Assistance In Germany Research Articles

Cross-class solidarity in times of crisis: the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on support for redistribution

This study investigates how the economic crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic impacted support for social assistance in Germany. We formulate our expectations drawing from the classical political economy literature on self-interest and the burgeoning research on the role of solidarity. On the one hand, we hypothesize that only low-income individuals impacted economically by COVID-19, who can benefit from social assistance, will support its expansion. On the other hand, we expect higher-income individuals affected economically by COVID-19 to be more supportive of social assistance, even though they do not benefit from it, and less likely to consider welfare recipients ‘undeserving’ compared to higher-income individuals not economically affected by the pandemic. We argue that first-hand crisis experiences update people’s beliefs about how luck impacts one’s economic situation in the presence of an exogenous shock. We combine observational and experimental data from an original survey collected in Germany in April 2021 to test our expectations. On average, low-income respondents appear to be the most vigorous supporters of social assistance, but their support is not conditional on their experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, we find that the support for more social assistance among affluent individuals depends on the economic impact of the pandemic. We experimentally manipulated the deservingness of welfare recipients and found that better-off respondents impacted by the pandemic were less likely to penalize even the most ‘undeserving’ welfare beneficiaries. We suggest that solidarity between classes in hard times may occur through a convergence of the deservingness perception among individuals. The article has broader implications for studying the effect of crises on solidarity and the conditional nature of class-based explanations for support for different welfare policies.

Agency, institutions, and welfare chauvinism: Tracing the exclusion of European Union migrant citizens from social assistance in Germany

What explains welfare chauvinistic policy reform, that is, targeted exclusion of non-citizens from welfare? Existing research suggest that contextual factors like far-right party success, perceived immigration pressures, party ideologies and institutions could spur such reform, but the processes behind reforms remain understudied. This article draws on public policy literature to call attention the critical role of agency and institutions in welfare chauvinist reform. It focuses on a law excluding migrant EU citizens from social assistance in Germany. Through process tracing and inductive reconstruction of the policy process, based on political documents, interviews, media reporting and descriptive statistics, we show that the policy proposal originated from German city administrations; that the city of Hamburg was key in pushing for exclusions; and that Hamburg’s success in doing so crucially depended on the city’s mayor. Several comparable German cities (in terms of party politics and levels of immigration) were equally concerned with ‘welfare immigration’ and complained about problem pressure, but only Hamburg had a committed mayor with the right political networks and institutional resources to lobby for welfare exclusions at the federal level.

Социальная политика в Германии

Relevance. German social policy solutions became an example for imitation for other countries, including Russia, and are usually considered to be a standard due to their coverage and efficiency. Studying the German experience is valuable for development of the political science and for reforming the social policy systems. Purpose – to describe the origins and implementation of the social state in Germany. Objectives: to present the development and functioning of the pension and medical insurance systems, unem-ployment insurance and measures of the public social support. Methodology: comparative and historical approach, analysis of legal documents and institutions. Results. The foundations of the social assistance in Germany were created in the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century, with introduction of programs of insurance funding for medical expenses and old-age and disability pensions, followed by unemployment insurance. The system operates for more than a century and effectively accomplishes the task of risk pooling, and it mainly relies on self-government. In the second half of the XX century the law that regulated the social assistance in Germany was extended significantly, the burden on the budget increased, as well as size of the insurance contributions. Citizens obtained the right for family benefits, the role of the housing benefits, unemployment and low-income support was increased. In the end of the XX century Germany introduced insurance to fund the long-term care. Conclusion. A developed system of social support exists in Germany, it relies on centuries-old traditions of local and corporative mutual help, with coordination and subsidies coming from the federal centre. The most powerful elements of the German social policy, which secure its’ efficiency, are historically established self-government and soli-darity

