care services: Do the oldest users lose out?Population ageing is a major concern in most European countries. Demands for health-and care services will increase, as older people typically have a higher need for such services. What is often overlooked, however, is that older users increasingly compete with younger users for the same limited care resources. We ask: How do employees in the Norwegian care sector make decisions regarding the allocation of services to younger and older users? To answer this question, we interviewed decision-makers in Norwegian municipalities. Despite providing for equal rights to services, laws allow for an interpretation of needs and this can result in the unequal distribution of services. Our study indicates that needs are defined differently for younger and older users, which affects the amount, type and content of the services allocated to younger and older people. When resources are scarce and priorities must be established, the services to the oldest suffer. Key Practitioner Message: • The article lays the groundwork for an open debate about the allocation of resources to users in different life phases; • The analysis conceptualises and makes explicit important normative decisions made by practitioners.

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This article focuses on the links between family income, deprivation as reported by parents and deprivation as experienced by children. Data are drawn from a survey of Norwegian families, in which low-income families are oversampled. Three areas of deprivation are explored: housing, consumption and subjective experiences. In each area, indicators of childhood deprivation are developed. It is found that there are clear links, if no absolute overlap, between `adult' and `child' deprivation in each area. When looking at which children experience deprivation, we find that non-western immigrants, children with many siblings and children with non-employed parents are most at risk.

Around 1990, trade unions in both Norway and Denmark moved away from their previous hostile stance, and started actively to promote occupational pensions. Over time, full coverage of occupational pensions was achieved in both countries, yet with different scopes, degrees of risk-sharing and modes of governance. Why did both countries go through similar institutional changes, and why were the outcomes still so different? The roads to full coverage were different: In Denmark, this was achieved through wage bargaining; in Norway, through mandating. Denmark developed far more collectivistic schemes than Norway, but recent developments indicate convergence: efforts are being made in Norway to develop encompassing schemes more similar to the Danish ones, while the Danish system appears to be moving in a more individual direction. In both countries, strong trade union branches have at critical junctures forged alliances with their employer counterparts at the expense of trade union solidarity. Both mandatory and negotiated schemes thus have the potential to be sources of solidarity as well as of self-interest within the union movement. Ré suméAux alentours de 1990, les syndicats, aussi bien en Norvège qu'au Danemark, ont abandonné leur hostilité traditionnelle à l'encontre des pensions professionnelles, et ont commencé à promouvoir activement de telles formules. Au fil du temps, une couverture généralisée en termes de pension /home/trs professionnelle a été mise en place dans les deux pays mais avec des différences quant au champ d'application, au niveau du partage du risque et au mode de gouvernance. Pourquoi ces deux pays ont-ils adopté des changements institutionnels similaires et pourquoi sont-ils parvenus à des résultats encore si différents? Les parcours menant à une couverture intégrale n'ont pas été les mêmes. Au Danemark, l'objectif a été atteint au travers de la négociation salariale ; en Norvège, par des mesures contraignantes. Le Danemark avait développé des régimes bien plus collectifs que la Norvège, mais les évolutions récentes montrent une convergence : en Norvège, des tentatives visent à adopter des régimes plus proches du système danois, alors que le système danois semble évoluer dans une direction plus individualiste. Dans les deux pays, les syndicats ont, à des moments critiques, passé des accords avec leurs interlocuteurs patronaux, au détriment de la solidarité syndicale. Au sein du mouvement syndical, les régimes obligatoires comme les formes négociées ont donc le potentiel d'être source de solidarité comme de recherche d'intérêts particuliers. ZusammenfassungAnfang der 1990er Jahre nahmen die Gewerkschaften in Norwegen und Dänemark Abstand von ihrer vormals ablehnenden Einstellung gegenüber betrieblichen Systemen der Altersversorgung und begannen damit, sich aktiv für dieses Modell einzusetzen. Mit der Zeit wurde in beiden Ländern eine umfassende Absicherung durch Betriebsrenten erreicht, allerdings mit unterschiedlichen Geltungsbereichen, Ausmaßen der Risikoteilung sowie Leitungs-und Ü berwachun...

Individuals’ need for extended working lives depends on the design of pension systems, including occupational pensions. This article examines variation in occupational pension generosity and coverage in Norway’s private sector. The analysis consists of microsimulations of future pension outcomes for cohorts born in 1953, 1963, 1973 and 1983. The first set of calculations estimate average pension levels for individuals with different pension packages who retire at 67; the second, how much longer workers in different cohorts will have to work in order to obtain a replacement rate of 70%. The overall finding is that while all workers in Norway must extend working life in the future, those with the most generous occupational pensions can retire about four years earlier than those with the least generous packages. This shows that the design and regulation of occupational pensions are crucial to the debate on extended working lives.