In this paper, we analyze gender and socioeconomic differences in the length of working lives and pension income in Finland. Based on internationally unique data covering 50 years of recorded information on individual employment histories and first-year old-age pension income of a cohort retiring in 2011, we trace life-time work histories and their relation to pension income with greater precision than previous studies. While gender and socioeconomic income differences in the lengths of working lives are modest, differences in pension income are more pronounced. The residence-based national pension targeted at those with no or only low earning-related pension accrual plays an important role in cushioning old-age income differences. The results suggest that unequal life-time earnings and occupational segregation remain main challenges for equalizing pension income in old age.
In the universalistic Nordic welfare states, targeted anti-poverty policies have not been considered as specific aims of social policy. The situation has, however, altered in Finland and there is now a new element in Finnish social policy that can be called ‘anti-poverty policy’. This article explores when, how and why the policy paradigm relating to poverty changed in Finland. It includes an empirical analysis of the documents produced by key actors. Analyses show that the basic idea behind the policy prescriptions for alleviating poverty in Finland has changed from the idea of universalism to the idea of selectivism. The results emphasise that the Church, non-governmental organisations, the European Union’s Lisbon agenda as well as an active opposition politics had an important agenda-setting role behind the ideational turn from universalism to the idea of selectivism.
By knowing the factors associated with working while on a disability pension, policies could be more efficiently allocated to encourage disability pensioners to take up work. One way would be to support disability pensioners with low education to work more. Another way to increase work among disability pensioners is to support the recently retired in working longer.
Most previous research on social welfare has focused on the statutory part of welfare delivery. By examining collectively-negotiated sickness benefits, this article introduces occupational welfare into cross-national analyses of social policy and explores how this changes the Nordic welfare model. Instead of limiting its focus to one average worker wage, the article examines five different occupations representing both low-skilled and high-skilled workers, as well as public and private sector employees. Using the stylised case method and examining three different durations of sickness, the study shows that employees in different occupations have different rights in relation to occupational benefits during sickness. Although the results found by the analysis vary with length of sickness, the article concludes that, in general, occupational welfare has a reinforcing effect on the existing differences between occupations generated by public benefits. The analysis presents evidence of not-so-equal aspects of the Nordic welfare model.
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