A report examined practical aspects of implementing the prohibition on age discrimination by EU states. It looked at how the different ways in which various exceptions to the principle of equal treatment were phrased in the relevant Directive had influenced national legislation.
Source: Declan O'Dempsey and Anna Beale, Age and Employment, European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-Discrimination Field (European Commission)
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Dec
An article said that higher employment protection for older workers in developed economies could have damaging effects on younger workers. On balance such schemes were beneficial for employment: but they should be designed so that the cost of laying off older workers decreased gradually as they neared retirement.
Source: Arnaud Cheron, Jean-Olivier Hairault, and Francois Langot, 'Age-dependent employment protection', Economic Journal, Volume 121 Issue 557
Links: Abstract | RES press release
Date: 2011-Dec
A paper examined the barriers presented by ageism and discrimination to the goal of active ageing in European countries. Equality bodies could play particular roles in addressing these issues, given their mandate and their experience in working to promote equality and combat discrimination.
Source: Tackling Ageism and Discrimination, Equinet (European Network of Equality Bodies)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Dec
An article examined the perpetrators of abuse among older women living in the community in Europe. 28.1 per cent of older women across all countries had experienced some kind of violence and abuse, in the previous 12 months, by someone who was close to them.
Source: Liesbeth De Donder, Gert Lang, Minna-Liisa Luoma, Bridget Penhale, Jose Ferreira Alves, Ilona Tamutiene, Ana Santos, Mira Koivusilta, Edith Enzenhofer, Sirkka Perttu, Tiina Savola, and Dominique Verte, 'Perpetrators of abuse against older women: a multi-national study in Europe', Journal of Adult Protection, Volume 13 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Dec
An article examined inequalities in health expectancies at older ages in Europe. Substantial inequalities between countries were evident on all health expectancies. However, these differed across the disablement process, which could indicate environmental, technological, healthcare, or other factors that might delay progression from disease to disability.
Source: Carol Jagger, Claire Weston, Emmanuelle Cambois, Herman Van Oyen, Wilma Nusselder, Gabriele Doblhammer, Jitka Rychtarikova, and Jean-Marie Robine, 'Inequalities in health expectancies at older ages in the European Union: findings from the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)', Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Volume 65 Number 11
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Nov
A report set out a 'road map' for ageing research, designed to enable Europe to respond successfully to unprecedented demographic challenges.
Source: A Road Map for European Ageing Research, FUTURAGE
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Nov
An article examined the relationship between age and loneliness in European countries. The prevalence of loneliness did (as expected) increase with age: but the nation in which people lived showed a greater impact than age.
Source: Keming Yang and Christina Victor, 'Age and loneliness in 25 European nations', Ageing and Society, Volume 31 Issue 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Nov
A paper examined the effect of job quality on pathways to productive activities of older workers in Europe. Several aspects of job quality appeared to play a role in participation in society as a whole. Care-giving, on the other hand, appeared to be independent of job quality, but very gender-specific. Better working time arrangements should be developed in order to foster the participation of older workers in society.
Source: Catherine Pollak and Nicolas Sirven, The Social Economy of Ageing: Job quality and pathways beyond the labour market in Europe, Working Paper 2011.66, Centre d Economie de la Sorbonne (Paris)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Nov
A new book examined retirement patterns and old age inequality across Europe and the United States of America.
Source: Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Sandra Buchholz, and Karin Kurz (eds.), Aging Populations, Globalization and the Labor Market: Comparing late working life and retirement in modern societies, Edward Elgar Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Oct
A paper examined the impact of age on work-related self-reported health outcomes in Europe. Those aged 55-65 were more 'vulnerable' than younger workers. They were more likely to: perceive work-related health and safety risks; report mental, physical, and fatigue health problems; and report work-related absence.
Source: Melanie Jones, Paul Latreille, Peter Sloane, and Anita Staneva, Work-Related Health in Europe: Are older workers more at risk?, Discussion Paper 6044, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Oct
An article examined variations of quality of work, and the effects of quality of work on older workers' health, by reference to types of welfare regime in Europe. Active labour policies and reliable social protection measures were found to exert beneficial effects on the health and well-being of older workers.
Source: Nico Dragano, Johannes Siegrist, and Morten Wahrendorf, 'Welfare regimes, labour policies and unhealthy psychosocial working conditions: a comparative study with 9917 older employees from 12 European countries', Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Volume 65 Number 9
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Sep
An article examined older workers' perceptions of job security in 11 European countries. Although there were considerable cross-country variations, around 23 per cent of workers aged 50 or older ranked their job security as 'poor'.
Source: Karsten Hank and Marcel Erlinghagen, 'Perceptions of job security in Europe's ageing workforce', Social Indicators Research, Volume 103 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Sep
An article said that public authorities in Europe Union countries needed to ensure that pension systems, regardless of how they were organized, delivered adequate incomes in old age. The objective of adequacy of pensions systems should receive equal attention to the objective of sustainability and security; and the impact of proposed reforms on vulnerable groups, such as women with career breaks, should be addressed.
