Benefit Recipients Research Articles

The Effect of Unemployment Benefit Generosity on Unemployment Duration: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Slovenia

The paper analyses the effects of a 2011 increase in the unemployment benefit replacement rate on the job-finding rate of Slovenian benefit recipients. Using registry data on the universe of Slovenian unemployment benefit recipients, we exploit legislative changes that selectively increased the replacement rates for certain groups of workers while leaving them unchanged for others. Applying this quasi-experimental approach, we find that increasing the replacement rate significantly decreases the hazard rate of the transition from unemployment to employment, with an implied elasticity of the hazard rate with respect to benefit replacement rate being 0.7 to 0.9. The results also show that increase of the unemployment benefit replacement rate does not affect the job-finding probability of jobseekers whose reason for unemployment is employer exit, and that the effects of the increase of replacement rate are present only upon exit to employment and not to inactivity.

Smoking among recipients of public assistance benefits from N city, and their recognition of smoking cessation therapy

Smoking among recipients of public assistance benefits from N city, and their recognition of smoking cessation therapy

Neutralisation, cumul intégral : amortisseurs des trajectoires des allocataires du RSA

Neutralisation, full accumulation : corrective measures for the paths taken by RSA benefit recipients There are two corrective mechanisms integral to the RSA (revenu de solidarité active – earned income supplement in France) for the support of benefit recipients undergoing a shift in career : full accumulation, during successful transitions to employment, and neutralisation, after the loss of a means-based professional income. The article aims to provide the information to allow the understanding of these barely studied mechanisms, firstly through the in-depth analysis of their operation then by means of a counting and statistical description of the public in question. Over a given month, 15% of RSA recipients benefit from these two mechanisms. The mechanisms tend to grant a higher amount of RSA to working people whose career paths are the most discontinuous (with equal received income), in a context whereby the increasing division of the employment market into short periods is affecting in particular the public receiving RSA benefits.

Treating benefit recipients badly

Treating benefit recipients badly

Becoming incapacitated? Long-term sickness benefit recipients and the construction of stigma and identity narratives.

The transition to becoming 'incapacitated' and receiving sickness benefits represents a significant shift in an individual's narrative. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 long-term sickness benefits recipients in North-East England, this article focuses upon how individuals perceived and managed becoming 'incapacitated', particularly in relation to stigma and identity. The findings show that participants negotiated changes to their identity in varying ways - constructing new dimensions of self, validating their illness and pursuing aspirations. Importantly, the transition onto sickness benefits does not inevitably result in a shift to a negative identity. The term incapacity can include many realities, challenging the notion of sickness benefit recipients as being passively dependent. Instead, an active, sometimes very functional sense of self can be accompanied by a positive identity for recipients, which is especially important, in a context of the rhetoric surrounding ongoing welfare reform and sickness benefits recipients in the UK.

Front-Loading the Payment of Unemployment Benefits

We study the effects of front-loading the payment of unemployment benefits in an equilibrium matching framework with precautionary savings. Front-loading the benefit system trades off fewer means to smooth consumption at long unemployment durations for improved insurance upon job loss. In the United States where jobless spells are typically frequent but short, we find that front-loading the benefit system yields significant welfare gains for new benefit recipients. The gains are lower in the aggregate, but are not completely offset by general equilibrium effects. Comparison with a search effort model shows that the welfare figures are not specific to matching frictions.

Does Welfare Conditionality Reduce Democratic Participation?

The past 20 years have witnessed a shift to work-based welfare conditionality within the advanced welfare states, as access to social benefits are increasingly predicated on individuals agreeing to behavioral conditions related to participation in the labor market. Existing literature on the political consequences of this shift offers contradictory expectations. While new paternalists claim that it should increase political participation among benefit recipients, others argue that it has a depressive effect. The majority of existing studies rely on cross-sectional analyses, which leaves them open to charges of selection bias. Utilizing multiple longitudinal research designs, this article finds that conditionality has a depressive effect on patterns of democratic engagement. Welfare conditionality reduces political and civic participation, political interest and efficacy, and personal efficacy. In disaggregating conditionality’s effects across two client groups, the article finds largely positive effects among recipients of the contributory disability benefit but negative effects among means-tested recipients of the lone parent benefit.

