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?

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.

A Policy Evaluation on the Challenges of a Universal Basic Income for Referendum in Taiwan

In recent years, the Universal Basic Income (UBI) has become a frequently discussed issue around the world. Recently, Spain may issue permanent basic income as a method to flight COVID-19. Italy's government proposed the introduction in 2018. Also, Swiss citizens voted on the introduction by referendum in June 2016. But, would such a referendum be possible in Taiwan and what would be the outcome in Taiwan? The amended Taiwanese Referendum Act passed by the Legislative Yuan and enacted by President Tsai in January 2018 facilitates the referendum process and lowered the preconditions for citizens to launch a proposal. Currently, only 1,879 supporters required it in the first phase, and around 280,000 signatures in the second phase are necessary to support such an initiative; the acceptance quorum was then lowered to only 4,890,000 required voters. This chapter focuses on the public and empirical discussion of UBI in Taiwan and UBI as a possible referendum with learnings from the Swiss UBI experience.

THE CONCEPT OF BASIC INCOME IN THE BRITISH POLITIAL CONTEXT

The article explores the current debate on basic income in the UK. The growing interest in this concept, which implies the introduction of unconditional and equal for all regular cash payments, is caused by problems common to Western European countries, i.e. an increase in income inequality, the risk of technological unemployment, as well as the need to take urgent measures to support the population at times of pandemic. In the British context, however, ideological and political factors play a significant role, such as a rich intellectual tradition of developing universal approaches to social security and the desire of a number of parties, both national and regional, to use this increasingly popular concept for their own political purposes. It is concluded that in the medium term, the UK's transition to basic income is unlikely, but the very discussion on its introduction can serve as a catalyst for serious social transformations.

TRADE UNIONS AND BASIC INCOME: SOME DANISH EXPERIENCES

Theoretically, there are many good arguments that unions should support a proposal on basic income. The main reason for the Danish trade unions resistance to basic income reform is that it would go against the short-term interest of the unions in organisational self-maintenance. Trade unions will lose power in relation to their members with a basic income. Trade unions have control over individual members by virtue of the collective agreement system and the labour law system. If you have a basic income system, the individual worker will decide when he or she wants to leave his workplace and strike. Suppose a single worker or a group of workers leave their workplace because of dissatisfaction with the working condition. In that case, they will be punished financially according to the rules of labour law rely on any support from their trade union.