,  Abstract  
This chapter investigates how changes in employment and poverty relate to each other across the European Union’s Member States. Large employment volatility was accompanied by sizable changes in poverty rates between 2005 and 2012. Based on panel regression results, the poverty to employment elasticity was estimated to be around 25% on average. The role of changes in the poverty rates of individuals in jobless and non-jobless households and of changes in the share of those in jobless households differs greatly across countries. The success of poverty reduction depends to a large extent on three factors: the dynamics of overall employment growth, the fair distribution of employment growth across households with different levels of work intensity, and properly designed social welfare systems to smooth out income losses for families in need.
Decent Incomes for All
2018-12-20,  citations by CoLab: 24 ,  Abstract  
This book aims to shed new light on recent poverty trends in the European Union, responses by European welfare states, and how progress can be made to realize a decent income for all. The text analyzes the effect of social and fiscal policies before, during, and after the recent economic crisis and studies the impact of alternative policy packages on poverty and inequality. Furthermore, the discussion elaborates on how social investment and local initiatives of social innovation can contribute to tackling poverty. There are reasons for both optimism and pessimism. The book argues that there are indeed structural constraints on the increase of the social floor and difficult trade-offs involved in reconciling work and poverty reduction. Differences across countries are, however, very large. This suggests that there is ample room for maneuver for policy makers. There is also no evidence of a universal deterioration of social protection. Nonetheless, we observe a persistent and almost general inadequacy of minimum income protection for jobless households, pointing to structural challenges for realizing a decent minimum income for all. To overcome these challenges, unavoidably, efforts to raise the wage and the social floor should be increased significantly almost everywhere. The book highlights that to do so, country-specific policy mixes should be designed.
Generating Prosperity for Working Families in Affluent Countries
2018-10-18,  citations by CoLab: 19 ,  Abstract  
This book addresses the central challenge facing rich countries: how to ensure that ordinary working families see their living standards and the prospects for their children improve rather than stagnate over time. It presents the findings from a comprehensive analysis of performance over recent decades across the rich countries of the OECD, in terms of real income growth around and below the middle. It relates this performance to overall economic growth, exploring why these often diverge substantially, and to the different models of capitalism or economic growth embedded in different countries. In-depth comparative and UK-focused analyses also focus on wages and the labour market and on the role of redistribution. Going beyond income, other indicators and aspects of living standards are also incorporated including non-monetary indicators of deprivation and financial strain, wealth and its distribution, and intergenerational mobility. By looking across this broad canvas, the book teases out how ordinary households have fared in recent decades in these critically important respects, and how that should inform the quest for inclusive growth and prosperity.
Taylor & Francis
A rising workfare state? Unemployment benefit conditionality in 21 OECD countries, 1980–2012
Knotz C.M.
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy scimago Q2 , 
2018-06-01,  citations by CoLab: 58 ,  PDF,  Abstract  
AbstractOver the last decades, governments in the advanced democracies have put greater pressure on the unemployed to seek and accept employment. This development has been pointed out in much prior research, yet relatively little is known about the exact changes that have been introduced. This paper fills this gap. It draws on a novel time-series cross-section dataset on the strictness of unemployment benefit conditions and sanctions in 21 democracies between 1980 and 2012, and shows in which aspects these rules have become stricter – and in which not. The paper confirms that there has been a general trend toward tighter conditions and sanctions, but adds some important qualifications: Many rules and provisions have also been adapted in response to the emergence of new social risks and there is also a noticeable trend toward more clearly defined and precise rules. Based on these findings, new causal hypotheses are suggested.
Handbook on In-Work Poverty
Lohmann H., Marx I.
2018-02-07,  citations by CoLab: 51 , 
Cambridge University Press
EU Social and Gender Policy beyond Brexit: Towards the European Pillar of Social Rights
Plomien A.
Social Policy and Society scimago Q1 wos Q1 , 
2018-01-08,  citations by CoLab: 21 ,  Abstract  
The analysis of EU level social and gender policies highlights uneven developments and concerns over the EU as not (always) beneficial to social progress and gender equality. The EU, although primarily market driven, has developed a range of social policies, with gender equality enjoying a long-standing status as EU's founding value, dating back to the 1957 principle of equal pay for equal work. Yet, sixty years later, social justice objectives and equality between women and men remain to be realised. Social and gender themes have been revived by the proposal to develop the European Pillar of Social Rights, the shaping and implementing of which post-Brexit UK will not take part in. This initiative entails some meaningful developments for social and gender progress. However, its current form and content represents an adjustment to, rather than a transformation of, the unequal European economy and society.
The Uses of Social Investment
2017-07-20,  citations by CoLab: 167 ,  Abstract  
The Uses of Social Investment surveys the emergence, diffusion, limits, merits, and politics of social investment as the welfare policy paradigm for the twenty-first century seen through the lens of the life-course contingencies of the knowledge economy and modern familyhood. Over a span of thirty-five contributions, The Uses of Social Investment revisits the intellectual roots, surveys the evidence of social investment progress in theory and practice, and looks at research methodology and normative philosophy. In addition, the volume also reviews the criticisms that have been levelled against the social investment perspective in the academic literature. In light of the progressive, and admittedly uneven, diffusion of the social investment policy priorities across all parts of the globe, many contributions address the pressing political question of whether the social investment turn will be able to withstand the fiscal austerity backlash that has re-emerged in the low growth aftermath of the recent global financial crisis.
Cambridge University Press
The Constitutional (Im)balance between ‘the Market’ and ‘the Social’ in the European Union
Garben S.
European Constitutional Law Review scimago Q1 wos Q1 , 
2017-01-27,  citations by CoLab: 37 ,  Abstract  
An assessment of the balance between ‘the market’ and ‘the social’ by reference to the areas of social policy, the internal market and economic governance – Imbalance resulting from a consitutional displacement of the legislative process (EU and national) and instead decision-making by the judiciary and the executive – Proposals to address the imbalance by reinforcing the role of the EU legislative process and limiting other forms of European integration.
Springer Nature
Deliberativer Intergouvernementalismus und institutioneller Wandel: die Europäische Union nach der Eurokrise
Puetter U.
Politische Vierteljahresschrift scimago Q2 wos Q2 , 
2015-09-15,  citations by CoLab: 19 , 
Individual Employment, Household Employment, and Risk of Poverty in the European Union. A Decomposition Analysis
Corluy V., Vandenbroucke F.
2014-01-09,  citations by CoLab: 11 ,  Abstract  
Abstract This chapter investigates the relationship between poverty trends and employment, proceeding in two steps. The first step explores the link between individual employment and household employment. A ‘polarization index’ is defined in terms of the difference between, on the one hand, the actual share of individuals living in jobless households and, on the other, the hypothetical share of individuals living in jobless households assuming that individual employment is distributed randomly across households. The second step integrates the link that is so established between individual employment rates and household employment with an analysis of the relationship between household employment and poverty. An integrated decomposition of changes in the at-risk-of-poverty rates is presented on the basis of (i) changes in the poverty risks of jobless households, (ii) changes in the poverty risks of other (non-jobless) households, (iii) changes in household joblessness due to changes in individual employment rates and changing household structures and (iv) changes in polarization.

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