This policy brief examines child poverty trends and the expansion of social protection programs in Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes with recommendations for strengthening these interventions to effectively address child poverty, especially in times of crisis.

This policy brief presents key findings of the mutual learning activities implemented by the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research together with its Bridge Building (BB) countries for the period 2021-2024 and shares insights on participants’ lessons learnt. It also includes a reflection on the methodological challenges faced by the European Centre as facilitator of the activities and results of the project evaluation. 

The aim of this policy brief is to present the main challenges that sending construction companies may face in accessing information when providing services under the posting of workers regime, and the good practices that information providers have adopted to overcome these difficulties.

In this INFO-POW policy brief, we ask the following questions: What are common information gaps in posting, why do they matter, and how to address them? We present original cross-national data which maps extant information channels on posting from five countries: Austria, Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

This policy brief focuses on the categorisation of tax and benefit family policies introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in five EU countries, based on data sourced from the Eurofound Policy Database and EUROMOD 2018-21 reports.

The policy brief is based on research conducted in the INFO-POW project, which consisted of three methods of data collection: a mapping exercise, interviews with national stakeholders, and a survey.

This policy brief summarises the current state of scientific knowledge about the problems caused by alcohol consumption and about ways and means to reduce these.

This policy brief is based on empirical evidence collected in the frame of the INFO-POW project and builds on the case of Slovenian posting undertakings in the construction sector.

This policy brief shows that posting companies, posted workers, and receiving companies, when looking for information about the posting rules, do not consult only the so-called single official national website of the host Member State but also frequently use other information channels. This informaiton is based on empirical evidence collected in the frame of the INFO-POW project.

In this policy brief, we discuss different types of support measures for young carers and young adult carers (16-29 years) and cover general measures such as awareness-raising, identification and individual support.

In this policy brief, we explore challenges and barriers persons with disabilities (PwD) face to full social inclusion and propose policy options to address them through investment in and better access to (vocational) education, public funding of personal assistance, and improved data collection for evidence-based policy making.

This policy brief focuses on the role of National Human Rights Bodies in assessing the horizontal enabling conditions in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) compliance of EU funds.

In this policy brief, the authors discuss findings from the InCARE survey on attitudes, experiences and expectations on long-term care in Malta. They find that that there is a mismatch between preferences and expectations for receiving care in the community, aggravated by affordability and availability barriers.

In this brief, we discuss how posted and other hypermobile migrant construction workers suffer from marginalization in both the labour market and in access to social insurance, with variations between biographically different groups of posted workers.

Drawing on interviews from the SMUG project, this policy brief argues that many posted workers do not conform to the directive’s definition of a posted worker. Workers are often hired for posting, have genuine posting careers or move across categories to find job opportunities.

This policy brief shows how timely sharing of collected data could effectively support and better guarantee the enactment of labour standards in the sector of posted construction workers.

This policy brief aims to present an EU-SILC based index designed to capture multidimensional child poverty in European cities and discusses the results for Vienna.

In this policy brief, the authors discuss the social protection of transnationally mobile construction workers in terms of rules, structures, and practices.

In this policy brief, the author will address two questions in connection with the 20th anniversary of the MIPAA: "What is the correct designation of the jubilee year: celebration, observation, or recognition of failure?" and "What needs to be done next in international policies on ageing?"

This policy brief analyses the current limitations in ageing-related health, labour market and gender policies in Hungary, Estonia, Germany and the Netherlands.

This is the second policy brief in a series of two special issues about the socio-economic effects of population ageing in Europe. This brief will synthesise challenges around long-term care provision related to population ageing with a focus on tangible policy proposals to activate solutions in the area.

Fifteen years after the Special Eurobarometer 283 on Health and long-term care in the European Union, the results of the cross-national InCARE survey bring to light significant changes in the attitudes, expectations and long-term care experiences of Europeans.

This policy brief takes stock of the Bridge Building (BB) and Eastern European Social Policy Network (EESPN) initiatives by capturing stakeholder feedback from the focal regions, i.e. the Western Balkan region and the Eastern Partnership countries.

