scholarly journals Caught between two stools? Informal care provision and employment among welfare recipients in Germany

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-187
Author(s):  
Katrin Hohmeyer ◽  
Eva Kopf
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractIn many countries, population ageing is challenging the viability of the welfare state and generating higher demands for long-term care. At the same time, increasing participation in the labour force is essential to ensuring the sustainability of the welfare state. To address the latter issue, affected countries have adopted measures to increase employment; e.g. welfare recipients in Germany are required to be available for any type of legal work. However, 7 per cent of welfare benefit recipients in Germany provide long-term care for relatives or friends, and this care-giving may interfere with their job search efforts and decrease their employment opportunities. Our paper provides evidence of the relationship between the care responsibilities and employment chances of welfare recipients in Germany. Our analyses are based on survey data obtained from the panel study ‘Labour Market and Social Security’ and on panel regression methods. The results reveal a negative relationship between intensive care-giving (ten or more hours per week) and employment for male and female welfare recipients. However, employment prospects recover when care duties end and are subsequently no longer lower for carers than for non-carers.

scholarly journals Adult children stepping in? Long-term care reforms and trends in children's provision of household support to impaired parents in the Netherlands

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
THIJS VAN DEN BROEK ◽  
PEARL A. DYKSTRA ◽  
ROMKE J. VAN DER VEEN
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Using Data

ABSTRACTRecent long-term care (LTC) reforms in the Netherlands are illustrative of those taking place in countries with a universalistic LTC model based on extensive provision of state-supported services. They entail a shift from de-familialisation, in which widely available state-supported LTC services relieve family members from the obligations to care for relatives in need, to supported familialism, in which family involvement in care-giving is fostered through support and recognition for families in keeping up their caring responsibilities. Using data from four waves of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 2,197), we show that between 2002 and 2014 the predicted probability that adult children provide occasional household support to impaired parents rose substantially. Daughters more often provided household support to parents than did sons, but no increase in the gender gap over time was found. We could not attribute the increase in children's provision of household support to drops in the use of state-supported household services. The finding that more and more adult children are stepping in to help their ageing parents fits a more general trend in the Netherlands of increasing interactions in intergenerational families.

scholarly journals Innovations in Local Domiciliary Long-Term Care: From Libertarian Criticism to Normalisation

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Giraud ◽  
Barbara Lucas ◽  
Katrin Falk ◽  
Susanne Kümpers ◽  
Arnaud Lechevalier
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
The Welfare State

This article assesses how social innovations in the field of local domiciliary long-term care are shaped and implemented. It proposes a mapping of innovations in terms of two structuring discourses that inform welfare state reforms: a libertarian and a neo-liberal discourse. It then provides an analysis of the concrete trajectories of three local innovations for elderly people in Hamburg (Germany), Edinburgh (Scotland) and Geneva (Switzerland). Theoretically, social innovation is considered as a discursive process of public problem redefinition and institutionalisation. New coalitions of new actors are formed along this double process, and these transform the original discourse of innovation. The comparative analysis of the three processes of institutionalisation of local innovation shows that, in the context of local policy making, social innovations inspired by a libertarian critique of the welfare state undergo differentiated processes of normalisation.

The burden of long-term care: how Italian family care-givers become employers

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 755-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCESCA DEGIULI
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Family Care ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
The Welfare State

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.

The Effect of a Reduced Statutory Workweek on Familial Long-Term Care in Korea

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1620-1641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Hye-Won Kim ◽  
Changjun Lee ◽  
Young Kyung Do
Keyword(s):  
Long Term Care ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Financial Transfers ◽  
Elderly Parents ◽  
Female Workers ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Aging Societies

Objectives: We examine how statutory workweeks affect workers’ provision of long-term care for their non-coresident elderly parents. Method: The Korean government reduced its statutory workweek from 44 to 40 hr, gradually from larger to smaller establishments, between 2004 and 2011. Using multiple regressions, we assess how the reduction affected visits, financial transfers, and in-kind transfers to parents. Annual longitudinal data come from the 2005 to 2013 waves of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study. Results: The reduction caused an increase in the frequency of visits and in-kind transfers among male workers, with no significant impact on their financial transfers. Among female workers, we found no impact on any outcomes. Discussion: We interpret the findings within the context of developed Asian countries with long work hours and Confucian traditions, and suggest regulating workweeks as a policy tool to encourage familial long-term care in the rapidly aging societies.

Formal and informal long term care work: policy conflict in a liberal welfare state

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 134-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Murphy ◽  
Thomas Turner
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Formal Care ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Informal Carers

Purpose The undervaluing of care work, whether conducted informally or formally, has long been subject to debate. While much discussion, and indeed reform has centred on childcare, there is a growing need, particularly in countries with ageing populations, to examine how long-term care (LTC) work is valued. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the way in which employment policies (female labour market participation, retirement age, and precarious work) and social policies (care entitlements and benefits/leave for carers) affect both informal carers and formal care workers in a liberal welfare state with a rapidly ageing population. Design/methodology/approach Drawing the adult worker model the authors use the existing literature on ageing care and employment to examine the approach of a liberal welfare state to care work focusing on both supports for informal carers and job quality in the formal care sector. Findings The research suggests that employment policies advocating increased labour participation, delaying retirement and treating informal care as a form of welfare are at odds with LTC strategies which encourage informal care. Furthermore, the latter policy acts to devalue formal care roles in an economic sense and potentially discourages workers from entering the formal care sector. Originality/value To date research investigating the interplay between employment and LTC policies has focused on either informal or formal care workers. In combining both aspects, we view informal and formal care workers as complementary, interdependent agents in the care process. This underlines the need to develop social policy regarding care and employment which encompasses the needs of each group concurrently.

Welfare State Policy and Informal Long-Term Care Giving in Austria: Old Gender Divisions and New Stratification Processes Among Women

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELISABETH HAMMER ◽  
AUGUST ÖSTERLE
Keyword(s):  
Long Term Care ◽  
Service Development ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Care Programme ◽  
Family Networks ◽  
Care Giving ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
Gender Divisions ◽  
Care System

In Austria, the provision of long-term care is strongly based on unpaid female work within family networks and is characterised by a highly unequal division of informal long-term care-giving. In 1993, a major reform has been introduced in the Austrian long-term care system with a payments for care programme and a state–provinces treaty regarding service development at its heart. The objective of this article is to investigate the implications of the 1993 programme on gender divisions and on whether and in what ways the programme and processes set in train by the programme influence the role of women as carers. The question is approached by applying and broadening the concept of defamilisation in a process oriented way. The analysis suggests that from the informal carers' perspective long-term care allowances in the Austrian context mean some financial relief via ‘symbolic payments’. At the same time, the overall long-term care system prolongs existing gender divisions and sets in train new stratification processes among women as main carers with gender, class and space as dimensions reinforcing each other.

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