Abstract
AbstractThis study contributes to the international literature on welfare dynamics, by providing a differentiated picture of paths through the means-tested Basic Income for recipients who are capable of working, after the reorganisation of the basic income system in Germany in 2005. We analyse the employment and benefit trajectories of individuals who became recipients for the first time between 2007 and 2009 by methods of sequence and cluster analysis based on representative administrative individual data. We find a significant polarisation between long-term recipients and those with an early exit from benefit receipt via full-time employment. One in three new recipients remains in benefit receipt for the next years and shows almost no employment activities. Approximately 23 percent leave benefit receipt quickly and work in full-time employment. Several other different paths exist between these two poles. These heterogeneous trajectories should be characteristic for broad basic income systems and require a variety of policies that in part are beyond labour market policies.
Highlights
Means-tested income programmes targeting working-age individuals and their families form a constituent element of the welfare state in most European countries
We find ten typical employment trajectories, while two polarised groups dominate
One in three new recipients remains in basic income system (BI) for the three years
Summary
Means-tested income programmes targeting working-age individuals and their families form a constituent element of the welfare state in most European countries. In view of changing social and economic conditions, it is a political challenge to adapt these systems to new developments in order to ensure effective and efficient risk coverage. Welfare systems have been the subject of reforms in many countries in recent decades. Under the pressure of high long-term unemployment and the associated fiscal burden, Germany has reformed its labour market policies through several reforms between and. IP address: 34.204.7.64, on 02 Nov 2021 at 10:11:16, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
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