This is the final policy brief in a series of three about youth gangs and the prevention of youth crime.

This policy brief focuses on the main difficulties encountered by the Italian public authorities when monitoring the posting of workers.

The policy brief discusses practical implications of the revised EU Posted Workers Directive for employers posting workers from Hungary.

The policy brief describes the main characteristics of the posting of citizens of North Macedonia to EU and non-EU member states, with a main focus on the construction sector.

In this policy brief, the authors discuss the tension between national anti-dumping measures and the judicial regulation of posting by the European Court of Justice decisions.

The policy brief focuses on social security coordination by framing it in the context of free movement of labour and services in the EU.

In this policy brief we summarise the main challenges Slovene companies face while posting their workers to other EU countries as well as give recommendations and possible solutions for these challenges.

Posting workers as a concept is not straightforward and it is often confused with some forms of emigration. This policy brief explores four situations related to the concept of posting.

The policy brief presents the main obstacles Slovak employers face in the posting of workers and policy recommendations addressing these obstacles and improving the implementation practice in the posting.

This second policy brief in a series of three about youth gangs looks at preventive social policy measures to reduce juvenile delinquency and gang crime.

There is little empirical evidence on non-take-up of housing allowances. This policy brief discusses general determinants, covariates, and consequences of non-take up of social benefits as well as potential policies to address them.

This is the first policy brief in a series of three that brings together findings from a scientific literature review on the problem of juvenile delinquency and gang crime.

In this policy brief some of the 'frequently asked questions' about the SWaPOL training will be addressed.

This policy brief looks at loneliness and social isolation as factors influencing the wellbeing and inclusion of older people

This Policy Brief summarises the key lessons arising from a decade of European experiences. The InCARE project team argue that local innovators should shift focus away from 'best practice' initiatives and towards defining the 'best fit for purpose' initiatives.

This policy brief highlights the importance of examining unmet needs in long-term care (LTC) to ensure the right to affordable and good quality LTC. It presents findings from the DET_CAREMIX project which investigated experiences of caregiving and -receiving in Austria and Slovenia among care-mix users

In this policy brief we summarize the main insights from the DET_CAREMIX project that aimed to gain a better understanding of how dependent older people and their families make choices regarding care arrangements in LTC, with a particular focus on gender and socioeconomic inequalities in care.

This Policy Brief highlights key issues of national policies in preventing and tackling homelessness in ten EU countries (selected based on their representativeness for different welfare types) and provides related recommendations.

In this policy brief we focus on the six 2020 reports covering EPSR indicators in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, & Serbia.

This policy brief aims to examine what data currently exist on the homeless population and homelessness policy outcomes, as well as discuss the most pressing issues regarding data collection.

This policy brief aims to present a multi-dimensional framework that builds on a rights-based approach to monitor and review the extent to which states upheld the right to housing and ensure access to adequate housing, social security and healthcare.

This Policy Brief introduces an evaluation approach to assess policy impact of research and development projects. This approach was applied on selected European Centre projects to show whether and how these activities have triggered policy relevance and impact.

This Policy Brief portrays two large-scale international projects which take on the ageing challenge, one focusing on tackling ‘ageism’, and the other one on improving multilevel governance and evidence-based decision-making for ‘active and healthy ageing’ (AHA).

This Policy Brief describes the trend of posting of third-country workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina via Slovenia to Austria, its drivers, the challenges that the workers face, and the impact posting has on the host country.

This Policy Brief provides information on different financing systems for residential care in Europe and policy options for mitigating the unpredictability of care-related expenditures are discussed.

This Policy Brief analyses how partnership is understood and promoted in European Union regulations and programmes.

This Policy Brief provides insights into the characteristics of people using home care services in Slovenia and how these services are used – either alone or in combination with informal care.

This Policy Brief looks at drug treatment and rehabilitation services for young drug users in criminal justice systems

In diesem Policy Brief analysieren wir die Entsendung von BauarbeiterInnen aus Bosnien und Herzegowina über Slowenien nach Österreich, ihre Herausforderungen und Probleme.