Legal aid in Germany

The subject. The article is devoted to problems of institute of legal aid in German civil procedure law. The purpose of the article is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that financial support is the main but not exclusive form of legal aid in Germany. The methodology of the study includes analysis and synthesis of German civil procedure legislation, description of decisions of German Federal Court of Justice and interpretation of legal studies concerning legal aid issues. The main results and scope of their application. The right to state support for equal access to judicial protection, regardless of property status, has constitutional grounds. The fundamental aspect of the principle of the rule of law is the prohibition of unauthorized enforcement of legal claims, and, therefore, the need to go to the court. Thus, ensuring equal access to judicial protection for all, including the needy persons, is a duty of a state governed by the rule of law. An important guarantee in this case is legal aid. In Germany, this aid, enshrined in civil procedure law, is a special reflection of the General social and legal institution of social assistance. The author reveals the structure of the main costs associated with the conduct of the process and covered by the legal aid, as well as conditions for the provision of such assistance in Germany – personal preconditions and prerequisites regarding the prospects for the conduct of the process. The provision of legal aid does not exclude the risk of a poor party that arise in connection with the loss process and the reimbursement court costs to the prevailing party. In addition, the provision of legal aid does not exempt from the obligation of its subsequent reimbursement to the Federal land budget from free revenues. The compilation and maintenance of statistics on the cost of certain types of proceedings by the Federal States of Germany, which account for the lion's share of the costs of maintaining the judicial system, seems justified from a fiscal point of view. However, it does not mean that the judicial system as a whole should be subordinated to the logic of economic profitability of services for dispute resolution. Conclusions. The provision of legal aid in Germany requires the identification of a set of conditions-relating to both the person and the prospects of the case. However, financial assistance in the conduct of proceedings is not the only way to ensure legal aid, another is, for example, the simplification of judicial procedure. It is at the discretion of the state to choose the means of legal aid to ensure effective protection of rights, however it may not be possible without qualified legal assistance.

Catching up with Archives – Disaster Preparedness and the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Berlin Museums

Cultural property can be lost in an instant - when disaster strikes, museum objects, archival material and other heritage items are in high danger of being damaged or lost in great numbers. To mitigate the effects of fire, flooding, earthquakes or even war, preparation for these incidents are needed during "times of peace", to use the terms of the Hague Convention. For museums and other institutions holding cultural property, this results in an obligation to run a risk assessment, to establish a disaster plan for their collections, and to link up with the local fire department or emergency services unit in preparation for the next emergency. Nevertheless, every hand is needed to recover objects from an institution after it was affected by a disaster in order to provide initial treatment as soon as possible. This necessity resulted, as in other countries, in the formation of networks of mutual assistance in Germany. In 1997, following the Oder-River flooding in the state of Brandenburg, the archives of Berlin and Brandenburg came together to initiate such a network. This, however, is exclusive to archives and has not opened up to museums. Berlin museums, on the other hand, were slower in forming such a network. Being a city with more than 175 museums and a history full of smaller and larger disasters not only to cultural institutions, it is hard to conceive why this notion did not gain ground earlier. It was only after a working group under the heads of administration in the Berlin Museum Association had been established that a network for museums was initiated and a co-operation agreement was drafted. This agreement is the basis for a new network of museums of various sizes and types, with the Museum für Naturkunde as one of the founding partners. This presentation explores disaster preparedness activities at the Museum für Naturkunde, with its 30 million objects, as well as the work of the new museum network for disaster preparedness.

Differences in welfare take-up between immigrants and natives – a microsimulation study