Studying the Study: Reflections on Exploring the Health and Disability Narratives of Long-Term Sickness Benefits Recipients in the UK

Researching sensitive topics such as sickness and disability can encompass a wide range of demands that must be continually negotiated throughout the research process by both the researcher and research participants. Therefore, a studying the study approach is important when exploring the quality and ethical practice in qualitative research on sensitive issues with vulnerable populations. This becomes especially important within a UK context when considering the negative discourse surrounding the sickness benefits process in the UK. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews with 25 long-term sick and disabled benefits recipients in the UK, the study sought to uncover the health and illness narratives of long-term sickness benefits recipients. Within the presentation of methods that were used, a discussion of the methods used in conducting a “study of the study” are considered, providing an illustration of how to do this and what to do with the results of such a reflective piece. The challenges of doing such research are outlined, and the need for a reflective process surrounding the research process is emphasised. Finally, the approach of studying the study is an example of an illustration of how to adopt this approach when considering qualitative research with hard to reach groups.

How Benefits Recipients Perceive Themselves through the Lens of the Mass Media - Some Observations from Germany

Dominant cultural representations of ‘the typical benefits recipient’ – notably in reality television and the tabloids – have been marked by an increasing focus on the character and alleged moral defects of individuals. Drawing on interviews from a large-scale German qualitative longitudinal study, this article explores how benefits recipients respond to such negative media images. Our analysis of interviewees’ ‘identity work’ finds that they have internalised and replicate negative public discourses to a surprising extent. The figure of the ‘typical’ benefits recipient constructed in the media emerges as both a threat to recipients’ self-identities, and as a central reference point in the strategies through which they attempt to defend their respectability. The article concludes with some thoughts on the relationship between such negative representations and the political legitimacy of welfare reform.

Konsummuster und Konsumarmut von SGB-II-Leistungsempfängern. Eine Untersuchung auf Basis der Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe

Abstract Despite the importance of consumption patterns for setting benefit levels, up until now, knowledge on consumption of those receiving unemployment benefit II, the means-tested basic security payment in Germany, is rather restricted. To close this gap, we analyze the amount and structure of benefit recipients’ consumption spending as well as consumption poverty. We can show that those unable to draw on resources besides benefit payments have to restrict their private consumption and face a higher risk of being consumption-poor. One advantage of using consumption data is the fact that by doing so one is able to identify the domains in which material restrictions have the strongest effect. What we can see from our analyses is that restrictions are rather moderate for goods covering basic needs, like food, clothes, or accommodation. In return, they are much more significant in the domain of social and cultural participation. The reason for this appears to be that recipients concentrate their resources...

Comfort in Numbers? Social Integration and Political Participation among Disability Benefit Recipients in Norway

There are growing concerns both in academic and political debates that the provision of cash transfers to people in economically active age groups does not support and might even undermine active social citizenship. In this article we study the social integration and political participation of disability benefit recipients in Norway. We anticipate that disability benefit recipients are less likely than others to participate in social and political arenas, but postulate that the degree of their social and political marginalisation depends on contextual factors. In particular we expect that the presence of a large proportion of disability benefit recipients in the local area where the individual disability benefit recipient lives will make it less likely that they will be marginalised in terms of social networks; we anticipate that this positive network effect will also spill over into participation in voluntary organisations and the propensity to vote in national elections. Analysing Norwegian survey-data, we find that disability benefit recipients are somewhat marginalised both socially and in terms of participation in voluntary organisations. In municipalities with a high proportion of disability benefit recipients, individuals belonging to this group are more likely to have close friends, but this beneficial contextual effect is not found to spill over into increased organisational and political participation.

The Columbia River Treaty and the Dynamics of Transboundary Water Negotiations in a Changing Environment: How Might Climate Change Alter the Game?

