scholarly journals Welfare Sanctions and Deprivation in Germany: Do First Sanctions Lead to Higher Levels of Deprivation Among the Long-Term Unemployed and Recipients of Basic Income Support?

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Paul Severin Löwe ◽  
Stefanie Alexandra Unger

Abstract In Germany, as in many other European countries, vast changes in the welfare regime – towards workfare – have taken place. As a central activating element of workfare, sanctions were introduced to take effect by temporarily increasing deprivation through benefit cuts. This paper provides first quantitative insights on the effect of first sanctions on deprivation and contributes to the recent debate on the (un)constitutionality of sanctions, which re-emerged after a verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court, criticizing the lack of knowledge about the effects of sanctions on those affected. We implement a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach that addresses selection on observables and individual time constant unobserved differences. High data accuracy is ensured by combining the “Panel Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS) with administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency. The results illustrate a slightly higher yet statistically insignificant level of deprivation for first-sanctioned unemployment/basic income recipients compared to non-sanctioned recipients. The results hint in the direction that higher levels of deprivation are not what activates the sanctioned beneficiaries to reintegrate into the labour market. We discuss whether the results imply a significant deviation from the socio-cultural subsistence minimum of sanctioned recipients and a failure of the welfare state.

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 977-1002 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA WUEBBEKE

ABSTRACTIn several European countries, older unemployed people, after reaching a certain age, are entitled to unemployment benefit payments without having to seek new employment. The coexistence of this exemption clause and of reforms aimed at containing early retirement in the respective countries reflects a conflict of political aims – on the one hand, between an efficient labour-market policy at a time of high unemployment, and on the other hand, the goal of the comprehensive activation and labour-market integration of older workers as a response to demographic change. This paper deals with the reasons for the transfer of older long-term unemployed people on to ‘facilitated benefits’ for labour-market withdrawal in Germany. The empirical analysis shows that low or no propensity to work was rarely the motive for leaving the labour market; in particular, those anticipating a low retirement income actually wanted to be re-employed. The vast majority gave three reasons for the decision to retire: an inability to cope with requirements of available jobs; a lack of job opportunities; and an absence of proper support from the public employment agency. Thus the withdrawal of older long-term unemployed people into pre-retirement cannot be attributed to a utility-maximising decision in favour of leisure and against gainful employment, but is the primary result of the scarce re-employment prospects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-187
Author(s):  
Zaklina Novicic

The European continent is moving away from a long-term tacit consensus on the desirability of deepening of European integration and entering a period of uncertainty and turbulence. The rise of the Euroskeptics on the European political scene creates without a doubt a discomfort among pro-European political forces. This prevents the democratic capacity of this process to be perceived, and in particular, the contribution of Euroscepticism channeled in the European Parliament, since it is the only organized political opposition in the EU institutional order which in terms of procedure leaves little room for that. Political movements and parties that express doubts about the benefits of the EU are certainly gaining legitimization by entering the European Parliament. However, on the other hand, this may have one unintended consequence. They contribute to the democratic legitimization and the reduction of the democratic deficit of the institution which they more or less radically challenge. They do so in the context of limited legitimization conferred to the European Parliament within the institutional structure of the EU. At first glance, the paradox of Euroscepticism being a threat to the EU and at the same time of reducing its democratic deficit is explained in this paper by the use of the German Federal Constitutional Court expressed in the famous judgment on the constitutionality of the Treaty of Lisbon. In addition to normative considerations, the paper also contains a shorter political review on the rise of Euroscepticism and its perspective. The author concludes that a conditional mutual legitimization of Euroscepticism and the European Parliament is emerging as a new political reality.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1961-1982
Author(s):  
Stefanie Egidy

In February 2010, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) issued a ruling on the so-called “Hartz IV legislation.” The ruling dealt with the law on social benefits according to the Second Book of the German Code of Social Law and was based on the “fundamental right to the guarantee of a subsistence minimum” derived from the declaration of human dignity in Article 1(1) of the German Basic Law in conjunction with Article 20(1), the principle of the social welfare state.


