Tackling undeclared work in the European Union
Undeclared work can be defined as work which is in itself legal but is not declared to the authorities for tax, social security and/or labour law purposes. Across the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU27), a great deal of effort is being invested into developing and testing policy measures that aim to tackle undeclared work.
Two broad policy approaches can be identified:
- a focus on deterrence (by improving detection or increasing penalties);
- encouraging compliance by preventing people from taking up undeclared work, enabling the legitimisation of previously undeclared work and changing attitudes.
The Foundation took the first step towards identifying what measures work and what do not by commissioning a review of the effectiveness of the policy measures adopted in five countries – Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom (UK). New initiatives from other EU countries have been added since.
A total of 100 initiatives are described here, showing the different approaches as well as the effectiveness of specific policy measures and their transferability.
Browse case studies:
Advanced search for case studies
The options on the form below allow you to restrict your search to case studies from a particular country or by some other criteria. If you leave the form unchanged, the search will cover all 100 case studies.