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HelpAge International

Resources -

International network of organizations dedicated to achieving the right to social security so that all people can enjoy a dignified and secure older age. Link to...

Social protection for older persons: Key policy trends and statistics

Resources - Author: ILO / Year: 2014

This ILO policy paper (i) provides a global overview of the organization of pensions systems, their coverage and benefits, and public expenditures on social security in 178 countries; (ii) analyses trends and recent policies, e.g. extension of coverage in a large number of low- and middle-income countries; (iii) presents...

Older persons

States are obligated to take appropriate measures which consider the vulnerability of older people. Within a rights-based framework, means establishing social security schemes that provide benefits without discrimination of any kind and ensure equal rights for men and women. Today, large proportions of the population work outside the...

Gender-based discrimination of benefits for pensioners

Legal depository - Country: United Kingdom / Body: European Court of Justice / Year: 1999

Summary: The case was brought by Mr. Taylor petitioning against the difference in the age of eligibility between men and women to receive winter fuel allowances as part of social security. While the age of eligibility was 60 and above for women, it was 65 and above for men....

Special protection in pension programmes for women in South Africa

Legal depository - Country: South Africa / Body: Other Domestic Courts / Year: 2007

Summary: Four male applicants, above the age of 60 but below 65, mounted a constitutional challenge to Section 10 of South Africa’s Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 and the relevant Regulations, which set the age for accessing an old age grant at 60 for women and 65 for...

Securing a Dignified Old Age for All

Expert commentaries - Date: 24 April 2014 / Author: Charles Knox-Vydmanov

Access to adequate social protection in old age remains a luxury limited to a minority of people globally, with just one in five older people in low- and middle-income countries receiving even a basic pension. This huge gap is symptomatic of the wider failure of social protection systems as...

Using Human Rights in the Courts to Broaden Social Protection—The South African Example

Expert commentaries - Date: 19 September 2014 / Author: Beth Goldblatt

Human rights have an important role to play in supporting the objectives of social protection which include the prevention of poverty and inequality, ensuring solidarity and inclusion, and creating economically and socially fairer societies. They offer a normative basis and a legal imperative for requiring that states realize the...