Source: Anne-Sophie Parent, 'Can the EU achieve adequate, sustainable and safe pensions for all in the coming decades?', Pensions: An International Journal, Volume 16 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Aug
A briefing paper examined the exclusion of older people in European countries from material resources. Eastern European countries fared much worse in terms of capability deprivation of older people, as distinct from income deprivation.
Source: Asghar Zaidi, Exclusion from Material Resources Among Older People in EU Countries: New evidence on poverty and capability deprivation, Policy Brief 2, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research (Vienna)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Jul
A new book examined different types and dimensions of child and elder care in Europe, highlighting new tensions between them in the context of recent welfare state reforms.
Source: Birgit Pfau-Effinger and Tine Rostgaard (eds.), Care Between Work and Welfare in European Societies, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Jul
Researchers examined the relationship between job quality and retirement using panel data for European countries.
Source: Mario Schnalzenberger, Nicole Schneeweis, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, and Martina Zweimuller, Job Quality and Employment of Older People in Europe, Working Paper 1108, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University of Linz (Austria)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Jul
A paper examined options for policy reforms to support active and healthy ageing in developed countries. It outlined two philosophically different ways of approaching the challenge of demographic change. The first (called the 'zero sum approach') was to see it as a problem that required today's working people to pay more, and those drawing on social security systems to receive reduced benefits. The second way of looking at the problem was to take a life-course approach: different generations did not compete for resources and all could play constructive, albeit different, roles in society.
Source: Rebecca Taylor, Ageing, Health and Innovation: Policy reforms to facilitate healthy and active ageing in OECD countries, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Links: Paper | ILCUK press release
Date: 2011-Jun
A paper said that 8 per cent of people in Europe (and 10 per cent of those who were middle-aged) took antidepressants each year. The probability of antidepressant use was greatest among those who were middle-aged, female, unemployed, poorly educated, and divorced or separated. The adjusted probability of using antidepressants reached a peak – approximately doubling – in people's late 40s: this was consistent with, and provided a new and independent form of corroboration of, recent claims in the research literature that human well-being followed a 'U-shape' through life.
Source: David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald, Antidepressants and Age, Discussion Paper 5785, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Jun
An article sought to identify health and well-being typologies among a sample of older European adults, and examined various demographic, social, and health behaviour characteristics that were used to discriminate between such groups.
Source: Cecilie Thogersen-Ntoumani, Vassilis Barkoukis, Caterina Grano, Fabio Lucidi, Magnus Lindwall, Jarmo Liukkonen, Lennart Raudsepp, and William Young, 'Health and well-being profiles of older European adults', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 8 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jun
A report examined the extent, causes, and consequences of elder maltreatment in Europe, and provided an overview of good practice in prevention. Every year at least 4 million older people in Europe were estimated to suffer physical abuse.
Source: Dinesh Sethi, Sara Wood, Francesco Mitis, Mark Bellis, Bridget Penhale, Isabel Iborra Marmolejo, Ariela Lowenstein, Gillian Manthorpe, and Freja Ulvestad Karki (eds.), European Report on Preventing Elder Maltreatment, World Health Organisation (Regional Office for Europe)
Links: Report | WHO press release
Date: 2011-Jun
An article mapped existing prevalence research on abuse and neglect of older people in Europe.
Source: Liesbeth De Donder, Minna-Liisa Luoma, Bridget Penhale, Gert Lang, Ana J. Santos, Ilona Tamutiene, Mira Koivusilta, Anna Schopf, Jose Ferreira Alves, and Jolanta Reingarde, 'European map of prevalence rates of elder abuse and its impact for future research', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 8 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Jun
Researchers examined people s attitudes towards old age, and their experiences of ageism, in 28 European countries. Regardless of their own age, respondents in countries with a higher proportion of older people were more positive, suggesting that societal attitudes shifted as a population aged. Older people's status was perceived to be higher in countries that had later state pension ages. Age discrimination was personally experienced by about one-third of all respondents, with the United Kingdom placed just below the average for all European countries.
Source: Dominic Abrams, Christin-Melanie Vauclair, and Hannah Swift, Predictors of Attitudes to Age Across Europe, Research Report 735, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2011-May
A paper examined household participation in voluntary individual retirement accounts in 11 European countries (not including the United Kingdom). High wealth and income increased the probability of owning such accounts across most countries, suggesting that the schemes would do little to tackle pensioner poverty.
Source: Julia Le Blanc, The Third Pillar in Europe: Institutional factors and individual decisions, Discussion Paper 09/2011, Deutsche Bundesbank
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-May
A paper examined the influence of heavy job demands on retirement in Europe. The frequency of heavy job demands was higher among workers with lower socio-economic status, and heavy job demands were associated with on average higher retirement probabilities, once workers became eligible for pension benefits.