Review of the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada presents an opportunity to consider how governance might be made more adaptive in the face of climate change while maintaining an appropriate level of stability. Climate change scenarios applied to the Columbia River Basin predict an increasing water deficit due primarily to change in timing of runoff and increased demand as the result of warming. Current uses that will suffer the most from change in timing of runoff are those dependent on late summer flow – fish and farmers. The intersection of climate change with normal climate variability also suggests greater extremes that will require planning for both drought and flood beyond the historic recurrence and magnitude. A problem-solving approach to bridge the gap between the status quo and a modernized system must be combined with new approaches to governance that are both more flexible and more responsive to change if the basin is to navigate the future. This challenges not only the conventional wisdom that regulatory stability is essential to economic stability and achievement of societal goals, but the existing distribution of benefits among powerful players in the basin. Yet the goals of even the current recipients of benefits will not be met if a rigid approach is maintained as climate change unfolds. Adaptive water governance requires attention to institutional structure, introduction of adaptive authority and local participatory capacity including knowledge building, and process design that balances stability with flexibility. Models for implementation of these factors are found in international law and provide a pathway to adaptation to climate change through a modernized transboundary water agreement on the Columbia River.

Motivated for employment? A qualitative study of benefit recipients

BackgroundThe UK Government's objective to reduce the rate of incapacity benefit receipt has been addressed with large-scale welfare reform, permeated with rhetoric around recipients' motivation. However, there is limited evidence about what determines motivation for employment or what distinguishes people who are motivated from those who are unmotivated; we aimed to explore this question to highlight areas to best direct support. MethodsParticipants were recruited from general practices with high levels of incapacity benefit receipt in Glasgow, UK. All long-term (>2 years) recipients of this benefit were identified from patient lists, and recruitment aimed to provide a diverse sample (eg, in terms of health condition, age, length of benefit receipt). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 recipients and digitally recorded. Framework analysis was used as a systematic and transparent thematic-analysis method, with matrices produced to compare the occurrence of themes across participants. Themes were identified from transcripts and then refined. Ethics approval was obtained from NHS West of Scotland Research Ethics Committee (10/S0709/46). FindingsParticipants' preference was to be employed. However, motivation for employment was multifaceted; it was not based solely on preference, but involved opportunity, capacity, social circumstance, work-role centrality, and existence of alternative options. Many participants had a complex build-up of health and social issues throughout their lives that culminated in their current situation and affected their motivation. Others had seemingly more straightforward situations in that their health stopped them from working. Nonetheless, all had multiple interacting barriers to return to paid employment, and motivation was affected by wider labour-market and social-context issues. InterpretationStipulations placed on incapacity benefit recipients fail to recognise the range of employment barriers they face. Previous research has considered motivation as an individual issue; here we argue that motivation can be a problem, but largely beyond individual control. Policies to tackle motivation should not solely be aimed at individual incapacity benefit recipients: the improvement of motivation for employment requires an improvement in the capacity, opportunity, and social context required to become employed. A diverse sample was achieved in terms of participant characteristics. Glasgow has poor health compared with wider UK populations, though barriers to employment were similar when compared with other studies; broad themes are likely to be comparable across populations. FundingThe Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government (grant number: DTF/09/14) funded the research as part of KS's doctoral training.

Citizen–Auditors and Visible Subjects: Mi Familia Progresa and Transparency Politics in Guatemala

This article analyzes the politics of transparency in Guatemala through the lens of Mi Familia Progresa, a state social program in the Guatemalan highlands that is based on the conditional cash transfer model of poverty alleviation, implemented between 2008 and 2012 under the administration of President Alvaro Colom. I argue that concepts of transparency and audit that permeate national‐level political discourse in Guatemala work to create dual classes of citizens: taxpayers who have the right and responsibility to audit social programs, and recipients of state benefits who are viewed as legitimate objects of public scrutiny. Through combined analysis of political discourse and ethnographic research on Mi Familia Progresa, this article provides a view into how the terms of these emerging forms of citizenship are negotiated and with what results for those Guatemalans who rely on Mi Familia Progresa to meet their day‐to‐day needs. This article concludes that efforts to make state social programs transparent, while often portrayed as empowering and democratic, actually work to reinforce long‐standing forms of exclusionary citizenship. At the same time, a dominant focus on transparency works to obscure critical questions related to the efficacy of state social programs in addressing issues of poverty and inequality.

