Social security is a human right, which should mean that everyone at risk of losing their income is protected. Yet, many systems still exclude the self-employed. This article explores how the concepts of labour neutrality and labour specificity can give access to the self-employed in two contingencies (invalidity and unemployment). First, we explore labour neutrality and specificity from a theoretical perspective. Then, we compare the Dutch and Spanish systems to assess if and how these cover self-employed individuals. Lastly, we conclude with concrete proposals on how labour specificity can contain risks in a neutrally-designed system.

Sometimes democratic societies draft adult citizens to perform a task. Many states draft young adults to the military. From a Rawlsian perspective, conscription is justified only if it is needed for the protection of basic liberties. Military service is a very stressful life event that leaves conscripts disadvantaged for the remainder of their lives. Conscripts must use private resources and time, as well as mental and physical capacity, to produce a public good - national defence. I argue that conscripts are owed, as a matter of justice, earlier access to retirement to compensate for the disadvantage they experience and the free time they lose. Public pension schemes are suitable instruments of distributive justice as they distribute financially supported free time to individuals.

This study examines the evolving pension systems of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan within the broader context of post-Soviet welfare transformation and the pursuit of financial sustainability. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, all three countries inherited a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system, the transformation of which proceeded at varying rates and in different directions. Georgia introduced a mandatory funded pension scheme in 2019, Armenia adopted a mixed (PAYG and funded) system in 2014, while Azerbaijan continues to rely predominantly on the PAYG model. Using a comparative analytical framework considering institutional and fiscal aspects, the paper evaluates the structure, coverage, adequacy and sustainability of the pension schemes in the three South Caucasus countries. Pension coverage currently stands at approximately 47% in Georgia, 52% in Armenia and 58% in Azerbaijan. The average monthly pension amounts to US$135, US$130 and US$289, respectively, with income replacement rates of 18%, 19% and 47%, highlighting significant differences in income levels and contribution capacities. Projections based on demographic and macroeconomic indicators suggest that, without further reforms, population aging will intensify fiscal pressures, increasing pension expenditure from the current 7–9% to 11–13% of GDP by 2040. In Georgia and Armenia, the gradual accumulation of funded-pension assets could partially mitigate this burden, whereas Azerbaijan's system may face sustainability challenges unless diversification and partial capitalization measures are introduced. The findings indicate that, although all three countries have made notable progress in expanding coverage and institutional development, systemic weaknesses persist, particularly in relation to informal employment, limited contribution compliance, and weak governance of pension assets. The paper concludes that ensuring long-term financial sustainability requires a balanced mix of parametric reforms, investment diversification, stronger compliance mechanisms and targeted policies to reduce labor informality.

In E-8/20 Criminal proceedings against N , the EFTA Court established that persons temporarily staying in another EEA State are entitled to sickness benefits in cash based on Article 36 EEA on the free movement of services. This approach to Article 36 EEA has been highly endorsed in the scholarly literature. In fact, the EFTA Court was even criticised for not adopting a similar approach to Article 36 EEA in its later advisory opinions on unemployment benefits in E-13/20 O v Arbeids- og velferdsdirektoratet and E-15/20 Criminal proceedings against P . However, a similar wide-reaching approach to the free movement of services in the field of social security coordination cannot be identified in the EU legal order. This article develops and presents two core arguments. First, it contests whether a broad application of the free movement of services is substantively possible within social security outside the context of benefits in kind. Secondly, it suggests that there is no need to rely on Article 36 EEA to achieve homogeneity in social security coordination. Instead, the article provides for alternative interpretations in line with the existing case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. The aim of the article is to highlight that it is crucial to carefully consider how homogeneity is achieved, and not only that the resulting legal effects and rights are homogenous. Even if different approaches may lead to identical legal effects for individuals in the short term, homogeneity may be at risk if differences in approaches between the two courts are sustained over time in an otherwise identically mirrored field.

Social security systems face old and new challenges, which are often entangled. Swift reforms are therefore required, to strengthen systems and ensure their fairness and ability to respond to multiple eventualities. Taking a broad institutional and multidisciplinary perspective, this article discusses the Portuguese social security system, in the context of the pandemic and inflation crises which hit the country while it was still recovering from the debt crisis and the adverse effects of implementing a structural adjustment programme. We will argue that the previous trajectory of employment and social security policies helps explain the fragility of the system, which was accentuated by the pandemic and the inflationary shock. In addition, we point to the emergence of a new trend in recent years of resorting to ad hoc and temporary measures, to the detriment of consolidating and expanding existing programmes and rights. The article contributes to the international literature by offering insights that may be applicable to other national situations and comparable institutional contexts.

Abstract 1 The employment status of trainees and its influence on labour and social security rights and working conditions is still an unresolved issue. This article analyses the employment status and rights of vocational education trainees in Finland in the light of the EÚs Quality Framework for Traineeships (QFT), and the proposals for a reinforced QFT and a Traineeships Directive. In Finland, vocational education trainees are explicitly excluded from the category of employees. It is argued that this exclusion is not in accordance with the practice of the Court of Justice of the EU or with Finland’s own definition of an employment relationship, and has negative effects on the labour rights and social protection of vocational education trainees. Non-employed vocational education trainees have only limited protection as regards their working time, health and safety, information and equality rights, and their social protection is weaker than that of employees. Nevertheless, due to the Finnish universal social protection system, vocational education trainees are covered by mandatory social protection, which fulfils the requirements of formality, effectivity, adequacy and transparency.

In contemporary European welfare states, little attention is being paid to the ‘hidden welfare state’ of social tax expenditures (STEs) for private pensions. This lack of attention is surprising since the growing use of private pensions, like that of statutory pensions, has important implications for the public budget. The reason is that private pensions tend to benefit from reliefs in income taxes and social security contributions, which leads to government revenue losses. That we have little understanding of the size and social distribution of these STEs for private pensions is partially due to limitations of existing data. The available data typically overlook preferential social security contributions and/or do not cover all three phases (i.e. contributions, returns on investments and pension withdrawals) of private pension saving. To highlight the importance of conducting new empirical research on STEs, we examine Belgian second pillar pensions for employees (i.e. voluntary occupational pensions for employees) using newly available administrative data. This case study clearly demonstrates that more accurate measurements of STEs for private pensions are needed, not only to reveal these ‘hidden welfare states’, but also to improve cross-country comparisons of private pension expenditures and to properly include private pension expenditures in discussions on the financial sustainability of pensions.