This Policy brief reports on a quantitative and qualitative assessement of people not covered by health insurance in Austria.

This Policy Brief provides a brief overview of the current monitoring and evaluation system of social services in Kosovo.

Job carving and job crafting can be effective strategies to overcome the challenges of labour market (re)integration 

The Rights of Older People Index and the Scoreboard on Outcome Indicators are two newly developed tools that monitor the situation of older people with care and support needs in Europe, based on a human-rights approach.

This Policy Brief presents the current trends and existing legislation on posting in the Republic of North Macedonia

This Policy Brief presents the current trends and existing legislation on posting in the Republic of Albania

This Policy Brief presents the current state of affairs of posting in the Republic of Montenegro

This Policy Brief presents the current trends and existing legislation on posting in the Republic of Serbia

Key trends of labour market transitions and tension fields due to digitalisation and automatisation

This Policy Brief provides insights into the use of formal, informal and mixed care by older Austrians living in the community

Posted workers face language barriers that significantly limit their capacity to realise and exercise their employment rights

This Policy Brief looks at the fiscal costs and at the change in at-risk-of-poverty rates of different approaches to family welfare

Non-take-up of means-tested benefits is a widespread phenomenon in European welfare states. This study ... 

The framework lays out ten main human rights domains relevant to persons with care and supports needs.

This policy brief is an attempt to respond to current challenges of social welfare systems in the context of population ageing and technological innovation. It defines Ageing 4.0 as a concept and provides a rationale for such a new policy framework.

This policy brief is based on the results of the NORDCARE survey in Austria. This study investigated the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in three regions in Austria (Vienna, Upper Austria, Salzburg).

This second policy brief based on the NORDCARE study on the working conditions of the long-term care workforce in Austria addresses specific aspects from the perspective of the LTC workforce and highlights those factors that significantly impact their working conditions.

This Policy Brief provides insights into the application of integrated case management by Public Employment Services and Social Services institutions in the Western Balkans.

Decentralization of social services in Kosovo: challenges and recommendations

In this policy brief we investigate the (hypothetical) implementation of the Hartz IV reform in Austria. We present two scenarios and their impact on expenditure and poverty.

Social enterprises for inclusive local growth in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The European Centre has conducted a study to discuss the pros and cons of the benchmarking process in the social dimension, its benchmarks and corresponding social indicators.

Provision of affordable housing is a crucial component of social inclusion. 

On the one hand, structural factors are crucial in convincing caring employees to take up care leaves. On the other hand, societal and psychological considerations are found to be at least equally important, e.g. to reduce stigma for caregivers at the workplace.

How to define and measure high-quality LTC? Care professionals regard multidisciplinary dialogue, case management, time for interaction with users, and a more holistic approach to care as needed but certain framework conditions hinder development in these areas.

The Policy Brief explores European experiences with (de)institutionalisation in long-term care. It draws lessons from strategies, which proved to be effective, and proposes a set of core principles for successful deinstitutionalisation.

The Policy Brief provides an overview of housing deficiencies in EU Member States and examines the extent to which they are linked to low income. Housing is a key aspect of poverty and social exclusion and its quality has an impact on social relations and employment.

The Policy Brief looks at the portability of pensions and health insurance for pensioners in the migration corridors Austria/Germany vs. Turkey and focuses on the situation in Austria and Germany.

The Active Ageing Index (AAI) has been developed for the EU countries during 2012, the European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations. This Policy Brief summarises the results of the latest 2014 AAI for the 28 EU countries.

It is necessary to increase efforts in quality assurance in the context of competitive markets in long-term care. This Policy Brief dwells on experiences in a number of European countries on existing practices of quality assurance in long-term care delivery.

Market-oriented governance and a strong consumerism discourse have stipulated increased competition and choice in the provision of quasi-markets for long-term care services. This Policy Brief reviews underlying political arguments and evidence.

This Policy Brief reviews some of the theoretical insights regarding the make or buy decision as applied to long-term care. This is the first part of a trilogy dedicated to the reliance on markets for the delivery of long-term care.

