This limits their access to social protection, which they may only receive thanks to their relationship with an employed spouse (Gomez, 2008) or through non-contributory transfers. As shown previously, time-use data sheds light on women's economic contribution to countries through unpaid work. These data should allow people who carry out only unpaid work to receive social security benefits —an outstanding debt to women in the region— through programmes that aim for universal social protection and which are not necessarily linked to labour market participation (ECLAC, 2016a). Hence, in order to avoid setbacks in existing policies and programmes and to continue advancing towards comprehensive care systems, the economic invisibility of unpaid domestic and care work in households must not become a factor of social exclusion.