Welfare, Wellbeing and Demographic Change: Understanding Welfare Models

Aim of the joint call

This call aims to support research which will improve the understanding of how different approaches to welfare secure the quality of life, especially on older people. This is important, not only because of the ageing of the European population, but also because of increasing pressures on public finances, and changing patterns of population movement and employment, within and beyond Europe itself. The objective was to develop comparative perspectives on “welfare models”, and the ways in which they are changing, drawing on the great diversity of approaches to welfare across Europe and Canada. Welfare models have the function to promote general wellbeing, to help individuals remain active contributing members of the community, and to overcome the challenges of declining health and capability. A better understanding of these differences can help policymakers to identify potential ways of meeting needs, as their own models evolve in response to changing demographic pressures and circumstances. The following research question were asked:

1. How appropriate are current measures of wellbeing across the changing life course?
2. How can welfare models distribute resources, rights and responsibilities in fair and sustainable ways?
3. How can welfare models secure the health and wellbeing for older people confronted to caring needs, subject to frailty and nearuing the end of life?

Funded projects

In total five projects were funded:

• AgeWellAccounts – Age-Specific Wellbeing- and Transfer Accounts: Evaluating Intergenerational Support
• CIRCLE – Care and Income Redistributive Cycles in the Lives of Europeans
• CREW – Care, Retirement & Wellbeing of Older People Across Different Welfare Regimes
• EMMY – European Welfare Models and Mental Wellbeing in Final Years of Life
• WELTRANSIM – Demographic change and intra and intergenerational distribution: Modelling the impact of different welfare models

Final seminar

All projects presented their (pre)final results at the final seminar. The principal investigators gave a short introduction to the projects by explaining the aim of the project and highlighting the key findings. Afterwards, the original research questions from the call were discussed in three topic sessions. The principal investigators shared their view on the topics their projects addressed followed by a lively discussion with all participants. The final seminar closed with reflections and take home messages from the chairs of the scientific and societal advisory boards. You can find the report on the final seminar below.