Workfare: conditioning the attitudes of benefit recipients towards social security?

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Humpage ◽  
Simone Baillie
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Welfare Dependency ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Over Time

Have increasing levels of conditionality fundamentally changed the attitudes of the unemployed towards social security, work obligations and welfare dependency? Both neopaternalist and governmentalist theorising suggests that workfare policies should have shifted this group's conceptions of self-interest over time yet previous evidence has been rather mixed. This article makes a fresh contribution to the literature by drawing upon New Zealand Election Study data (1990–2014) and New Zealand qualitative data (2007–2008; 2014) to analyse the attitudes of “undeserving” unemployed benefit recipients who are subject to work obligations over 21 years and by comparing their attitudes to those of “deserving” benefit recipients not subject to work obligations (the retired and students) and wage/salary earners. It finds a notable hardening of unemployed people's attitudes towards some welfare dependency propositions over time and evidence of “self-governing rationalities” being adopted by some unemployed individuals but, overall, attitudes amongst this group remain nuanced and ambivalent.

THE "NEW OPIUM WAR": WELFARE DEPENDENCY OF LONE MOTHERS IN HONG KONG?

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (02) ◽  
pp. 117-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAI CHING LEUNG ◽  
KAM WAH CHAN
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Rational Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Welfare Dependency ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
Child Care Facilities ◽  
Social Security Benefits ◽  
The Unemployed

Welfare dependency is becoming a conspicuous problem in Hong Kong. Welfare claimants are accused of being overly dependent on welfare and lacking incentive to work. Welfare is even equated with "spiritual opium", that which erodes work incentive. Lone parents and the unemployed are among the groups blamed the most. This paper produces evidence, based on our research on lone mothers in Hong Kong, to refute the accusation of welfare dependency. The arguments that lone mothers are consciously maximising their social security benefits and that they are better off on benefit, as postulated in rational choice theory, is fallacious. We should therefore try to understand the welfare dependency of lone mothers not by reference to an alleged "dependency culture", but rather through a more holistic appreciation of the interactions among a variety of structural forces such as discrimination in the labour market, gender inequality in marital relation, low wages, inadequate child care facilities and the poverty traps within the social security system. 近年福利开支的增长逐渐成为香港社会的热门话题，有人提出「综援养懒人」的论说，甚至有立法局议员将社会福利等同于「精神鸦片」，批评福利发展会削弱人的工作意愿，以致过分依赖社会福利。在这个讨论中有些社群成为被攻击的对象，例如单亲家庭、失业人士等，因为这些社群领取综援的增幅较大。本文作者曾进行几项有关单亲母亲的研究。建基于这些研究，本文铺陈出有关理据驳斥单亲母亲过分依赖综援的论说，资料显示单亲母亲并非福利太好而作出放弃工作、依赖综援的「理性选择」。反之，因为种种结构性的因素如传统的性别观念、缺乏工作机会、低工资、缺乏劳工保障、性别及年龄歧视、家庭责任歧视、缺乏幼儿服务、家庭支援服务不足、缺乏房屋服务等，以致单亲母亲被困于贫穷中。要解决这个问题，我们需要改善有关服务及各服务间的相互配合，而非靠削减综援金额。

scholarly journals Intergenerational Economic Mobility in New Zealand

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Confidence Intervals ◽  
Income Elasticity ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Economic Mobility ◽  
Point Estimate ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Study Participants

This paper, which briefly summarises recent research by Treasury, tentatively quantifies intergenerational economic mobility in New Zealand using income data from a cohort study of people born in Dunedin in 1972-1973, and occupation data from the 1996 Election Study's post-election survey. The intergenerational income elasticity point estimate for all Dunedin Study participants was .26 when using fathers' incomes to explain children's incomes, with the 95% confidence interval stretching from .14 to .39. Even with controls for the gender of participants and their father's age, the proportion of variance explained was only 13%. For the nation-wide Election Study the point estimate for the effect of father's socio-economic status (SES) on the SES of respondents was .20 for respondents aged 25 years and older, with a 95% confidence interval of .16 to .24. However, father's SES and the age and gender of respondents explained only 5% of the variance in respondents’ SES. We have to be cautious when interpreting our results because both datasets contain proportionately fewer Maori and Pacific peoples than the New Zealand population, the Election Study data is now almost 13 years old, and the Dunedin Study participants have not reached their peak earning years. Our intergenerational income mobility estimate for New Zealand has wide confidence intervals, while confidence intervals for estimates of intergenerational occupational mobility are not available for most countries. As a result, we reached few firm conclusions about New Zealand's relative position compared to other countries.

De calculerende kenniswerker?

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Dekker
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Knowledge Workers ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Knowledge Worker ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Welfare Spending ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Not At Risk

Knowledge workers: self-interested actors? Knowledge workers: self-interested actors? Several commentators argue that the 'modern', multi-skilled knowledge worker is no longer motivated to pay for collective social security arrangements. Politicians as well as researchers suggest that these workers are not at risk and will therefore not benefit from social security programmes. In view of this, it is likely that knowledge workers are – based on reasons of self-interest – less supportive of welfare spending and in favour of a more individual choice. This article analyses qualitative data to investigate this claim. Our findings indicate that the calculative self-interest argument is insufficient in explaining public attitudes of knowledge workers towards social security.

