Why is the adequacy of Finnish basic social security under special scrutiny by the Council of Europe? A critical review
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years, Finland has frequently been making headlines in national newspapers for being admonished by the Council of Europe for inadequate levels of social security.Finland is the only country that has been reproached for these levels as a result of a complaint.Consequently, Finland is obliged to regularly report about improvements to basic social security until its levels fulfil the requirements.The recurrent reproaches seem strange when juxtaposed with the relatively high ranking of Finland in the comparisons of minimum income levels (SEGEABSS, 2015;Van Mechelen & Marchal, 2013).The existing studies place Finland's minimum social security level at the top or at a medium level in Europe, depending on the family type and life situation.In addition, the at-risk-of-poverty rates in Finland in 2017 were the second lowest in Europe (Eurostat, 2018).This article aims to shed light on the factors behind the reproaches by the Council of Europe.For that purpose, we describe the evaluation method used by the Council and present a few critical points and potential improvements to the method.A closer examination reveals that two factors underlie the criticism by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR).First, Finland is the only country that has allowed national non-governmental organisations, in addition to certain international ones, to file complaints (ECSR, 2019).Practically all European countries, including Sweden, Denmark and Norway, have also received critical notes for their low basic social security or minimum income level.However, Finland is the only country that has received a notice on the basis of a complaint, as a result of which the country's basic social security level is monitored particularly carefully.The second factor is related to determining 'an adequate level', which is not a straightforward issue in the context of a single country, let alone at the international level. International comparison of basic social security requires paying attention to several factorsInternational comparison of social policies is always complex because of the structural differences in the systems.For instance, many European countries do not offer a basic unemployment allowance
Source: Research on Finnish society
DOI: 10.51815/fjsr.110789
Authors: Jussi Tervola, Ilari Ilmakunnas, Pasi Moisio
Institution: Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3193922366