Cash Allowances Research Articles

Significance of Motivation on Employee Optimal Performance: A Study of Amendu Manufacturing Industry in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, South Africa

The objective of this study was to investigate the significance of motivation on employee optimal performance in Amendu manufacturing industry in Eastern Cape, South Africa. To achieve this objective, quantitative research method was employed to test the hypothesized model formulated in the study. Inferential analysis was conducted using SmartPLS, while structural equation modeling was used to test and evaluate multivariate causal relationships among the variables. The empirical findings revealed that after testing the formulated model, it was ascertained that there is a significant positive impact of financial motivation, which include salary increase, cash allowance, bonus, retirement benefit on employee’s optimal performance. Similarly, non-financial motivations such as position promotion, award for recognition, training and development, involvement in decision making, were also ascertained to have significant positive impact on employee’s optimal performance in Amendu manufacturing industry. Previous literature was also found to have an agreement that many employees agreed award of recognition can stimulates employees to perform optimally in their job deliverables. It was recommended that organisations such as Amendu manufacturing industry should employ both financial and non- financial motivations to enhance employee optimal performance. 
 
 Received: 10 April 2023 / Accepted: 13 July 2023 / Published: 5 September 2023

Socio economic challenges and coping strategies against COVID-19 among dentists of Nepal

Introduction: COVID-19 has posed various challenges to health care professionals including dentists. We aimed to study financial impact, socio- economic challenges, coping strategies and areas where dentists of Nepal require support during the current pandemic.
 Method: A descriptive study was conducted among registered dentists who were currently involved in clinical practice in Nepal. Data was collected via semi-structured online google form during the period of August – October 2020 through non-probability sampling. The online responses from google forms were transformed to datasheets which were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and summarized using descriptive statistics.
 Result: More than a quarter (127, 29.8%) of the dentists were not able to practice dentistry during the pandemic. Among the salaried dentists, 113 (34.2%) of them did not receive any salary and 67 (15.7%) lost their jobs. More than 50% percent of decline in monthly income was experienced by 80 (18.7%). The most common challenge faced by the dentists was reduced income (95.2%) followed by access to PPE and sanitizers (72.9%). Social distancing was the most common (87.2%) coping strategy followed by strict use of PPE (86.9%), acquiring correct information regarding prevention of COVID-19 (76.8%). Provision of PPE was the area where 147 dentists needed the most support (36.4%) followed by cash allowance (31.7%) and rent waiver (28.4%).
 Conclusion: The study showed that dentists in Nepal are facing serious financial challenges due to the current pandemic. The current study highlights a need to create a support system for dentists to sustain their clinical practice during the pandemic.

Relationship between Allowances and Performance of Civil Servants: A Case of President's Office – Constitution, Legal Affairs, Public Service and Good Governance in Zanzibar

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between allowances and the performance of civil servants: a case of president's office – constitution, legal affairs, public service, and good governance in Zanzibar. The study used Case Study Design which involved a quantitative research approach. A sample size of 120 respondents was used, and a questionnaire collected the data that were used in compiling the results. The study revealed that there is a positive relationship between cash allowance, saving overtime allowance, house rent allowance, and performance of civil servants of the President's Office – Constitution, Legal Affairs, Public Service, and Good Governance in Zanzibar. The study concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between cash allowance, overtime allowance, and house allowance and the performance of civil servants of the President's Office – Constitution, Legal Affairs, Public Service, and Good Governance in Zanzibar. The study recommended that the government of Zanzibar should increase cash allowance, overtime allowance, and house allowance and even offer other allowances since allowances have a strong relationship with the performance of civil servants.

Repatriation of South Sudanese refugees from the West Nile districts, Uganda. What do we learn from the process?

