Proposed Social Policy Scheme

The AWVN (general employers’ association) considers there should be a basic social security scheme that provides the same basic protection for permanent employees, flexible employees and the self-employed. The principle is risk solidarity, enabling everyone to be insured – even those with adverse risks. The basic scheme would include a national training fund to which all workers could have recourse. AWVN asked SEO Economic Research to examine whether the proposed scheme would increase welfare. Would it increase the burden on employers? If so, would this be outweighed by increased flexibility of deployment? To answer this question, we first examined why the private market provide provisions for flexible employees and the self-employed. Is there a demand for them at all? If so, What are the relevant problems, and how could the authorities resolve them? We then looked at whether the AWVN proposal would resolve the problems and what pros and cons it would entail.