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A MODEST RESURGENCE OF SOCIAL POLICY IN A EUROPE THREATENED BY PERSISTENT POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
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social benefits and the role both play in acti-
vation, raising income support as required,
targeting social transfers, facilitating access
to quality social services, improving monitor-
ing tools and encouraging labour market (re)
integration by means of support for activa-
tion. Member states can improve and ensure
the coverage they offer by simplifying access
procedures, taking care not to define low-
income targets too narrowly and guarantee-
ing that benefits provided are adequate.
They can likewise avoid the fragmentation
of service delivery by providing integrated
services tailored to individual needs.
Enhancing existing incentives to work is an-
other pending task.
– If they are to reduce child poverty and break
generational cycles of poverty and exclusion,
member states must make their social pro-
tection systems fairer and more inclusive.
This can be accomplished by means of inte-
grated strategies that cover both prevention
(early intervention and family assistance) and
support – particularly that which facilitates
parental insertion into the active workforce.
– Citizens’ access to health care continues to
vary according to income bracket. National
governments must develop adequate and
sustainable means for financing universal
health care systems and make the best pos-
sible use of innovations and technological
advances in this area. Health policy at the
national level must also meet the need for
adequate, affordable, quality long-term
care. Doing so may require adopting a more
proactive approach to delivering health and
social services that lessens the demand for
long-term care by helping people preserve
their independence.
– Encouraging citizens to extend their working
lives by addressing the impacts of aging,
bringing pension ages into line with current
life expectancy, equalising retirement ages
for men and women and reducing existing
gender pension gaps is another priority. To
ensure the future of pension systems, policy
reform carried out at the national level must
factor in today’s increased life expectancy, be
designed to lower unemployment rates,
contemplate raising the legal retirement
age, encourage the incorporation of more
women into the workforce and promote
personal savings plans that complement
public retirement benefits. Social partners
must play a role in achieving the broad po-
litical and social consensus required to effect
such changes.
– Gender mainstreaming must be made a cor-
nerstone of policy in general and social poli-
cy in particular to ensure that ever greater
numbers of citizens become active partici-
pants in European economies and societies.
– Strengthening the ability of social protection
systems to prevent and reduce poverty by
means of the implementation of effective
social insurance and assistance programmes
and social investment is the surest strategy
for achieving the EU’s 2020 poverty and ex-
clusion target and ensuring the continuous
improvement of employment and social out-
comes in the Union going forward.