Repatriation is a fundamental and often preferred solution to the refugee crisis around the world. This study explored the process of repatriation of the South Sudanese refugees from the West Nile districts in Uganda. This was a retrospective analysis of the process of repatriation of refugees in three west Nile refugee districts of Adjumani, Arua, and Moyo, Uganda. Both qualitative and qualitative data were collected. The findings showed that several stakeholders were involved in the repatriation exercise including the government at central and district levels, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, and refugee communities. The key steps undertaken during repatriation include information and education campaigns to promote returns focussing on security and socio-economic conditions in South Sudan and the facilitation of confidence-building visits in the areas of origin. During the repatriation exercise, key interventions provided included health care screening and treatment, and the provision of reintegration support services including the provision of food security items and cash allowances. The findings highlight the fundamental steps followed during a well-planned, structured, and effective repatriation of South Sudanese refugees from Uganda. Understanding repatriation requires an appreciation of how it is implemented to support offering an effective, durable, and lasting solution to refugees to promote their health and welfare.

Barriers and facilitators to accessing tuberculosis care in Nepal: a qualitative study to inform the design of a socioeconomic support intervention

ObjectivePsychosocial and economic (socioeconomic) barriers, including poverty, stigma and catastrophic costs, impede access to tuberculosis (TB) services in low-income countries. We aimed to characterise the socioeconomic barriers and facilitators of...

The “problem” of the urban refugee: the African refugee regime and the Joint Refugee Services of Kenya, 1967–1982

ABSTRACT This article examines a short era in which the category of the African “urban refugee” garnered special attention from governments and non-governmental organizations. In the late 1960s, those dealing with refugee issues began to perceive urban refugees as posing a unique set of problems, ones that required intervention by specialized professionals. This shift in thinking came to fruition with the Joint Refugee Services of Kenya (JRSK). For the first few years of the 1970s, JRSK staff (including trained social workers) provided sympathetic and individualized attention to refugees in Nairobi. Yet top-level management harbored a suspicion that refugees might become dependent and morally weak through cash allowances, while from the mid-1970s some lower level staff took advantage of refugees, and the number of refugees increased while JRSK resources stagnated. By the mid-1980s, the JRSK had been disbanded and the vision of special, individualized programs for urban refugees had been forgotten.

Work-Family Reconciliation and Children's Well-Being Disparities across OECD Countries.

Socioeconomic inequalities in health and well-being are large, beginning early in childhood and accumulating over the life course, but they also vary widely across rich developed nations. Despite this well-known cross-national variation, research has yet to examine why children's health disparities might be larger or smaller based on national policy contexts and macroeconomic conditions. Parental health and well-being suffer under high work-family or economic strain, which may directly impact children's health inequalities by family social class. These childhood health disadvantages, if not substantially improved, compound to even larger adult inequalities. To examine the role of national work-family reconciliation in children's health, we merge country-level policy data with 2006 and 2010 World Health Organization child-level data on mental and physical well-being and family economic disadvantage. Based on adjusted estimates, we find greatly narrowed disparities in children's self-rated health as work flexibility and vacation-sick leave mandates become more generous. However, cash transfer policies including family benefits spending and childcare costs were not associated with the size of children's health disparities. Taken together, our results suggest the distinctive value of better work-family accommodations, rather than any generic cash allowances, for lessening family-based inequalities in children's health and human capital development.

Private Long-Term Care Insurance Decision: The Role of Income, Risk Propensity, Personality, and Life Experience.

The rising aging population contributes to increased caregiver burden and a greater need for long-term care services, thereby posing stronger financial burden. The current study aimed to examine the effect of income, risk-taking propensity, personality traits, and life experience on the ownership of and intention to own private long-term care insurance (LTCI). Primary data were collected from 1373 registered nurses with a minimum of two years of full-time working experience. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the relationships between ownership of LTCI and personal discretionary income, risk propensity, openness to experience, and life experience. Personal discretionary income was a crucial positive indicator in predicting ownership of LTCI. Higher risk-taking propensity was found to be negatively related to both currently own and future intention to own private LTCI. Participants who currently live with elders and who agree to caregiving responsibilities with government-provided cash allowance showed future intention to purchase LTCI. Little evidence was found for an association between life experience and future intention to own LTCI. Income, risk-taking propensity, and personality traits differ in their impact on ownership of and future intention to own LTCI. Our results provide policy makers with a better understanding of the forces driving demand in the private LTCI market, as well as the accompanying implications for public LTCI.