1988 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Streeck

AT THE END OF HIS REVIEW OF LABOUR MARKET RIGIDITIES in advanced capitalist societies, Ronald Dore presents us with the classical and highly uncomfortable dilemma between equity and efficiency. There are two kinds of rigidities, he suggests: those that improve economic performance while giving rise to social inequality and societal dualism, and those that promote equity while detracting from efficiency. Unlike neo-classical economics, Dore recognises that to be efficient, advanced production systems require institutions above and beyond the market — such as long-term employment, internal labour markets, and ‘sticky’ mechanisms of wage determination. But these institutions, he insists, are not, or no longer, defensible in terms of the Marshallian tradition of industrial and social citizenship. Social justice and equality, according to Dore, are vested today in a second type of ‘ridigities’ — the redistributive apparatus of the welfare state — which, unlike the first, extracts an ‘efficiency price’ from the economy.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1941-1960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Bittner

“Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect shall be the duty of all state authority.” It is with this proclamation in Article 1(1) Basic Law (“Grundgesetz” or “GG”) that the German Constitution starts its section on fundamental rights. When the Parliamentary Council formulated this basic right, they had in mind the denial of fundamental rights during the period of National Socialism and the atrocities of the Holocaust. The framers, however, did not envisage a constitutional right to state benefits despite Article 151(1) of the Weimar Imperial Constitution of 1919 linking the ordering of economic life with the purpose of ensuring a dignified existence for all. Utilizing a constitutional originalism approach the German Federal Constitutional Court (“FCC”) never could have arrived at what is referred to as the Hartz IV decision. This decision creates a constitutional right to guarantee by law a subsistence minimum based on Article 1(1) GG in conjunction with the social state principle in Article 20(1) GG. The decision can be read as—possibly the first—conceptualisation of a constitutional socio-economic right to statutory state benefits by a Constitutional Court.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 755-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCESCA DEGIULI

ABSTRACTIn recent years in Italy, population ageing, rising female labour-market participation, and the restructuring of the welfare state have combined to create increased demand for long-term care services for frail and dependent older people. The rising demand has increasingly been met by immigrant women of different nationalities, and to a lesser extent immigrant men, who are hired to provide individualised care in people's own homes and other private settings. While there have been many studies of this growing phenomenon, very little attention has been paid to the reasons that bring family care-givers to choose this care-support option. To begin to fill the gap, this paper reports the finding of a qualitative study of 26 family members who were caring for a disabled elder. Semi-structured interviews lasting between 60 and 100 minutes and that covered various aspects of long-term care in family households were conducted. The participants' responses indicate that they did not choose immigrant home eldercare assistants solely for economic reasons but also to be consistent with cultural, moral and traditional understandings of family responsibilities and care. They also provide valuable findings and insights into Italian attitudes towards the welfare state and the care-labour market. While the wealthiest respondent declared a clear predilection for the free-market and a desire to bypass the state, the majority of the respondents advocated a stronger role of the welfare state in helping people cope with the increased burden of long-term care.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 950-955
Author(s):  
Sven Simon ◽  
Hannes Rathke

AbstractThe German Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling of May 5, 2020 on the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) stated, for the first time ever, that some decisions by European institutions are not covered by the competence allocations of the European Treaties and cannot therefore take effect in Germany. This article argues that the judgment came as no surprise, as it is consistent with the principle of conferral of powers. According to this principle the EU and its institutions can only act within the limits of their competences. The German Basic Law prohibits any transfer of sovereign rights whose exercise would confer sua sponte additional competences to the supranational level. Against this background, the Federal Constitutional Court judgment does not seek to limit the ECB’s scope for appraisal and evaluation in the exercise of its monetary policy mandate. It focuses rather on the conditions which legitimize the ECB’s leeway. The issue in this case is not the applicability of the proportionality principle as a criterion governing the delimitation of powers, but the different reference points for the assessment of proportionality. In this regard the CJEU had failed to discuss whether monetary policy and the effects on economic policy are proportionate by themselves. Hence, in constitutional terms, the CJEU’s interpretation was found to be “arbitrary”, since the German Constitutional Court defined arbitrariness as jurisprudence that “in a reasonable reading … [appears] unintelligible and clearly untenable.” In other words, it is “simply not comprehensible.” Despite the harsh words of the German Constitutional Court, the authors argue that the judgement in the end can help to create a European legal culture that will strengthen the European Union in the long term if, in future, the CJEU engages more constructively with criticisms from Member State courts.


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