PurposeInternational empirical evidence suggests that immigrants have a significantly higher risk than their native counterparts of being on welfare due to their observed characteristics. Nevertheless, it remains unclear if immigrants are also more prone to take-up benefits, conditional on being eligible. The authors explicitly focus on this potential explanation for higher welfare take-up rates. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the take-up of social assistance in Germany by immigrants and natives, conditional on being eligible, and hence focus on take-up behavior rather than on determinants of eligibility.Design/methodology/approachTo simulate welfare entitlements, the authors employ a Tax-Transfer Microsimulation Model. It is a static microsimulation model that consists of a detailed implementation of the German tax and transfer system as well as an econometrically estimated labor supply model. After the simulation of welfare entitlements, the authors analyze take-up behavior within a discrete choice framework. The authors estimate probit models of observed welfare benefit take-up for the sample of eligible households taking into account unobserved heterogeneity.FindingsThe estimation results do not reveal a significant effect of being a migrant on the probability of taking-up entitlements. The authors found a significant negative effect for citizens from European countries on the take-up probability, which disappeared after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors find that it is worthwhile to focus on different groups of immigrants. Although not statistically significant, the rates of non-take-up of welfare benefits differ between different immigrant groups. The analysis further shows that controlling for unobserved heterogeneity is important when analyzing welfare differences between immigrants and natives.Practical implicationsThe higher welfare rates of immigrants are explained mainly by their higher risk of welfare dependence. Thus, given that reducing the welfare dependence of immigrants is a political goal, social policy measures to improve welfare recipients’ labor market prospects are contested. However, restricting eligibility rules to reduce entitlements does not seem to be the appropriate measure, because the take-up probability does not differ between immigrants and natives after controlling for individual characteristics.Originality/valueThe authors build on Castronova et al. (2001) and analyze the take-up behavior of individuals who are entitled to basic means-tested welfare benefits for employable persons in Germany. The analysis differs from Castronova et al. (2001) in four points. First, the authors provide first evidence of immigrant-native differences in welfare benefit take-up under the new welfare system in Germany after its reorganization in 2005. Second, the authors apply a microsimulation model of the comlete tax and transfer system in Germany to determine welfare eligibility. Third, the authors extend the analysis to a panel framework and take into account individual unobserved heterogeneity. Fourth, the authors distinguish between different groups of immigrants.

Endogenizing take-up of social assistance in a microsimulation model A case study for Germany

Microsimulation studies typically assume that all entitlements to means-tested benefits are actually claimed by eligible households, despite a large body of research that suggests that take-up rates are substantially below 100%. The assumption of full take-up tends to exaggerate the simulated increase in caseloads and fiscal costs of a social policy reform. This paper investigates the impact of non-take-up for two hypothetical scenarios, namely increasing and decreasing the base amount of social assistance in Germany by 100 per month. We find a substantial effect of considering non-take-up on the simulated change in fiscal costs and in particular on the change in caseloads, where the full take-up assumption exaggerates the latter change by a factor of about two.

Unemployment Compensation and Wages: Evidence from the German Hartz Reforms

Summary Using the introduction of fixed unemployment assistance in Germany in 2005 as a unique natural experiment, we find strong evidence that decreased unemployment compensation has an adverse effect on wages. We use micro panel data to identify and estimate the effect of this structural break. In eastern and western Germany, the relative effect is higher for women. In western Germany, the relative effect increases with skill level. In eastern Germany, there is no clear skill-specific pattern.

Financial crisis and corporate governance in the financial sector: Regulatory changes and financial assistance in Germany and Europe

The recent financial crisis has led to a loss of trust in the quality of corporate governance and the balance of the European financial market. These issues have also affected Germany. In Germany, financial companies’ compliance with the German Corporate Governance Code represents a basic standard for ‘good’ corporate governance. We find that cooperation between management boards and supervisory boards, as well as monitoring by supervisory boards, must be improved. Improvement is also necessary for corporate governance reporting and the implementation of the ‘pay for performance’ principle. Our analysis supports the critical remarks by the European Commission (EC) in its current Corporate Governance Green Papers for the financial sector regarding the limited ability of the present corporate governance reporting to support stakeholders’ decision making. Among other reforms, the EC intends to professionalize supervisory board members, reduce conflicts of interest by limiting multiple mandates of board members, and increase the significance of corporate governance reporting by supervision of the reports.

A new targeting: a new take-up?

We present first estimates of rates of non-take-up for social assistance in Germany after the implementation of major social policy reforms in 2005. The analysis is based on a microsimulation model, which includes a detailed description of the German social assistance programme. Our findings suggest a moderate decrease in non-take-up compared to estimates before the reform. In order to identify the determinants of claiming social assistance, we estimate a model of take-up behaviour which considers endogeneity of the benefit level. The estimations reveal that the degree of needs, measured as the social assistance benefit level a household is eligible for, and the expected duration of eligibility are the key determinants of the take-up decision, while costs of claiming seem to play a minor role.