Poverty during Covid-19 in North Macedonia: Analysis of the distributional impact of the crisis and government response

In this paper, we simulate the poverty effect of the Covid-19 pandemic in North Macedonia and we analyze the income-saving power of three key government measures: the employment-retention scheme, the relaxed Guaranteed Minimum Income support, and one-off cash allowances. In this attempt, the counterfactual scenarios are simulated using MK-MOD, the Macedonian Tax and Benefit Microsimulation Model, incorporating actual data on the shock’s magnitude from the second quarter of 2020. The results suggest that without the government interventions, of the country’s two million citizens, an additional 120,000 people would have been pushed into poverty by COVID-19, where 340,000 were already poor before the pandemic. Of the 120,000 newly poor, about 16,000 would have been pushed into destitute poverty. The government’s automatic stabilizers worked to shield the poorest people, though these were clearly pro-feminine. In all, the analyzed government measures recovered more than half of the income loss, which curbed the poverty-increasing effect and pulled an additional 34,000 people out of extreme poverty. The employment-retention measure was regressive and pro-masculine; the Guaranteed Minimum Income relaxation (including automatic stabilizers) was progressive and pro-feminine, and the one-off support has been pro-youth.

The Challenge of Sustaining Long-term Care in Aging Societies: Lessons From Japan and Spain Comment on "Financing Long-term Care: Lessons From Japan".

This article compares the provision of long-term care (LTC) in Japan and Spain, two countries with similar demographic structures but which address the provision of LTCs in very different ways. Both countries provide universal LTC. However, Japan has developed a generous benefit package of formal services for dependents to alleviate the care burden on the family, but provides no cash benefits. In Spain, on the other hand, cash allowances are the norm rather than the exception in the practical implementation of LTC services. After discussing the necessary delineation of LTC in response to future sociodemographic challenges, we discuss LTC system characteristics and the recent cost containment reforms implemented in Japan and Spain. Finally, we consider the lessons that may be drawn from each country’s experience and the reforms that must be undertaken in order ensure the sustainability of LTC provision in other countries with incipient or more developed LTC systems. In addition, since Japan and Spain are both faced with challenging demographic projections, it is important for each country to learn from the other’s initiatives and reforms.

Amicus Curiae Brief of Tax Law Professors in Support of Appellees

Section 107 allows “ministers of the gospel” to exclude the value of housing benefits from income, whether provided in-kind or as a cash allowance, at a cost of approximately $9.3 billion in forgone taxes over a ten-year window. The trial court dismissed the challenge to Section 107(1), which excludes in-kind housing, on standing grounds, but that section remains relevant to the analysis of Section 107(2). Supporters argue that Section 107(2), which excludes cash allowances, comports with the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause because (1) it is part of a broad policy expressed in a number of provisions that exempts housing provided for the convenience of the employer and (2) tax exemptions do not subsidize religious actors. Alternately, they argue that Section 107(2) is permitted as an accommodation for religion because it equalizes treatment of different religious groups and avoids church/state entanglement. Finally, they claim that eliminating Section 107(2) would imperil other exemptions. Section 107 is a tax provision, and understanding how it functions within the Tax Code and differs from other facially similar provisions is critical to the constitutional analysis. Amici make four points. First, Section 107(2) differs significantly from other tax provisions that exempt housing from income and is not part of a broad housing policy that naturally includes ministers. Second, Section 107(2) subsidizes ministers, as reflected in both court decisions and the government’s own admissions. Third, Section 107(2) is not an appropriate accommodation for religion because it (1) disregards important differences in ministerial income that warrant different tax treatment, and (2) creates significantly more church/state entanglement than would the generally applicable rule. Finally, finding Section 107(2) unconstitutional would not imperil other exemptions.