Support for Governmental Income Redistribution in Nordic Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Bent Greve ◽  
M. Azhar Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Income Redistribution ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
The Past ◽  
Income Groups ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Unemployed ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Economic Criteria

In many countries, we have seen an increase in economic inequality over the past 20 to 25 years. The populations might therefore have changed their attitude about how and how much different countries should intervene to reduce the extent of economic inequality. A question is whether there is any connection between changes in redistribution preferences and trends in economic inequality in the prosperous Nordic welfare states. This article contributes by examining whether there are differences in redistribution attitude and changes herein based upon socio-economic criteria, which might include self-interest arguments. Nordic countries are interesting because there have been differences in development, and even strong growth in economic inequality, especially in Sweden and Denmark, although these countries in the literature have been seen as highly equal societies. The analysis shows that support for redistribution is relatively stable over time in each country, but also that there are major differences between countries, with support being much higher in Finland compared with Denmark. Females, discriminated groups and the unemployed generally support redistribution to a higher degree. Ageing generally increases redistributional support, while more education reduces support for government redistribution in Finland. In all four countries, the highest income groups are less supportive of redistribution of income.

scholarly journals Ethnicity and pathways to welfare dependence in a New Zealand birth cohort

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dannette Marie ◽  
David M Fergusson ◽  
Joseph M Boden
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Birth Cohort ◽  
Welfare Dependency ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
Welfare Dependence ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
Industrial Societies

The provision of welfare has long been an issue that has attracted extensive debate.Familiar themes that perennially feature in this debate involve determining who is responsible for providing economic and social security to citizens; in what form and to what extent should provision be made available; what criteria and terms should be employed to determine welfare eligibility; and whether the provision of welfare helps or hinders an individual’s pursuit of purpose and independence (Allen and Scruggs, 2004). Although philosophies of welfare and the practical support provided vary across a range of advanced industrial societies, common to all is the attempt to find a mutually agreeable balance between recognising the responsibilities of the state and providing viable support to citizens (Bane and Elwood, 1994; Herd, 2005). An important issue to emerge, however, is the problem of welfare dependency and its long-term consequences to individuals, their families and, more broadly, to a nation’s social capital.

In or Out?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. De Vries
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Alternative State ◽  
Empirical Measurement ◽  
The Status ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Eu

This chapter introduces a benchmark theory of public opinion towards European integration. Rather than relying on generic labels like support or scepticism, the chapter suggests that public opinion towards the EU is both multidimensional and multilevel in nature. People’s attitudes towards Europe are essentially based on a comparison between the benefits of the status quo of membership and those associated with an alternative state, namely one’s country being outside the EU. This comparison is coined the ‘EU differential’. When comparing these benefits, people rely on both their evaluations of the outcomes (policy evaluations) and the system that produces them (regime evaluations). This chapter presents a fine-grained conceptualization of what it means to be an EU supporter or Eurosceptic; it also designs a careful empirical measurement strategy to capture variation, both cross-nationally and over time. The chapter cross-validates these measures against a variety of existing and newly developed data sources.

A Downward Spiral? A Panel Study of Misinformation and Media Trust in Chile

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110252
Author(s):  
Sebastián Valenzuela ◽  
Daniel Halpern ◽  
Felipe Araneda
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Downward Spiral ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Trust ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Over Time

Despite widespread concern, research on the consequences of misinformation on people's attitudes is surprisingly scant. To fill in this gap, the current study examines the long-term relationship between misinformation and trust in the news media. Based on the reinforcing spirals model, we analyzed data from a three-wave panel survey collected in Chile between 2017 and 2019. We found a weak, over-time relationship between misinformation and media skepticism. Specifically, initial beliefs on factually dubious information were negatively correlated with subsequent levels of trust in the news media. Lower trust in the media, in turn, was related over time to higher levels of misinformation. However, we found no evidence of a reverse, parallel process where media trust shielded users against misinformation, further reinforcing trust in the news media. The lack of evidence of a downward spiral suggests that the corrosive effects of misinformation on attitudes toward the news media are less serious than originally suggested. We close with a discussion of directions for future research.

scholarly journals In-work Universal Credit: Claimant Experiences of Conditionality Mismatches and Counterproductive Benefit Sanctions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
SHARON WRIGHT ◽  
PETER DWYER
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Benefit Sanctions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Universal Credit is the UK’s globally innovative social security reform that replaces six means tested benefits with one monthly payment for working age claimants - combining social security and tax credit systems. Universal Credit expands welfare conditionality via mandatory job search conditions to enhance ‘progression’ amongst working claimants by requiring extra working hours or multiple jobs. This exposes low paid workers to tough benefit sanctions for non-compliance, which could remove essential income indefinitely or for fixed periods of up to three years. Our unique contribution is to establish how this new regime is experienced at micro level by in-work claimants over time. We present findings from Qualitative Longitudinal Research (141 interviews with 58 claimants, 2014-17), to demonstrate how UC impacts on in-work recipients and how conditionality produces a new coerced worker-claimant model of social support. We identify a series of welfare conditionality mismatches and conclude that conditionality for in-work claimants is largely counterproductive. This implies a redesign of the UK system and serves as an international warning to potential policy emulators.

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