Access to affordable high-quality long-term care 2022/C 476/01 - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 476/1

Accessible, affordable and high-quality long-term care allows people in need of care to maintain autonomy for as long as possible and live in dignity. It helps to protect human rights, promote social progress and solidarity between generations, combat social exclusion and discrimination and can contribute to the creation of jobs.

In November 2017, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission proclaimed the European Pillar of Social Rights (1), setting out 20 principles to support well-functioning and fair labour markets and welfare systems. Principle 2 promotes gender equality by fostering equality of treatment and opportunities between women and men in all areas. Principle 9 promotes the right to work-life balance for people with caring responsibilities. Principle 10 emphasises workers’ rights to a high level of protection of their health and safety at work. Principle 17 recognises the right of people with disabilities to inclusion, in particular to services that enable them to participate in the labour market and in society. Principle 18 on long-term care states that everyone has the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular home care and community-based services.

Long-term care services organised by public authorities, at national, regional or local levels, are primarily considered social services of general interest as they have a clear social function. They facilitate social inclusion and safeguard fundamental rights of all people in need of care, including older people.

Most carers are women according to the ‘2021 Long-term care report: trends, challenges and opportunities in an ageing society’ of the European Commission and the Social Protection Committee (2) (the ‘2021 Long-term care report’). The gender-based gap in the distribution of care work is one of the key drivers of gender inequality in the labour market. Women, on average, have lower incomes, including pensions, and are potentially less able to afford care, while at the same time living longer than men and thus being more in need of long-term care and exposed to a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion throughout their life time. Adequate and affordable formal long-term care services together with policies to improve working conditions in the sector and to reconcile paid employment with caring responsibilities could therefore be beneficial to gender equality.

This Recommendation promotes the application of Articles 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 33 and 34 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (3) covering non-discrimination, equality between women and men, the rights of the child, the rights of the elderly, integration of persons with disabilities, fair and just working conditions, and the rights to family and professional life and social security and social assistance.

This Recommendation respects the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which recognises the equal right of all persons with disabilities to live independently in the community, with choices equal to others.

The European Pillar of Social Rights action plan, adopted by the Commission on 4 March 2021, announced an initiative on long-term care with the aim of setting a framework for policy reforms to guide the development of sustainable...