Australia's Company Tax: Options for Fiscally Sustainable Reform, Updated Post Trump

The Australian Government proposes to reduce the company tax rate from 30 to 25 per cent. However, there are widespread concerns that the fiscal cost is not affordable. This paper considers alternative reforms of corporate taxation that could fund a corporate tax rate cut. We address key non-neutralities in the corporate tax system and consider key international developments, including the enactment of the Trump tax plan in the United States, which lowers the US corporate tax rate to 21%. We examine the case for abolition of dividend imputation in favour of a lower headline company tax rate and consider the spectrum of reform options for the corporate tax base, which ranges from the cash flow tax and allowance for corporate equity or capital to a comprehensive business income tax which would eliminate interest deductibility. These measures (which could co-exist in a hybrid system) might be accompanied by discounts on dividend and interest income at the personal level, in replacement of dividend imputation.

Family policy in high-income countries: Five decades of development

This article empirically traces trends in family policy in 23 high-income countries since the 1960s. A range of data on income supports for families with children, family-related leave and early childhood education and care are brought together and analysed. The results show that family policy has developed by layering, in terms of both content and time period. A ‘foundational phase’ is characterised by investment in cash and tax allowances for families and employment leave for mothers, while a ‘consolidation phase’ sees states adding to their family policy portfolio, especially through the diversification of family-related leave and augmentation of child-related care services, increasing their overall family policy expenditure and continuing to support families financially but with a preference to direct this through the tax system. There is no inexorable development path though, either within or across countries. A layering development pattern suggests that analysis of family policy over time needs to be oriented to examining both continuity and change and, as the conclusion makes clear, there are many fruitful lines of further research.

THE ROAD TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND LABOUR WELFARE THROUGH THE EMPLOYEE’S STATE INSURANCE ACT, 1948 AND JUDICIAL CONTRIBUTION

The Employees State Insurances Act, 1948 is social welfare legislation aimed at ensuring certain benefits to all covered employees (medical care and cash allowance during sickness, maternity and employment injury, pension for dependents on the death of the worker due to employment injury, and funeral benefit towards the expenditure on the funeral of an insured person), the benefits are provided through dispensaries and hospitals set up by the Employees State Insurance Corporation. The Act provides a scheme under which the employer and the employee must contribute a certain percentages of the monthly wage to the Insurance Corporation that runs dispensaries and hospitals in working class localities.

The Parsonage Exemption

The parsonage exemption allows “ministers of the gospel” to exclude the value of housing benefits from income, whether received in-kind or as a cash allowance. Critics argue that the provision violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, while supporters contend that it does not single religion out for a cognizable benefit. Alternately, supporters claim that is a permissible accommodation for religion under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. This Article fills an important gap in the debate by offering a nuanced explanation of how the parsonage exemption and other housing provisions function within the tax code. Placing the exemption in its proper context makes clear that the parsonage exemption (1) operates as a unique subsidy for religious actors, (2) involves significantly more church-state entanglement than would its elimination; (3) violates core tax principles of horizontal and vertical equity; and (4) differs significantly from other exemptions for religious actors.

Distributional impacts of cash allowances for children: A microsimulation analysis for Russia and Europe

This article analyses programmes of cash allowances for children and compares their effectiveness in combating child poverty in Russia and four European Union (EU) countries representing alternative family policy models – Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Using microsimulation models, this article estimates the potential gains if the Russian system were re-designed along the policy parameters of these countries and vice versa. The results confirm that the poverty impact of the programme design is smaller than that of the level of spending. Other conditions being equal, the best distributional outcomes for children are achieved by applying the mix of universal and means-tested child benefits, such as those employed by the United Kingdom and Belgium. At the same time, the Russian design of child allowances does not appear to be less effective in terms of its impact on child poverty when transferred to European countries in place of their current arrangements.

