Social Policies

About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

Social policies affect people at different stages of their lives and have to address a range of issues: child-development, combining family and work responsibilities, social benefits and disability policies for periods out of work, spells of poverty (more generally income distribution), and pension policies for today's workers. In all areas, taking a gender perspective is an important for policy design.

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Asian countries should reform their pension systems, says OECD

07-Jan-2009

Many Asian countries will need to reform their pension systems in order to deliver sustainable and adequate retirement incomes for today’s workers, according to a new OECD report.

OECD says governments must continue reforms of disability systems

20-Nov-2008

OECD governments should continue reforming their sickness and disability systems and help people with health problems to retain their jobs or find new ones, according to a new OECD report.

ELSA Seminar Series

10-Dec-2008

The OECD Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate has launched in September 2008 a series of seminars open to both external and internal speakers. It is intended to be an informal forum for discussion of policy-oriented empirical research work among policy-makers, academics and OECD staff.

Income inequality and poverty rising in most OECD countries

21-Oct-2008

Income gaps have widened over the past two decades in three-fourths of OECD countries. In today’s changing world economy, that means ever more people at risk of being left behind. According to Secretary-General Angel Gurria, “Ensuring growth for all, not just the rich, is the task we must set for ourselves.” Governments need not sit on the sidelines: they should respond to income inequality with policies that help lift people up.

Modernising Social Policy for the New Life Course

14-Feb-2008

For decades, social policy interventions were limited to assist and insure against a limited number of well-defined risks. However, the social order based on standard employment relations, the male breadwinner model and social security in defined but exceptional circumstances, has changed.

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