This Policy Brief summarizes the latest evidence on active labour market policy (ALMP) spending and Employment Protection Legislation across the OECD countries and discusses the diverging roles of left parties and trade unions in determining ALMP spending.

This Policy Brief describes the most important features of the SORESI model which enables estimation of outcomes of policy reforms for social target groups (e.g. persons at risk of poverty, materially deprived, in households with no or low work intensity).

Quota systems exist in the majority of EU countries in order to commit employers to hire a certain share of employees with disabilities. However, evidence shows that quotas only provide small incentives to hire disabled people.

Preventing avoidable unhappiness should be given priority as a policy goal – even more so than maximizing happiness. We show that unhappiness varies a great deal more across social groups than (high levels of) happiness.

We present a four-dimensional snapshot indicator of intergenerational justice. Three dimensions measure policy outcomes that leave legacy burdens towards younger and future generations, the fourth welfare states’ overall pro-elderly bias in social spending.

This Policy Brief reports on an exploration of German care home providers’ experiences to move (or not to move) their activities to Austria in the context of EU regulations.

The aim of this Brief is to explore (i) housing problems, such as poor housing quality, overcrowdedness, housing cost overburden, and (ii) access to basic local services, including public transport, postal and banking services across the EU27.

The aim of this Brief is to estimate the degree of social exclusion at EU level, and to identify the country clusters related to this, and also to present the level and the trend of poverty on a country level.

In the context of a gloomy European economic climate, this Policy Brief examines the picture for the current generation of older people, with particular reference to their exclusion from material resources and other forms of exclusions for older people.

Relating prevention with long-term care is often thought of as something contradictory. It generally provokes the question whether preventive or activating measures are still feasible or even existent for a person already in need of long-term care.

Preventive activities to reduce alcohol-related problems and/or alcohol consumption are mostly taken by the state and occasionally also by other stakeholders. They largely explain changes in alcohol consumption in European countries.

This Policy Brief is an output of the European project ‘Quality Manage­ment by Result-oriented Indicators – Towards Benchmarking in Resi­dential Care for Older People’. It informs about approaches and project results.

The Policy Brief analyses the occurrence of risk-of-poverty and social exclusion among the migrant population, and the trends in poverty rates between 2004 and 2007 based on the EU-SILC survey.

The aim of this Brief is to analyse the level of poverty and the trends of poverty across the European Union. The rate of poverty varies between 9% and 26% across EU Member States.

The Policy Brief examines the well-being of disabled older persons living in European countries, by analyzing various social dimensions such as satisfaction with present situation and living standards, future optimism, respect and social contacts.

This Policy Brief aims to present information, on the one hand, on the current picture of public and private expenditure on long-term care for older people and to discuss the challenges of financing care.

This Policy brief examines the interrelated aspects of the fiscal and economic policy as well as the impact of population ageing on the sustainability of public finances in the wake of the recent economic crisis.

The dilemmas facing the European Union countries associated with population ageing have until recently been articulated in two ways: 1) the financial sustainability of public welfare systems, and 2) the adequacy of retirement incomes and basic social services.

Concerns about the fiscal sustainability of long-term care servic­es and more self-conscious and demanding carers' movements across countries have pushed informal care (provided by relatives and friends) into the limelight.

Housing quality is correlated with a nation’s affluence. The use of objective criteria for assessing the need for space may be flawed, and the EU-indicators pursuing social inclusion need to be harmonized with strategies of environmental sustainability.

This Policy Brief has explored pension sustainability in EU countries. It examines the financial sustainability of public finances, followed by a look at the likely evolution of pension incomes and an analysis of the reshaping of pension systems.

On average, older people face a higher poverty risk rate than the total population. Countries with low poverty risk rates for older people have a good social safety net in the form of a basic pension or of minimum guaranteed pensions.

Europeans belong to the largest consumers of illicit drugs: ca. one fifth of the global heroin, cocaine and cannabis supply, as well as one third of the ecstasy production. But the vast majority has never tried any illicit substance.

