Dutch social security law has changed during the last decades. Values of equality and solidarity, which traditionally underpin social security law, are slowly being replaced by the value of individual responsibility. This transformation is embodied in the Life Course Arrangement, an individual savings scheme for (new) social risks that was introduced in Dutch social security law in 2006. In 2013 this arrangement will be replaced by the Vitality Arrangement. How can the establishment of the idea of individual savings schemes in traditional collective social security law be explained? And is it possible to criticize those changes without reverting to some notion of justice? The introduction of the Life Course Arrangement serves as a paradigmatic case for this study. Based on a (juridical) discourse analysis of a selection of (policy) texts and interviews with key actors involved in the policy process, this study shows that the establishment of the idea of individual savings schemes in traditional Dutch collective social security law was, amongst other things, the result of the introduction of the new signifiers ‘life course’ and ‘life course perspective’ in the social security discourse.

Jaar van uitgave:

2012

Auteurs:

Anja Eleveld

Onderzoeksproject:

Hervorming sociale zekerheid

Website:

www.hsz.leidenuniv.nl