Divorce and Age of Marriage: Evidence from China's Heating Policy

We exploit China’s heating policy to identify the effects of the age of marriage on divorce. From the mid-1950s, the Chinese government provided cash allowances and free/subsidized coal or free/subsidized central heating to urban residents north of the Huai River but not to people who lived in rural areas or south of the river. We find that the heating policy is associated with the age of marriage being 7 months lower in the north than the south. By contrast, there is no north-south difference in age of marriage among rural people. Applying instrumental variables estimation, with the heating policy as an instrument for the age of marriage, we estimate that if the age of marriage is 7 months lower in the north, then the rate of divorce would be about 0.5 percentage points lower, which is almost the entire north-south difference in the divorce rate or about one-third of the average divorce rate of about 1.6 percent in the south. Our findings contrast with research showing that, among Americans, divorce declines with the age of marriage up to the late 20s. We find some evidence suggesting that the lower divorce rate is due to post-marital adaptive socialization.

Is cash allowance a way to ease child care burden? Views of carers in Hong Kong

Caring for the carers is not only a policy challenge for the government but also a global concern to achieve gender equality by restructuring welfare for care. Paying informal carers is one of the measures that address their needs, which is being practiced in Western countries for more than 10 years now. Financial support for care does not only value the contribution of carers but also compensate for the loss of carers caused by unpaid care duties. However, cash for care is a complex issue because it is located within a number of different policy domains that may be considered controversial. This study discusses the views of carers on cash allowance and identifies issues affecting the support provided to the informal care system in Hong Kong. The discussion is based on the findings from the focus group interviews with 11 groups of carers with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Social Welfare Expenditures and Infant Mortality

This study examines the effects of social welfare expenditures on infant mortality (deaths younger than age 1 per 1,000 live births) across 19 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1980 to 2010. Data are obtained from various sources including the OECD, World Health Organization, and World Bank. The findings indicate that among three social welfare expenditure measures for families, the expenditures on family cash allowances are predicted to reduce infant mortality. However, the other two measures—the expenditures on parental and maternity leave and expenditures on family services—have no significant effects on infant mortality.

Health allowance for improving the nutritional status and development of 3-5-year-old left-behind children in poor rural areas of China: study protocol for a cluster randomised trial.

BackgroundLeft-behind children (LBC) are recognised as a new social group in China. LBC are young children who are abandoned in rural villages whilst their parents travel to distant urban centres for employment (a new generation of migrant workers). Following the rapid growth in the number of migrant workers, the LBC population is also rapidly increasing. These children are usually left to be raised by elderly grandparents, a single parent, or sometimes distant relatives or neighbours who have limited resources, tend to have a poor education and sometimes are in frail health. Over 40 % of the 61 million LBC in China who are under 5 years old are undernourished, which affects their long-term health and abilities. An intervention that combines a conditional cash transfer (CCT) with nutrition education offers a potential solution.Methods/DesignA cluster randomised controlled trial design will be used to allocate 40 villages to the intervention arm (20 villages) or control arm (20 villages). The caregivers and all of the 3–5-year-old LBC will be the target population. Caregivers in the intervention arm will receive a cash allowance conditional on attending nutrition education sessions, ensuring that the LBC will use basic public health services over a 12-month period. At the baseline, midterm (month 6) and end (month 12) of the intervention period, evaluations will be conducted in all 40 villages. Multilevel generalised linear models will be used to analyse the impact of the intervention on nutrition status and other outcomes, adjusting for baseline levels using an analysis of covariance approach. The cost of the intervention will also be estimated.DiscussionIf found to be cost-effective, the findings will inform the development of a sustainable model to improve nutrition status among LBC in rural areas of China.Trial registrationChinese Trial Register (ChiCTR) identifier: CTXY-140003-2. Registered on 19 Aug 2014.