Source: Golo Henseke, Retirement Effects of Heavy Job Demands, Working Paper 118, Institute of Economics (University of Rostock)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Apr
A paper examined the policy implications of population ageing in European countries. It proposed a new 'labour market adjusted dependency ratio', which calculated the proportion of people who were not in work as a proportion of the total population. This ratio was likely to grow in the European Union as a whole from 47.7 per cent in 2010 to 56.3 per cent in 2050.
Source: Benedetta Guerzoni and Fabian Zuleeg, Working Away at the Cost of Ageing: The Labour Market Adjusted Dependency Ratio, Issue Paper 64, European Policy Centre (Brussels)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Apr
A new book examined the varieties of pension governance in ten European countries. It contrasted the experience of developed 'multipillar' systems such as those in the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland with the recent shift toward private occupational and personal pensions in Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Sweden.
Source: Bernhard Ebbinghaus (ed.), The Varieties of Pension Governance: Pension privatization in Europe, Oxford University Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Mar
A new book examined why certain European countries had been able to radically transform their pension system while others had simply altered parameters. It contained an extensive comparative analysis of the position in Belgium, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Source: Patrik Marier, Pension Politics: Consensus and social conflict in ageing societies, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Mar
A new book provided a cross-country comparative analysis of the key issues shaping pension reform in Europe – political games, welfare models and pathways, population reactions, and observed and expected outcomes.
Source: Camila Arza and Martin Kohli (eds.), Pension Reform in Europe: Politics, policies and outcomes, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2011-Mar
A trade union report said that care services for older people in Europe were evolving in many countries, but care work was still an occupation that had a predominantly low-paid, female workforce. Personalization was also leading to the creation of new types of jobs that were often unregulated and unprotected: one of the major challenges for trade unions would be how to organize and negotiate terms and conditions for these new groups of home care workers or personal assistants.
Source: Jane Lethbridge, Care Services for Older People in Europe: Challenges for Labour, European Federation of Public Service Unions
Date: 2011-Mar
A report said that the UK (along with other industrialized countries) should make further increases in the state pension age in order to combat the rising costs of pensions provision.
Source: Pensions at a Glance 2011: Retirement-income systems in OECD and G20 countries, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Links: Summary | UK profile | OECD press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Mar
The European Commission published a summary of the results of a consultation on how the European Union could help to ensure adequate, sustainable, and safe pensions for its citizens.
Source: Summary of Consultation Responses to the Green Paper 'Towards Adequate, Sustainable and Safe European Pension Systems', European Commission
Links: Consultation responses | European Commission press release
Date: 2011-Mar
A paper examined the way in which 6 European countries (including England) had addressed the problem of managing dependency in old age.
Source: Florence Kamette, Dependency Care in the EU: A comparative analysis, Robert Schuman Foundation
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-Mar
A review examined strategies for building 'good places to grow older' in the United Kingdom and in European member states. The UK approach involved:
• Emphasis on long-term strategic reforms of public services (including pensions, benefits, health, and care).
• Development of 'good places to grow older' locally – for example, through the concept of the Big Society and the Age-Friendly Cities Programme.
• Seeking older people's perspectives first, and creating institutions that guaranteed the involvement of older people in policy-making.
Changing attitudes and behaviours of individuals to promote equality of opportunity for older people.
Source: Clemens Tesch-Romer and Anna Hokema, A Good Place to Grow Older: Synthesis report, Peer Review in Social Protection and Social Inclusion and Assessment in Social Inclusion (European Commission)
Links: Report
Notes: Regular peer reviews have been established to promote the identification and exchange of good practices in the field of social inclusion policies throughout the European Union.
Date: 2011-Mar
The Supreme Court ruled that pensioners from other European Union states should not have the right to claim pension credits in the United Kingdom. Although the existing ban on claiming was indirectly discriminatory, the discrimination was a justified response to the legitimate aim of protecting the public purse.
Source: Patmalniece (FC) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, UKSC 11 (2011), United Kingdom Supreme Court
Links: Judgement | Supreme Court press release
Date: 2011-Mar
A study examined violence against women aged 60 and over at the hands of existing and/or former intimate partners in 6 European countries – Austria, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
Source: Barbara Nagele, Urte Bohm, Thomas Gorgen, and Olga Toth, Intimate Partner Violence Against Older Women, European Commission
Date: 2011-Mar
A report called for the creation of a new umbrella organization for older people in Europe, designed to foster greater co-ordination and collaboration between organizations, policy-makers, and senior citizens themselves.
Source: Rachel Finn and David Wright, Report on Mechanisms for Stakeholder Co-ordination, Bridging Research in Ageing and ICT Development
Links: Report
Date: 2011-Feb
