Aging and Social Protection in a Familialist Welfare Regime: Elderly Poverty and Social Pensions in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey is experiencing a rapid aging process at a faster pace than many developing countries. Within its familialist welfare regime, institutional care provision is rather limited and care is primarily provided by informal networks, mostly within the family and by women. However, the elderly poverty rate is high and it keeps increasing. Due to lifelong economic and social disadvantages such as exclusion from the labor market, interrupted employment history, informal employment, and care responsibilities, women are more likely to experience poverty in old age in Turkey. The reliance on the family regarding care in line with the familialist welfare regime of Turkey coupled with consistently high rates of elderly poverty calls the social protection of elderly individuals in Turkey into question. While the public pension system is far from being universal and particularly not widely accessed by women, universal social pensions have the potential to provide social protection to elderly people. However, research suggests that social pensions exist as means-tested and targeted social assistance mechanisms which are offered only in the absence of the support of family members, within the familialist welfare regime of Turkey. Besides, social pensions are not inclusive: barely around 10% of the elderly population draw means-tested old-age pensions. In this picture, the existing social protection mechanisms are not sufficient to address the upcoming challenges posed by rapid population aging in the country. © 2025 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.