Social policy expansion and fragmentation in recent decades in Portugal: a bumpy road towards the defamilisation of welfare provision in old age

Abstract

Portugal is one of the three countries with the highest old-age dependency ratio in the European Union. Given this scenario, there is a need to reflect on the role of the country's social protection policies in promoting healthy longevity. Information, drawn mainly from the Mutual Information System on Social Protection (MISSOC), was analysed and compared with the main European trends. Overall, although Europeanisation is pushing the country to introduce new and continuous efforts in its policies towards greater defamilisation, their implementation has proved to be inconsistent, which in itself limits the expected achievements and, consequently, the opportunities for promoting healthy ageing among Portuguese citizens. Keywords: social protection policies, defamilisation, healthy ageing, Portugal.