Transparency and transferability: Thematic discussion paper for mutual learning on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed

This contribution addresses the need to build in transparency and transferability in social protection systems. Both elements are approached from the recent EU Recommendation on access to social protection (2019).
Indeed, what is the use of having rights if - at the end of the day - one cannot exercise them or have them exercised? Setting up a social protection system with extensive entitlements on paper is one thing; having it implemented in reality is another. In legal literature, this tension is often labelled as the tension between the law in the books and the law in reality. Transparency in law (application) can bridge that tension.
In articles 15 and 16, the Recommendation on access to social protection calls for both transparent rules and their accessible administrative application. The Recommendation also asks for the transferability of rights (article 10) when people move from one system to another, for instance when they change job or occupational status. In this position paper we highlight the challenges that are related to a transparent and transferable social protection in order to improve accessibility for non-standard work and self-employment. In a second part we have a closer look at some situations in reality; the main focus here is on best practices, followed by a discussion on what transparency and transferability can mean to make social protection more accessible.