Documents social assistance 167 results

"The generous Danish welfare state relies on a high degree of labour force participation both for financing and in order to ensure social cohesion. This underlines the need for getting work incentives right and improve the employability of vulnerable groups of workers, in particular migrants. Many benefit recipients also face high marginal tax rates for returning to work, creating a barrier for inclusion. Likewise, as the population ages, the need for longer working lives becomes a central aim. In Denmark, much has been done to keep older workers in the labour market, but there is further scope for reducing barriers to work for this group, including through the design of the pension system. Cost pressures at social institutions could be addressed by better reaping the effects on municipal reform, more coordination between different service providers, and open the market for social services, for instance old age care, for private suppliers under a strict quality monitoring framework."

"This paper aims to contribute to the debate on whether or not European welfare states converge by assessing trends and patterns of convergence and divergence of European minimum income schemes in the period 1992/2001-2012. We expand on previous studies on convergence of social assistance schemes in at least three ways. First, this paper provides a recent and detailed overview of social assistance benefit trends – detailed, that is, country-by-country. The focus is on cross-country variations rather than on the variation among groups of countries that are deemed to represent different welfare regimes. In addition, our analyses are based on original data drawn from a large network of country experts comprising all EU Member States except for Croatia, Cyprus and Malta. The country-focus as well as the involvement of national informants allows to contextualize our findings with regard to convergence and to clarify the underlying policy measures. Finally this paper covers a long time series, starting in the early 1990s up to 2012. We find that despite a marked increase in the spread of minimum income schemes, cross-country variation in the level of minimum income benefits has remained markedly stable. This stability however hides starkly different country experiences, with some laggard countries showing marked increases, whereas others continue to fall short. Some of these pre-crisis gains have evaporated in recent years. In addition, a substantial number of countries have allowed a further erosion of their benefit levels, especially in the 1990s, but still evident in the 2000s."

"L'article met en lumière les principaux débats récents sur les revenus minimaux en Allemagne : sur leur niveau et leur revalorisation ; sur la prise en compte de la situation des enfants et des familles ; sur la refonte de l'allocation Hartz IV pour les chômeurs, sur les migrants et réfugiés. Il met en évidence une prise de distance avec la logique intrinsèquement marchande de responsabilisation individuelle de Hartz IV et une attention croissante portée aux besoins des personnes concernées, plutôt qu'à leurs devoirs."

"En matière de revenu garanti, l'Autriche fait figure de pays relativement généreux en Europe. Depuis 2000, le nombre de bénéficiaires augmente fortement à mesure que se développent les emplois précaires. Traditionnellement, le système de minima sociaux était géré par les États fédérés. En 2008, le gouvernement fédéral a tenté une harmonisation des minima sociaux, restée très incomplète. La réforme proposée par l'actuel gouvernement vise à transformer les minima fédéraux en maxima pour les États, à en diminuer les montants et à exclure les étrangers."