Family Allowances Research Articles

Bringing in the third pillar: protective legislation and the welfare state

ABSTRACT Welfare state research over the past five decades has largely focused on two broad social policy pillars: (1) arrays of income programmes, such as social assistance, unemployment insurance, family allowances and pensions, and (2) a range of social services, including childcare, healthcare, social housing and education. However, an important cluster of policy measures, constituting a third policy pillar, has been largely neglected in the cross-national welfare state research to date, protective legislation. It comprises the networks of protective and regulatory laws and constitutional rights emplaced to secure and promote our welfare. Central to all social policy areas, these measures, including rent control policies, workplace health and safety laws, legislation preventing discrimination against people with disabilities and child corporal punishment bans, are distinct from laws that determine access to income programmes and social services or set out the terms of their provision. Rather, they constitute a standalone third category of policy measures, are key components of all welfare states and, depending upon how they are actualised, can be just as central to our well-being and the promotion of our welfare. They can also have compounding or synergistic interactions with policies in the other two policy pillars.

No Right to Family Life? Single Mothers and their Children in a “Mixed Economy of Welfare” in Switzerland, 1930s–1950s

In Switzerland single mothers, especially from the working class, were rarely able to support themselves and their children as a result of widespread discrimination against women in the labor market throughout the 20th century. Focusing on the case records of the social welfare of the city of Bern from the 1930s to 1950s, the article examines to what extent single mothers benefited from a ‘mixed economy of welfare’. The article points out that after the Second World War, social welfare measures were expanded with the introduction of widows’ and survivors’ insurance and the establishment of family allowances. While these new social insurance schemes undoubtedly brought improvements, the article shows that single mothers continued to experience practices of social exclusions. Especially, the combination of welfare dependency on the one hand, and guardianship measures on the other, often resulted in the out-of-home placement of the children of single mothers.

Generalization of family allowances and impact on monetary child poverty and vulnerability in the post-covid period in Morocco

ABSTRACT In this article, we evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the compensatory measures taken by the government to mitigate the consequences of this crisis on the monetary poverty and vulnerability of the Moroccan population and their children. In addition, given the urgent need to accelerate the reform of the social protection system, which has become a national priority, we evaluate the impact of the generalization of family allowances, a programme to be implemented by 2023. To do so, we use a microsimulated model applied to data from the 2019 wave of the Enquête Panel de ménages. From a punctual and distributional analysis, our results show that the measures implemented by the government, in addition to compensating for the effect of the pandemic on poverty and vulnerability, also prove to have been pro-poor. This effect is clearly reinforced by the generalization of family allowances, particularly in urban areas. The latter also appears to be a relatively inexpensive measure for Morocco, with fairly simple targeting and favourable effects on poverty and vulnerability, both for Moroccans in general and for their children.

Do social investment policies promote employment among the vulnerable? A case of single mothers

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether social investment (SI) policies improve employment among single mothers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes the potential effects of SI policies on vulnerable individuals and workers at the macro level by using the employment position of single mothers as a dependent variable. Time-series cross-national data from 18 OECD countries between 1998 and 2017 are analyzed. Multilevel model analysis is also used for robustness check.FindingsI find that public spending on education and family support is positively associated with the employment rates of single mothers. In contrast, active labor market policy (ALMP) spending is negatively associated. ALMP’s negative effects stand out particularly with public spending on job training. Of all family support policies, family allowances are positively associated with single mothers’ employment, which runs counter to the conventional argument that family allowances are a disincentive for women’s or mothers’ employment. Paid leave (length and generosity) is also associated with higher employment for single mothers. There is also some tentative evidence that public spending on maternity leave benefits (spending level) may raise the odds of single mothers being employed, when individual-level factors are controlled for in multilevel analysis we implement for robustness check.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper does not analyze the effects of the qualitative properties of SI policies. Future research is necessary in this respect.Originality/valueThe effects of SI policies on employment among single mothers have not yet been examined in the literature. This paper seeks to be a first cut at measuring the effects.

The Long-Term Impact of Brazil’s Family Allowance Program on the Education and Social Integration of Children from Low-Income Families

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the long-term impact of Brazil’s Family Allowance Program on the educational attainment and social integration of children from low-income families over a decade, from 2013 to 2023. Through a detailed analysis of peer-reviewed articles, government reports, and independent studies, this review assesses the program’s effectiveness in enhancing school attendance, completion rates, academic performance, and the broader socio-economic mobility of its beneficiaries. While highlighting the program’s significant achievements in reducing educational disparities and improving health and social outcomes, the review also identifies challenges and disparities in its impact across different regions and demographic groups. The findings suggest that, despite its successes, the program requires ongoing evaluation and adaptation to ensure equitable benefits and to address the nuanced needs of Brazil’s diverse population. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research and policy adjustments to optimize the program’s effectiveness and sustainability.

