Progress of national authorities towards a holistic approach: study using a common assessment framework

Tackling undeclared work is often less effective because there is a fragmented and uncoordinated approach across the multifarious government bodies responsible for tackling undeclared work and a limited involvement of social partners, as well as an incomplete range of policy measures used. To resolve this, a holistic integrated strategic approach has been proposed. This is where governments:

 Shift the objective from “reducing undeclared work” to “transforming undeclared work into declared work”;  Develop a whole government coordinated approach and fully involve social partners, and  Implement the full range of direct and indirect policy tools.

The aim of this study is to provide a baseline assessment of the progress of enforcement authorities in European countries towards adopting a holistic approach. To assess this, a questionnaire survey was sent to the 32 labour, tax and social security authorities participating in the European Platform tackling undeclared work (hereafter “the Platform”) in the 27 European Union member states plus Norway and Iceland (i.e., 28 labour authorities, 3 tax authorities and 1 social security authority). Responses were received from 23 labour authorities and 1 tax authority. This report evaluates the self-reported progress made