Welfare-to-work programmes have long been pursued in European countries. The UK had shown more interest in learning from the US workfare model, and its policy de­sign and the experience of the past 10 years offer a number of insights for other countries.

Based on the comparison of detailed micro-data and potential entitlements simulated with tax/benefit microsimulation models, the Policy Brief estimates the size of non-take-up of monetary social assistance benefits in Austria, Germany and Finland after 2000.

This Policy brief outlines hurdles of access to health care for migrants and discusses policy implications.

This policy brief outlines hurdles of access to health care for people with mental disorders and discusses policy implications.

‘Binge’ drinking by young people is a social problem that has spread across Europe. The focus of concern has been on their drinking and on the behaviours and harms associated with it in relation to public health, public safety and public order.

The conspicuous alcohol consumption by young people in groups, here called ‘juvenile alcohol scenes’, is at the focus of attention. We compared a metropolitan and a rural area in the wine-growing East of Austria.

This Policy brief discusses the sensitivity of these estimates to the measures used and explores the underlying patterns across the vulnerable groups and the likely causes of poverty in these countries.

The study draws the success story of a regional drug policy that is based on the organisational combination of the drug-related activities of the city ("cross-sectional policy") and the professionalisation of the drug services, with the aim of social reintegration.

This Policy brief summarises the policy experience of the tax credit system in the United Kingdom, with the aim to understand better the challenges underlying the tax credit policy to be initiated in Austria.

Since 2000, the European Centre has accompanied the preparatory process for the introduction of a long-term care insurance in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Alto Adige (Italy).

This Policy Brief discusses population ageing and its possible implications as well as public policy responses to the challenges posed. The focus is on Europe as a region and how individual countries as well as the EU and the UNECE could deal with them.

Many EU Member States made efforts to break down the discrimination barriers with respect to disability and to consider people with disabilities as an integral part of society and the workforce. We use the statistics of employment status as drawn from administrative registers.

Evidence suggests a U-shaped relationship between age and happiness, when controlling for income and other personal characteristics. However, it is not ageing as such which results in declining happiness, but rather the circumstances associated with ageing.

Prevention in the area of sexual and reproductive health is mainly directed towards youth to provide them in time with the appropriate knowledge and behaviour patterns to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted parenthood.

In a European comparison Austria shows above-average levels of both taxation and social expenditures. The analyses carried out show the results in terms of redistribution, which reaches a sizeable dimension.

The policy brief analyses the level of poverty among migrants in 14 European countries. Migrants from outside the European Union are occasionally exposed to a multiple times higher risk of poverty than the "indigenous" population.

This policy brief reports on our research for EU member countries on the transmission of advantages and disadvantages between generations.

This Policy Brief discusses various pension policy changes that will be beneficial for women, and finds that the most effective policy action to tackle poverty risks amongst older women is through targetted active labour market policies for women.

We examined the per capita consumption of selected illegal substances – heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy and cannabis – as well as the expenses for drug consumption on the consumer side in six European cities.

The Policy Brief reports differences in the participation of the elderly in the labour markets of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The evolution of elderly employment and the choice of measures have been different after the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993.

In diesem Policy Brief wird gefragt, ob Eltern heutzutage genügend Zeit für ihre Kinder im Pflichtschulalter haben, u.a. um sie bei schulischen Tätigkeiten zu unterstützen, und welchen Einfluss generell familiale Faktoren auf den Schulerfolg haben.

Do today’s parents have enough time for their children and/or provide sufficient support for their children’s achievements in school? We focus on the time spent by parents with their children and the links between family factors and school achievements.

This policy brief analyses poverty risks faced by the current populations of elderly people in the latest year (ie. around 2003).

The analyses point to key policy responses necessary to meet the social objectives of sustainability as well as adequacy of pensions in the European Union.

This analysis was part of the 'Evaluation study on the effects of the implementation of the Children's Rights Amendment Act 2001, with particular reference to joint custody after divorce' (commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice).

This policy brief draws upon the empirical evidence from the EU Labour Force Survey, by analysing differences and similarities across the EU25 with respect to the labour force participation among older workers.