Common criteria for the assessment of critical infrastructures

Society is reliant on infrastructure services, such as information and communication technology, energy, water, and food supply, but also on governmental, cultural, and search and rescue organizations. The goal of project Kritis-KAT at the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance in Germany is the development of generic criteria for the identification and evaluation of infrastructures regarded as “critical” for society. Acknowledging that full protection against all threats and cascading effects is not possible, the approach focuses on the impacts rather than the prevention of threats. The development of generic criteria requires the prioritization of infrastructures and identification of their key characteristics for civil protection purposes, risk management activities, and strategic proactive planning. For this purpose, the development of a national critical infrastructure priority inventory is based on a thorough examination of the range of criteria typically used in similar approaches. The specific focus of this paper is to identify and simplify essential characteristics of infrastructure criticality. The main outcome of this study is the development of common criteria generally applicable to a variety of infrastructures.

A New Targeting - A New Take-Up? Non-Take-Up of Social Assistance in Germany after Social Policy Reforms

We present first estimates of rates of non-take-up for social assistance in Germany after the implementation of major social policy reforms in 2005. The analysis is based on a microsimulation model, which includes a detailed description of the German social assistance programme. Our findings suggest a moderate decrease in non-takeup compared to estimates before the reform. In order to identify the determinants of claiming social assistance, we estimate a model of take-up behaviour which considers potential endogeneity of the benefit level. The estimations reveal that the degree of needs, measured as the social assistance benefit level a household is eligible for, and the expected duration of eligibility are the key determinants of the take-up decision, while costs of claiming seem to play a minor role.

Beschäftigungskonten für Deutschland

We present a proposal for reforming unemployment assistance in Germany through the introduction of unemployment accounts (UAs). Instead of paying taxes that finance the unemployment assistance, employed people make ongoing contributions to their UAs and can make withdrawals from these accounts during periods of unemployment. The aim of this policy proposal is to improve employment incentives without significant changes in the current redistribution scheme. We provide a detailed account of how such a system of UAs can be designed and implemented in Germany. To make the influence of UAs as transparent as possible and to avoid introducing other reforms that may make significant bodies of people worse off, we assume that UAs are integrated within the existing unemployment support system, keeping all institutional rules regarding conditions, duration and size of entitlements as well as interpersonal redistribution unchanged.

To Claim or Not to Claim: Estimating Non-Take-Up of Social Assistance in Germany and the Role of Measurement Error

Using representative micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) for the year 2002, we analyse non-take-up behaviour of Social Assistance (SA) in Germany. According to our simulation as much as 67 percent of the eligible population did not claim SA in that year which is slightly higher than reported in previous work. We particularly emphasize the role of measurement error in estimating non-take-up. First, we consider misspecifications of the simulation model due, e.g., to households claiming to have received SA although not simulated as eligible (beta-error). Second, we employ sensitivity analyses revealing the impact of measurement errors in reported household income and wealth as well as in simulated needs. Misreported household incomes appear to have the greatest impact on the estimated non-take-up rates, as shown in Monte-Carlo-type simulations. Regression analysis of the potential determinants of non-take-up behaviour confirm that rational motives - i.e., the expected net utility from claiming - as well as stigma and other barriers play a crucial role in explaining the puzzle of large non-take-up rates of SA.

End-of-life decisions without medical assistance in Germany

In contrast to the situation in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as in the US State of Oregon, but comparable to most European countries, no euthanasia law exists in Germany. Active euthanasia is punishable by Criminal Law and is also prohibited by Professional Law. Two cases of a 59-year-old woman with locked-in syndrome and a 7-year-old boy in a stable vegetative state with convulsions after near-drowning, demonstrate that unbearable suffering may lead relatives (the husband and the grandmother as custodian, respectively) to killing. Both custodians were punished for killing on request and manslaughter, respectively. In neither case had medical doctors been involved. Palliative (terminal) sedation followed by death of the patient as an acceptable side-effect may have been a justifiable medical decision to end the life of the patients.

