Self-employed surfers, universal credit and the minimally decent life

Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christopher Rowe

Abstract As part of its response to Covid-19 the government paused the use of the ‘Minimum Income Floor’ (MIF), which restricts the Universal Credit (UC) entitlement of the self-employed. This paper places the MIF in the wider context of conditionality in the social security system and considers a judicial review which claimed that the MIF was discriminatory. The paper focuses on how UC affects the availability of real choices for low-income citizens to limit or escape from wage labour, with two implications of the move to UC highlighted. First, the overlooked labour decommodifying aspect of tax credits, which provided a minimum income guarantee and a genuine alternative to wage labour for people who self-designated as ‘self-employed’, even if their earnings were minimal or non-existent, has been removed. Secondly, UC has in some respects improved the position of low-paid wage labourers in ‘mini-jobs’, who are not subject to conditionality once they work for the equivalent of approximately nine hours a week on the minimum wage.

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER A. KEMP

Following the 1997 general election in Britain, the New Labour government made clear its intention to cut back and radically reform the social security system, including Housing Benefit, an income-related housing allowance for low-income tenants. The cost of Housing Benefit had doubled in real terms over the previous decade and was taking up a growing share of social security expenditure. The scheme also suffered from major deficiencies. Drawing on recent literature on welfare state retrenchment, this article examines why the government eventually retreated from cuts and a wholesale reform of Housing Benefit and opted instead for a more modest and long-term approach.


2007 ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Ejii Tajika ◽  
Hiroyuki Yashio

The Japanese personal income tax system has been designed to mitigate the tax burden by granting generous deductions and by employing a steep marginal tax curve. The failure of it is that the combined burden of tax and social-security contributions of low-income people has not been dealt with. The purposes of this article are twofold: first, to show that the social-security burden is in fact higher than the tax liability for most of the working population, and second, to show that it is possible to mitigate the burden by introducing refundable tax credits. Results of micro-simulation using a survey of household income are presented to show the combined tax and socialsecurity burden of families of various income classes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 369-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatih Guvenen ◽  
Fatih Karahan ◽  
Serdar Ozkan ◽  
Jae Song

Drawing on administrative data from the Social Security Administration, we find that individuals that go through a long period of non-employment suffer large and long-term earnings losses (around 35-40 percent) compared to individuals with similar age and previous earnings histories. Importantly, these differences depend on past earnings, and are largest at the bottom and top of the earnings distribution. Focusing on workers that are employed 10 years after a period of long-term non-employment, we find much smaller earnings losses (8-10 percent). Furthermore, the large earnings losses of low-income individuals are almost entirely due to employment effects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 275 ◽  
pp. 02059
Author(s):  
Haizhu Zhao ◽  
Lianhua Luo

With the government setting stricter standard on carbon emission, enterprises are facing more environmental pressure and cost these years. At the same time, China’s State Council has officially announced a further reducing the social security contribution rate from May 1, 2019, it is worthy of assessing that if the reduction would decompress enterprises and promote labor demand. Our results shows that social security contribution rate does not have significantly impacts on enterprises’ labor demand overall. However, when wage and benefit are controlled, it has a direct impact on labor demand. Basic regression and heterogeneity analysis both confirm it. Wage and benefit play intermediary roles as the results show. Social security contribution rate has negatively impact on wage and benefit, which help to keep the total labor remuneration and then labor demand unchanged. State-owned and private enterprises show similar results. However, laborintensive and non-labor-intensive enterprises show slightly different results.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 03019
Author(s):  
Tedi Sudrajat ◽  
Siti Kunarti ◽  
Abdul Aziz Nasihuddin

The Social Security System in Indonesia has been regulated by the government, and the program is managed by an agency called Social Insurance Administration Organization (BPJS). Associated with the existence of social security functions for workers, its practice presents a gap between what is expected and what is regulated. For this reason, it is therefore necessary to examine, firstly, what kind of legal protection of workers is covered by this national social security system managed in BPJS program and, secondly, what constraints are encountered in its implementation. This research is Juridical Normative one, with normative qualitative data analysis. The research finds that the social security is correlated not only with the welfare of employees who are assessed by the level of wages provided by the organization, rather it is also correlated with other factors in the form of health and safety assurance. In the broader context, social welfare is measured not only when the person is at work and gets social security benefits, rather the measure of his welfare is also applicable when the worker is not working and/or when they retire. On the basis of these, the social security program is an integral aspect of social security to which the government should give a legal protection.


