Premium
Income protection for self‐employed and non‐standard workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Spasova Slavina,
Regazzoni Pietro
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
international social security review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.349
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1468-246X
pISSN - 0020-871X
DOI - 10.1111/issr.12292
Subject(s) - pandemic , covid-19 , european union , income support , social protection , variety (cybernetics) , demographic economics , economics , business , public economics , economic growth , economic policy , medicine , macroeconomics , computer science , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , artificial intelligence
Abstract Based on original evidence from the European Social Policy Network (ESPN), the article investigates the extent to which self‐employed and non‐standard workers, who are less protected by “ordinary” social protection, were included in “extraordinary” income protection and job retention schemes during the COVID‐19 pandemic in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom. When the crisis hit, countries quickly introduced unprecedented emergency income replacement measures for the self‐employed. Nevertheless, most of these schemes provided only basic support through lump sums and were, in some cases, subject to a variety of eligibility conditions. Non‐standard workers were in general included in job retention schemes, but substantial gaps remained in some countries. The article discusses how such gaps were addressed in five EU Member States. The article concludes by highlighting some policy pointers for better and more adequate “extraordinary” income protection for the self‐employed and non‐standard workers in times of crisis.