Measuring Universality in Social Protection: a pilot study for Spain

The aim of this report is to contribute to measure the universality of social protection in a European Union Member State using an approach set forth by Muñoz de Bustillo et al. (2020) based on metrics of coverage and adequacy. Based on the indications provided by the authors of the type of indicators that would be necessary for measuring coverage and adequacy of social protection programmes, we develop the operationalisation of the framework using relevant data and indicators for Spain with the idea that it can be extended to other Member States. The social protection dimensions covered are the following: unemployment benefits, pensions, social assistance and family benefits, health, education, and housing. We rely primarily on data coming from Eurostat, the OECD, and the WHO. We provide the structure of the system of indicators of universality, measure them in each dimension, and aggregate the indicators into a synthetic index. The report concludes with a set of considerations and recommendations arising from the measurement process carried out. It also includes reflections and proposals related to the concept of universality, the role of public provision of social protection, and data sources used and which other potential data series would be useful for measuring universality.