In the last decade, policy makers have progressively recognized the need to expand social protection to include new forms of employment. Several countries introduced new plans, especially for this group, or made provisions in existing plans to cover new forms of employment. For a better overview of the different measures applied, this document systematically reviews the existing literature, focusing on European countries and a subset of OECD countries, first examining how non-standard workers, particularly platform workers, are classified and legally protected. The document then analyzes the extent to which platform workers and other atypical workers have access to different social security benefits. While there is a clear notion of how platform work can be classified, the challenge lies in the legal construct underlying work activities. Different practices are in place in different countries, and so far only a few have explicitly recognized platform work or collective work as a form of employment. The lack of legal and effective social protection coverage for platform workers can be addressed in a number of ways. This includes adjustments to existing schemes in terms of eligibility criteria, transfer portability, incorporating digital innovation, and providing flexible security. Current policy changes have the potential to reduce socioeconomic differences between different work situations. Ultimately, these changes promote the transferability of people’s social rights between the countries in which they work, and facilitate the use of individual social protection accounts.

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