Dubois, Hans

In the wake of the economic and financial crisis, many European governments have cut spending on healthcare services. At the same time, unemployment, financial strain and reduced prevention have increased the need for certain healthcare services, while falling disposable income has made access to healthcare more difficult for many EU households.

This policy brief highlights findings on a specific topic from Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) that is of particular interest from a policy perspective. It brings results of the analysis of these data together with evid...

This report is the first output of Eurofound’s research project on the impacts of the recent financial and economic crisis on access to publicly financed healthcare services in the EU. It aims to provide an overview of context and developments, setting the scene for the ongoing research project. Following a description of the policy context, this report goes on to explore how the crisis has impacted demand for and supply of healthcare services. It characterises different dimensions of access and discusses how the crisis may have impacted on barriers to access. It highlights groups that have traditionally been in vulnerable situations with regard to access, as well as those that may have been particularly affected by the crisis.

This policy brief highlights findings on a specific topic from Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) that is of particular interest from a policy perspective. It brings results of the analysis of these data together with evidence from other Eurofound projects to formulate a number of policy pointers. The focus of this policy brief is household over-indebtedness – in particular, the role of informal debts.

What determines life satisfaction and happiness? How do we value our social situation and immediate surroundings? How has this changed with the economic crisis? For the third wave of the European Quality of Life survey, 35,500 Europeans in ...

It is increasingly common for workers in the EU to take up paid work after retirement. This trend adds an important dimension to the current discourse on extending working lives. Facilitating work after retirement for those who want to work can contribute to sustainable pension systems. This study investigates retirees’ motivations for seeking paid work and their opportunities for gaining employment. It examines the extent to which work after retirement is related to income adequacy among the retired population. It also explores the types of paid employment that retirees take up and identifies ways in which companies seek to recruit and retain retirees. The report concludes with recommendations for governments, employers and retirees.

Of all the future challenges facing labour markets in Europe, none is more certain than the demographic imbalances resulting from the lower birth cohorts after the post-war ‘baby boom’ and the continual increase in life expectancy. Indeed, this has already led to a significant shift in the age structure in practically all European countries. This paper was produced as a discussion paper for the European Commission’s thematic review seminar on ‘Employment policies to promote active ageing’, which took place in Brussels on 11 June 2012.

This study focuses on debt advisory services, especially on how access to and quality of services can be improved. The study identifies successful debt counselling measures and outlines the conditions that contribute to good practice. Building on an earlier working paper, the study brings together international data and literature on the topic, providing an overview and a comparative perspective. Most importantly, the research draws on evidence from country studies in Hungary, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden. Each country study includes case studies of specific debt advisory services.

Household over-indebtedness is among the causes of the current financial crisis. In turn, the crisis exacerbated both public and private debt problems. In this paper, household over-indebtedness is broadly defined as the situation where a household cannot comply with payment requirements – whether it be mortgage, utility or consumer credit payments – on a structural basis. Different types of over-indebtedness are interrelated in complex causal networks with a broad spectrum of social and health issues such as poverty, social exclusion, unemployment and labour productivity. Appropriate service provision can alleviate the problem once it has occurred, or can prevent debts from becoming problematic in the first place. This paper discusses the need for policymakers and society at large to scale up the quality of these social services. A workshop report is available.