War and the adoption of family allowances

Abstract Many Western countries first introduced family allowances around the Second World War. We argue that this clustering is not coincidental and put pronatalist policies related to war preparation and the socioeconomic and demographic ramifications of the Second World War at the center of our explanation. To test this, we first conduct brief case studies of France, Germany, Italy, and Japan to detail how war preparation influenced the introduction of such family allowances. Second, a panel regression of 18 Western countries investigates the different factors contributing to the timing of introduction of such policies and shows that war and its aftershocks have been an important causal factor in the introduction of family allowances. It was not so much the destructiveness of and the involvement in the war that played a role, but rather a general wartime crisis that affected belligerent and non-belligerent countries in similar ways.

Grandparental childcare, family allowances and retirement policies

The paper uses an OLG model to study the interaction between policies designed to ensure the sustainability of the pension system, i.e. child allowances and pensions policies, and grandparental childcare. We find that the rise in grandparenting negatively affects the elderly labour supply hampering the impact of pension policies designed to raise the retirement age and lengthen working lives. Then, we introduce child allowances and find that the impact of child allowances on the fertility rate is influenced by the efficiency of grandparenting in reducing child-rearing costs. Child benefits have a positive impact on fertility only if grandparenting is not very effective at reducing childcare costs. This suggests that the role of grandparents in various countries may partly explain the inconsistency in empirical evidence on the relationship between child benefits and fertility rates. The study also finds that child benefits have a positive impact on the elderly labour supply when grandparenting is efficient.

The redistributive effect of the Hungarian flat tax and family allowance system

AbstractThe study examines the income redistribution effects of the Hungarian flat-tax and the recently introduced family allowance scheme. They were done on the basis of people's individual data for 2007, 2011 and 2020, which yields more accurate estimates than the previous studies based on aggregate or survey data. Between 2011 and 2013, progressive taxation was abolished, and a flat income tax was introduced, along with a substantial widening of pre-existing family tax allowances. We find that the tax reform has favoured high-income earners and taxpayers with children, while the main losers were low-income and/or childless workers. While the share of family tax allowances is somewhat lower for the high-income deciles, this effect is in practice negligible, therefore the income tax system can still be considered flat. The family tax allowance scheme favours wealthy families with many children over low-income families with fewer or no children. The biggest winners of the scheme are the taxpayers in the top income decile with three or more children: these 22,000 taxpayers (that is, 2% of all recipients) receive 10% of the total amount of the family tax allowance, and almost a third of the credit allocated to families with three or more children.

In-work poverty and family policy in Italy: from a frozen to a thawing landscape?

ABSTRACT The article investigates in-work poverty (IWP) in Italy through the lens of family policies. Adopting a longitudinal perspective, the work scrutinizes whether and to what extent the configuration of family policy tools – family allowances, leave and ECEC (Early Childhood Care and Education) – has been effective in contrasting IWP in Italy. Furthermore, it probes whether the Italian family policy has reconfigured over time as a tool for countering IWP. The study shows that family policy can be useful both directly – by providing income support for the most disadvantaged families – and indirectly – by fostering the transition to a dual-earner family model. However, the analysis of the Italian case shows that such positive effects are only potential, and not automatic. In Italy, historically, family policy has been scarcely effective. Nevertheless, in the last few years a pattern of slow change has initiated, and its effectiveness as a device to tackle IWP appears to have increased.

Fertility and Labor Supply Responses to Child Allowances: The Introduction of Means-Tested Benefits in France

This article examines fertility and labor supply responses to a 2014 French policy reform that consisted of conditioning the amount of child allowances on household income. Employing regression discontinuity design and French administrative income data, I find that restricting family allowance eligibility criteria decreases fertility among the richest households. The results also highlight that receiving half the amount of the allowances or none leads to an increase in both male and female labor supply through an increase in overtime work. The implied change in earned income, due to an increase in weekly working hours, is found to be comparable to the euro value reduction in benefits. Auxiliary regression analyses show that the fertility decline reflects a decrease in the probability of having an additional child for parents rather than in the probability of becoming parents for households without children.