Author(s):  
Kananelo E Mosito

Social security is one of the most important areas of social policy.As part of its social policy, the government of Lesotho has promulgated various pieces of legislation and introduced an assortment of public assistance programmes for the benefit of the people of the country. There are also various informal social security measures which are the result of coordinated activities by individuals and groupings in Lesotho. These initiatives together provide a broad spectrum of social security provisioning for the people of Lesotho. This article sets out to discuss the said social security provisioning measures and appraises the efficacy of their interventions.Lesotho is a constitutional state.The Constitution of Lesotho came into force on 2April 1993. It provides for a Bill of Rights as well as principles of state policy. There is, however, no express provision in the Constitution for a right to social security. This is regrettable. Thus, the intersection between constitutional law and social security within the context of Lesotho can be achieved only through the interpretation of the fundamental rights as well as the principles of state policy provided in the Constitution. While the provisions relating to fundamental rights help to establish entitlements to social security, the principles of state policy play an important role in giving direction to service delivery.Understanding the link between the various governmental and social initiatives is crucial if interventions are to be designed which will enhance the provision of social security for the benefit of the people of Lesotho.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-145
Author(s):  
Bahjatul Imaniyah

In providing social security, the government requires all Indonesian workers to become members of the BPJS Employment. However, because the majority of the population is Muslim who live based on the laws of the Qur'an and Sunnah, it is necessary to review whether the BPJS Employment has fulfilled the syarî'ah economic law or not. By applying the method of normative legal research and interview techniques to parties concerned, this study concludes that the contract of the BPJS Employment program does not deviate from the sharia economic law (Islamic economic law) because, in the compensation on accident during the work program (JKK) it can be categorized as tabarru’ contract which only applies to virtue. The Death Insurance program (JKM) is an implementation of at-takmin at-ta’âwuniy, which is ta’âwun in a tabarru’ conrract.  As for the Old Age security program (JHT), it’s concept is similar to the contract of mudlârabah musytarakah. The same goes for the Pension Insurance (JP) program as a transition from the contract for wârits.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84
Author(s):  
Hafiz Sutrisno

Workers in Indonesia now really need a social security for themselves, because with the social security received by them makes them more focused in carrying out their duties to completion. The existence of social security provided will increase the welfare of the workforce itself and have a good impact on the survival of their families in the future if one day there is an accident of work from these workers when they carry out their duties the family can enjoy financial assistance from the government through social security. This study uses qualitative methods, namely research procedures that produce descriptive data in the form of written or spoken words from people or observable behavior. This method also comes from actions that are used as an understanding based on phenomena that occur in society, especially workers. In giving effect to the workers, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan has functions for workers, namely: Organizing work accident insurance programs, Organizing death insurance programs, Conducting old age insurance programs, Organizing pension insurance programs. The conclusion of this research is that there are still many companies that do not give rights to their workforce, that is, they do not take care of BJPS Ketenagakerjaan, which is a matter that must be obtained by each workforce. And the lack of awareness of the workforce about the benefits of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan for them in the event of a work accident.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-59
Author(s):  
Venelin Terziev ◽  
Simeon Simeonov

Social policy as a set of principles, legal norms, activities and institutions, aimed at creating conditions that ensure the quality of life of the citizens of a country, is an expression of the social relations between the state and its citizens. Social policy determines safety (social, health, economic) and security of the individuals in society.Social policy should be seen as an activity that guarantees the security of those affected by the risks of labour, family and life. In a broader sense, social policy regulates a very broad range of social relationships that relate to employment, income, education, and others. Social security can therefore be seen as the main objective of social policy. In modern concepts, social security is perceived as a system of public rules, institutions and social payments that enable the dignified exitense of every person, who in an unusual state of vitality. Social security can therefore be seen as a set of measures to protect people in an unusual situation. Forms of social security: social security coverage; social assistance; social provision.Apart from thier nature, purpose and funding, social security and social assistance differ according to the principles of organization and management. Social assistance is a decentralized system, and social security can be centralized or decentralized depending on the principles adopted. Through these forms of social security, people receive material security for their existence on the basis of common and unified rules. In any case, however, not always will the indigent be covered by these forms of social security, regardless of their social protection needs. It is possible that even socially protected persons may be in need because of the low income recevied by this system. In such cases the intervention of social assistance is needed as a means of “plugging the holes”. For the sake of clarity, social security can be defined as the first defense net, and social assistance as the second defense net, i.e. social assistance must take on the part of the population which, for one or other reason, does not fall from or land either from the upper levels of the social protection system or when the level of this protection has been insufficient or it provides social protection from the last instance.


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