BRAZIL'S SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM: PROSPECTIVE TRAJECTORY AND REFORM ALTERNATIVES

SUMMARYThis article assesses the current status of Brazil's Social Security System in terms of the social and economic development of the Brazilian population it is intended to serve. It starts with a historical overview of the system. Data from a household survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio) is used to describe the workforce and its relationship with the social security system. The years 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012 were chosen to give a series of pictures of the Brazilian population at equal intervals but under different legal circumstances with respect to the implementation of social security legislation. Data with regard to beneficiaries and the corresponding expenditures and revenues of the system are also shown. The situation presented is rather bleak considering that, since 1997, expenditure on benefits has consistently surpassed revenues based on payrolls. Some alternative reform options (parametric in nature) are evaluated using simulations. These simulations show that the alternative of postponing the eligibility age would have the greatest positive effect on balancing the books, especially when using 65 years as the minimum pensionable age. This would be the equivalent of eliminating “seniority retirement.” Age testing is also effective for the recipients of survivor's benefit. Eliminating multiple benefits, though not impressive in terms of numbers, is progressive in nature and, therefore, an alternative to be considered. Dissociating the minimum wage from the minimum benefit would have a much larger impact in the long run, but the measure is highly unpopular and would most probably not be approved if proposed by the Government. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Policing Norwegian Welfare: Disciplining and Differentiating within the Bottom Rungs

Policing is a disciplining means for using welfare services to govern welfare recipients towards a desired behaviour or goal. We apply Foucault’s (1977) definition of institutional discipline as a means for exploring how the distinctions made by state and local welfare authorities in Norway when policing recipients may take shape according to normative perceptions of ethnicity and deservingness. More particularly, we explore the regulating understandings and activities linked to the inclusion and exclusion of eligibility to welfare benefits and services and the form of the services offered. Our focus lies at the point of entry from the lowest tier of Norwegian welfare benefits (social assistance) into two semi-parallel and higher tiers promising more (higher benefits, better services). The tiers are represented by programmes that share aims, yet differ in reach: the 2004 Introduction Programme and the 2007 Qualification Programme. The Introduction Programme is an activation programme targeted at immigrants and refugees newly arrived to Norway. Its aim is to strengthen opportunities to participate in society and labour market, as well as to promote economic independence. The Qualification Programme is an activation programme that was explicitly modelled after the Introduction Programme, yet whose target group reaches more broadly to include long-term recipients of social assistance and those whose work ability is severely lowered. While both programmes have been premised on the need to transform participants from a status of passive welfare benefit recipients to active participants in qualifying measures and society, the target groups vary and it is this contrast that is our point of focus. We contrast the two policies at two ‘moments’ in the policy cycle: (1) policy framing (public and policymaker understandings/assumptions concerning the target group, the location of accountability for the marginal position of the policy recipient and the policy’s political/social goals); and (2) the shaping and formative structure of these policies (how the relevant policies came into existence and what they look like).

Iatrogenic Violence? Lived Experiences of Recipients of Aid that Targets Vulnerable Children in Makete, Tanzania