Pengaruh Tunjangan Terhadap Kinerja Pegawai Bagian Umum Sekretariat Daerah Kabupaten Lima Puluh Kota

Regional Allowances are allowances given to civil servants and civil servants that are associated with attendance and performance assessments. The regional performance allowance is an improvement from the existing allowance and will become a specific allowance to spur performance and at the same time ensure fairness in the provision of allowances. The provision of regional performance allowances is one of the real steps taken by the regional government in order to carry out bureaucratic reform in the form of providing remuneration to employees in the regional government environment in order to create employee welfare and motivate employees to work hard in carrying out their respective duties.The General Section of the Regional Secretariat of the Regency of Fifty Cities is one of the regional apparatuses which in general are employees who work in the General Section of the Regional Secretariat of the Regency of Fifty Cities with the status as Civil Servants (PNS). Based on the Regent of Fifty Cities Regulation Number 8 of 2021 concerning Additional Income for State Civil Apparatus in the Regency Government of Fifty Cities, there are several types of income allowances, namely position allowances, family allowances, structural allowances, and performance allowances.The General Section of the Regional Secretariat of the Regency of Fifty Cities oversees 3 (three) Sub-Sections consisting of the Administrative Sub-Division of Leaders, Expert Staff and Personnel, Equipment Sub-Section, and Household Sub-Section.
 The Head of the General Section of the Regional Secretariat of the Regency of Fifty Cities informed that most employees receive performance allowances from the government under the auspices of the State Civil Service Agency. The Head of the General Section of the Regional Secretariat of the Regency of Fifty Cities further stated that the performance of the employees was quite good but there were still some employees who showed indiscipline at work such as being late for work, not attending the apple every Monday morning, or there were still many employees who came home early from working hours. the work regulations that have been made by the Fifty Cities Regency Human Resources Development Personnel Agency.

A change of direction for family policy in Italy: some reflections on the general family allowance (GFA)

We present and discuss the General Family Allowance (GFA), in Italian: Assegno Unico Universale, a measure that the Italian Government and Parliament have put in place from March 2022 addressing the persistent low fertility in Italy. The GFA modernizes monetary transfers in favor of families with children in Italy, covering large groups of families that were previously excluded from full benefits. Even if the aim of the GFA is to support fertility rather than to alleviate child poverty, it is likely that this measure will help to reduce poverty, especially for families with children previously excluded from significant cash contributions, such as recently resident foreigners and the unemployed. In addition, as GFA amounts are modest for wealthier couples, its potential effect on fertility—if there will be any—should be limited to couples with modest incomes. The GFA is also compared with the different systems of monetary transfers in favor of families with children of developed countries.

The politics of disaggregated family policy: The role of party ideology and women's political representation in governments

AbstractAlthough affluent democracies experienced family policy expansion, there are remarkable country differences. Whilst some countries focus on policies supporting the male breadwinner model such as family allowances, others prioritise gender equality supporting public childcare. We explain this variation by arguing for governments as key actors in parliamentary democracies and test two sets of explanations: party ideology and women's representation. Our error correction models covering 16 affluent parliamentary democracies between 1991 and 2015 reveal that non‐left rather than left parties matter for family policy. Secular centre and Christian‐Democratic parties promote father‐specific leave, whilst secular right parties reduce spending on childcare and family allowances as well as father‐specific leave. The share of female ministers is associated with higher childcare expenses, and instead of women's share, the gender of the family affairs minister affects father‐specific leave expansions.

When means‐testing meets work‐testing: A multi‐level institutional analysis of claiming in‐work benefits in Hong Kong

AbstractWhile there is a growing body of literature on the lived experiences of people in poverty, their interaction with the welfare delivery system at different levels is still under‐theorised. This article presents a multi‐level institutional framework to qualitatively study the low‐income families' experiences in claiming in‐work benefits (IWBs). Considering the Low‐income Working Family Allowance (LIFA) in Hong Kong as an extreme case of IWB's residualism and productivism, the findings suggest that LIFA claimants faced cycles of counter‐productive re‐assessment in their everyday frontline practices, and underwent organisational barriers in workplaces and families in collecting the proofs required by the means‐testing and work‐testing procedures. These experiences were linked to Hong Kong's macro‐systemic contexts that prioritised long working hours and strict targeting of low‐wage breadwinners. This study contributes to the literature by linking social policy implementation and welfare delivery to claiming experiences, and empirically reveals the complexities of IWBs using means‐tests and work‐tests.