British Relief Teams in Belsen Concentration Camp: Emergency Relief and the Perception of Survivors

Based on a research project on ‘British Humanitarian Assistance in Germany after the Second World War’, this essay focuses on the work of British relief teams, provided by the British Red Cross and the Society of Friends, who entered Bergen-Belsen just one week after liberation. The essay concentrates on the main objectives of British wartime planning and the training of relief workers, and goes on to examine the actual deployment of the teams and their perception by the survivors. Written sources traced include documents from the British Government, the Society of Friends and the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad.

Was reizt Sozial hi Ifeempfänger zum Ausstieg?. Eine empirische Untersuchung mit dem Niedrigeinkommens-Panel / Why do Recipients of German Social Assistance Opt Out?. An Empirical Investigation of Incentives with the Low Income Panel

Zusammenfassung Als Hauptursache für die hohe Zahl der Sozialhilfeempfänger in Deutschland wird häufig angenommen, dass sich die Aufnahme einer Erwerbstätigkeit finanziell nicht lohne und viele Menschen deshalb freiwillig in der Sozialhilfe verblieben (sogenannte Armuts- bzw. Sozialhilfefalle). Die vorliegende Studie prüft mittels der Daten des Niedrigeinkommens-Panels, ob diese These und die ihr zugrunde liegenden Annahmen tatsächlich gültig sind und ob es weitere Anreizfaktoren gibt, welche die Ausstiegsentscheidung der Haushalte beeinflussen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass der Einfluss der z. T. ungünstigen finanziellen Anreizstruktur auf die Ausstiegsentscheidung erheblich geringer ist als allgemein angenommen. Dem gegenüber ist beispielsweise das Verhalten der Mitarbeiter des Sozialamts von signifikanter Bedeutung für die Ausstiegswahrscheinlichkeit. Eine Beschränkung der Reformdiskussion auf die Ausgestaltung der finanziellen Anreize ist deshalb nicht sinnvoll.

Welfare to Work in the U. S.: A Model for Germany?

Social assistance in Germany reduces the incentive to work. The U.S. Welfare to Work Programme tries to avoid such disincentives. It consists essentially of two elements: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for employees in low-wage occupations and a Workfare model. The EITC and the Workfare model as implemented in the State of Wisconsin are described and analyzed. In conclusion, the introduction of an EITC and a workfare approach in Germany is recommended.

Take It or Leave It: (Non-)Take-Up Behavior of Social Assistance in Germany

Basierend auf den Mikro-Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels untersuchen wir Ausmaß und Struktur der Nichtinanspruchnahme von Sozialhilfe (Hilfe zum Lebensunterhalt) in Deutschland. Die Schätzung einer Nichtinanspruchnahmequote ("Dunkelziffer") fällt mit über 60 Prozent erwartungsgemäß höher aus als für die Höhe der nicht in Anspruch genommenen Sozialhilfebeträge. Angesichts der hohen Wahrscheinlichkeit von Messfehlern sowohl in den faktisch erhobenen Einkommensdaten als auch bei der Simulation des Bedarfseinkommens, bieten wir eine Reihe von Schätzungswerten und somit nützliche Sensitivitätsanalysen für die Nichtinanspruchnahmequote an. Es wird deutlich, wie stark die Berechnung der Inanspruchnahmequote mit der Bestimmung der Inanspruchnahmeberechtigung variiert. Multivariate Analysen offenbaren deutliche Unterschiede für verschiedene Bevölkerungsgruppen und zudem signifikante Einflüße von Indikatoren zur Messung von Stigma, Kosten der Antragstellung und insbesondere sozialen Bindungen.

Welfare to Work in the U.S.: A Model for Germany?

Social assistance in Germany reduces the incentive to work. The U. S. Welfare to Work Programme tries to avoid such disincentives. It consists essentially of two elements: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for employees in low wage occupations and a Workfare model. The EITC and the Workfare model as implemented in the State of Wisconsin are described and analyzed. Conclusions for welfare reform in Germany are drawn.