Humanitarian aid does not always achieve its intended outcomes but may have unintended side-effects which harm rather than help recipient communities in the long run. In the context of aid, iatrogenic violence refers to circumstances where aid intended to benefit recipients instead causes social disruption. The relations between donor and recipient contribute significantly to the outcomes of aid. This article aims to explore the recipient side of donor–recipient relationships in humanitarian aid targeting children affected by HIV/AIDS in Makete, Tanzania. Specific objectives include exploring (i) the lived experiences of the children who are targeted by the aid, (ii) the lived experiences of related caregivers and community members and (iii) the responses of local leaders, both non-governmental organisation (NGO) officers and local government leaders. Forty-one orphaned children aged 9–18 were involved in 3 one-hour-long participatory activities. From these, 12 were selected for in-depth interviews. Four caregivers of orphaned children and 15 key informants (community leaders and NGO officers) were interviewed. Findings show that the type of aid and method of distribution are determined by the donors and do not fit well with local conditions. Examples of iatrogenic violence include conflict and division between those in the community who receive aid and those who do not, increasing dependency with a corresponding reduction in self-reliance, criteria that exclude the most vulnerable children from aid and passivity and non-participation. Donor-controlled humanitarian aid is causing unintended harm in the recipient communities.

Metodekombination som mulig tilgang til studiet af komplekse fænomener

For aktivitetsparate kontanthjælpsmodtagere med problemer ud over ledighed er det vanskeligt at måle effekterne af beskæftigelsesindsatsen. Mulige langsigtede effekter som selvforsørgelse eller uddannelse er vanskelige at forbinde kausalt til indsatserne, og i mange tilfælde er de langsigtede effekter ikke tilnærmelsesvis inden for rækkevidde. Derfor er der behov for en anden metodisk tilgang til at forstå betydningen af beskæftigelsesindsatsen for de mest udsatte ledige. Denne artikel præsenterer og diskuterer en særlig form for metodekombination, hvor forskellige kvalitative og kvantitative metoder kombineres i et forskningsdesign, der åbner op for at studere et komplekst fænomen, som er karakteriseret ved forskellighed og manglende entydighed i både målgruppe og indsats. Kombinationen af de udvalgte metoder adskiller sig fra traditionel metodetriangulering i den forstand, at empiriindsamlingen ikke foregår i uafhængige parallelle spor, men derimod i et løbende samspil, hvor metoderne fungerer som samtalepartnere, der kontinuerligt udfordrer og initierer den følgende empiriske analyse. Formålet med artiklen er således at udforske mulighederne i en metodologisk tilgang, der giver adgang til nuancer og modsatrettetheder i det undersøgte fænomen, og som kan kvalificere og supplere rækkevidden i de enkelte metoders vidensgenerering.

The Right to Work, EU Activation Policies and National Unemployment Benefit Schemes

This contribution discusses national unemployment benefit schemes in the light of the right to work and EU activation policies. The paper also briefly touches upon possible long-term consequences of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines with regard to the nature of the fundamental right to engage in freely chosen or accepted work and the quality of that work. The main hypothesis is that the EU activation policy, as most recently formulated in Guideline 7, marks a paradigm shift in unemployment schemes as it urges Member States to adopt activation and participation policies which aim at rebalancing rights and duties of benefit recipients and state authorities administering these benefits. If this policy recommendation is followed, it means that the right to work and the right to social security undergo a change of character: from an inalienable fundamental human right they develop into a (contractual) entitlement based on conditional reciprocity.

Moral judgment reloaded: a moral dilemma validation study.

We propose a revised set of moral dilemmas for studies on moral judgment. We selected a total of 46 moral dilemmas available in the literature and fine-tuned them in terms of four conceptual factors (Personal Force, Benefit Recipient, Evitability, and Intention) and methodological aspects of the dilemma formulation (word count, expression style, question formats) that have been shown to influence moral judgment. Second, we obtained normative codings of arousal and valence for each dilemma showing that emotional arousal in response to moral dilemmas depends crucially on the factors Personal Force, Benefit Recipient, and Intentionality. Third, we validated the dilemma set confirming that people's moral judgment is sensitive to all four conceptual factors, and to their interactions. Results are discussed in the context of this field of research, outlining also the relevance of our RT effects for the Dual Process account of moral judgment. Finally, we suggest tentative theoretical avenues for future testing, particularly stressing the importance of the factor Intentionality in moral judgment. Additionally, due to the importance of cross-cultural studies in the quest for universals in human moral cognition, we provide the new set dilemmas in six languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, and Danish). The norming values provided here refer to the Spanish dilemma set.