Protection sociale des travailleurs du secteur informel au Cameroun : une analyse de la demande

L’objectif de cet article est d’examiner la souscription des entrepreneurs du secteur informel au système public de protection sociale au Cameroun. L’analyse porte sur un échantillon de 4598 promoteurs d’unités de production informelle (UPI), issu de la 2nde phase de la deuxième enquête sur l’emploi et le secteur informel au Cameroun (INS, 2010). En s’inspirant de la revue de la littérature économique, les résultats économétriques obtenus à l'aide de l’estimation d’un modèle probit avec biais de sélection révèlent que les entrepreneurs du secteur informel seront moins enclins à adhérer à un système public de protection sociale offrant les prestations sociales ci-après: l’assurance vieillesse, l’assurance invalidité, l’allocation familiale et l’allocation maladie professionnelle.

The US baby boom and the 1935 Social Security Act

ABSTRACT In 1935, the United States passed Social Security Act (SSA) providing financial security to American families. I use the individual census data for 1940 and 1960 to show that women from states that allowed for more social spending under the SSA had substantially more children than women from states that allowed for lower social benefits. I also use a new panel of state-level fertility by parity between 1935 and 1959 to show that family allowances were connected to first, second and third parities, but that there was a differential effect according to the different social programs and race.

Belgian family policy from a comparative perspective: does it support fertility and gender equity?

The aim of this article is to compare the Belgian family policy to policies in other countries within the so-called conservative welfare state regime group, namely, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and to the policy applied in one country that has adopted a social-democratic model, i.e., Sweden. Based on previous studies, we aim to identify strengths and weaknesses according to two criteria: efficacy in promoting fertility and promoting gender equity, the latter being understood as mothers’ involvement in the labour market and fathers’ involvement in care. We maintain that the Belgian family policy presents several features that have the potential to positively affect fertility. Such positive features mainly pertain to family allowances and birth premiums, together with enrolment rates for children under three years of age (albeit with worrisome, low public spending on childcare). However, other aspects of the Belgian policy are more critical for gender equity. Such aspects include the remuneration of parental leave and time credit, a lack of radical reforms to support fathers’ involvement, and regional disparities in several family policy measures. Counterintuitively, short durations for maternity leave and parental leave might also negatively affect gender equity.

Equality in inequality: social benefits for North African Muslim soldiers in the French Army during the Great War (1914–1918)

ABSTRACT In 1914–1918, almost 300,000 indigenous people were mobilised in North Africa to fight in France. In November 1915, the Minister of War proposed granting them French citizenship. His initiative favoured an influx of soldiers into the army and sparked heated discussions about modifying the colonial policy, which was based on unequal access of French and the native population to political rights. The colonial party eventually blocked the proposal as going too far. Consequently, the policy to provide indigenous soldiers with social benefits on an equal footing with the French was adopted to ensure a steady flow of volunteers to the French Army. This article attempts to give a comprehensive presentation of the issue of social benefits as a policy aimed at increasing recruitment, reducing public discontent and preserving the colonial order. This policy proved effective but equalising daily pay, premiums, family allowances, indemnity and compensation for indigènes spurred on the emancipation of indigenous peoples and eroded the colonial policy.

Eksistensi Pegawai Pemerintah Dengan Perjanjian Kerja Ditinjau dari Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 49 Tahun 2018

Bureaucratic reform is significant for the achievement of development and excellent public services. At this time, the government issued a policy to abolish the honorary system and replace it with government employees under a work agreement (PPPK). The presence of PPPK as a civil servant (ASN) is to increase employee resources professionally and competently so that they can keep up with the times and apply various technology applications. PPPK is also entitled to a salary and several allowances as regulated in Article 4 Section 2 of Presidential Regulation Number 98 of 2020 concerning First Personnel Salaries and Allowances. Its states that the PPPK allowance consists of: a. family allowance; b. food allowance; c. structural position allowance; d. functional position allowance; or e. other allowances.

Economic Wellbeing of Farming Households before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Nigeria

The COVID-19 pandemic breakout affected every population and the agricultural sector in Nigeria was not spared from the pandemic. This was due to restrictions on mobility, interaction of people and reduced purchasing power of people. The demand and supply of the agricultural produce internally and externally were affected due to the measures adopted to contain the spread of the virus. Farmers were finding it difficult to obtain farm inputs like seedlings, fertilizers, herbicides etc. The pandemic caused the abundance and availability of these products, making it difficult for farmers to make profit. The paper examined the economic wellbeing of 400 smallholder farmers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using descriptive statistics and regression. The result from the research indicated that COVID-19 had a positive relationship with monthly farm expenditure, monthly food expenditure, monthly utility expenditure, number of farm visits, cost of fertilizer, number of food consumption per day, quantity of produce harvested, number of farm land cultivated and number of days spent on the farm. Monthly health expenditure, family allowances and cost of transportation were negatively related with the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, there was a significant difference between the economic wellbeing of farming household before and during the covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria.