What I Need and What the Poor Deserve: Analyzing the Gap between the Minimum Income Needed for Oneself and the View of an Adequate Norm for Social Assistance

Social Forces ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Hallerod
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 857-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Noël

Abstract In the last two decades, the social investment strategy has been the main approach to welfare state reform. Concretely, two spending programs have dominated the agenda: the expansion of active labor market programs and the development of childcare services. Many authors have suspected, however, that these social investments were realized at the expense of income protection for the poor. This article assesses this potential trade-off with time-series cross-sectional models of the determinants of active labor market policies expenditures, childcare spending and the adequacy of minimum income protection (MIP), for 18 OECD countries between 1990 and 2009. It turns out that social investments are rather akin to traditional welfare state programs, and are explained by similar institutional, political and economic factors. More importantly, they do not develop at the expense of income protection. Social investment initiatives are consistent with the usual politics of the welfare state and, overall, they are not inimical to the poor.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasmin Tamsah ◽  
Gunawan Bata Ilyas ◽  
Sirajuddin ◽  
Yuswari Nur ◽  
Yusriadi

This study aims to explore the influential factors in increasing productive economic endeavours and finding models for developing social assistance in improving productive financial efforts. This study used a descriptive qualitative method with in-depth interviews followed by a focus group discussion of 17 informants in the South Buton District and nine informants in the Kolaka Regency and two key informants from the social service office in Southeast Sulawesi Province. The results showed an increase in the capacity of social assistance to improve the economy of the poor in the districts of South Buton and Kolaka, including education, training, experience, and motivation. The social assistance capacity building model improves the productive economic endeavours of the poor in the districts of South Buton and Kolaka by taking some approaches, including a) Synchronisation and coordination of social ministry programs, provinces, and districts/cities; b) Enhancing necessary skills (making programs, proposals, reports, etc.); c) Increased analytical skills (analysis of raw material requirements, operational analysis, market analysis); d) Increased ability to use media (information, outreach, sharing, promotion, etc.); e) Increasing the capacity of entrepreneurial spirit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Tervola ◽  
Merita Jokela ◽  
Joonas Ollonqvist

The sizes of minimum income schemes vary significantly even in welfare states that are considered similar. For example among Nordic countries, the share of recipients is almost double in Finland compared to Nordic peers. Considering the strong political will to diminish the receipt of last-resort benefits, we demonstrate a methodological framework to evaluate the reasons for varying number of beneficiaries and apply it to two Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden. By using microsimulation of eligibility rates, we examine the role of social assistance legislation, first-tier benefits and non-take-up. Relatively high number of beneficiaries in Finland is traced back to social assistance policies such as higher norm levels and earning disregard but also to lower non-take-up rate of social assistance benefits, which potentially reflects looser discretion and asset test. We also find some, albeit weak, evidence that the implementation reform of social assistance in Finland 2017 has further reduced non-take-up.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. 259-282
Author(s):  
Melike YALÇIN

With this research, it is aimed to reveal some socio-demographic characteristics, experiences and opinions related to poverty, and power situations of coping with poverty of poor women who receive social assistance from social assistance and solidarity foundations. The quantitative research method was used in the study, and the data were obtained by making face-to-face interviews with women who received social assistance from Ankara province Altındağ, Mamak and Keçiören Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations and accepted to participate in the study. The poor women participating in the research are young adult women with a low level of education, married, have at least one child, are unemployed and earn their living on social assistance. They define poverty as not being able to meet their needs and state the reason for poverty as unemployment. Participants see social assistance as a strategy to cope with poverty and think that the aid given is not enough to provide for their livelihood. They think that women are affected more by poverty than men, and they define their strengths mostly as being a good mother and wife.


POPULATION ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Vyacheslav Bobkov

The article deals with the theoretical, methodical and practical principles of forming a new model of targeted social support of low-income families with children on the basis of guaranteed minimum income. Approbation of the new approaches to targeted social support of low-income families with children was implemented in Vologda oblast. The target representative sample was 70 families. It has been found out that after the targeted social support under the current legislation (lump-sum payments excluded), basic income in these families averaged 35.3 per cent of the differentiated equivalent subsistence minimum, thus being evidence of the inefficient state social assistance. The author has substantiated introducing additional monthly targeted social payments to parents besides the set regular payments (additional family poverty benefit) that will enable families to improve their economic sustainability. He substantiated a number of threshold values of the guaranteed minimum income that would ensure current consumption ranging from the cost food basket up to the size of the differentiated equivalent living standards of families, depending on the financial capacity of the regional budget. The guaranteed minimum income of low-income families with children averaged 54.6 per cent of the regional differentiated equivalent subsistence minimum. There have been developed methodical recommendations for identifying untapped socio-economic potential of families as a source of raising income from employment, as well as criteria for removal of families from the recipients of targeted social assistance in the form of cash benefits. Proposals on correcting the current legislation on the state social support have been formulated.


2020 ◽  
pp. 095892872097013
Author(s):  
Sarah Marchal ◽  
Sarah Kuypers ◽  
Ive Marx ◽  
Gerlinde Verbist

Means-tested transfer schemes in Europe and elsewhere tend to include not only income tests but also asset tests of various sorts. The role of asset tests in minimum income protection provisions has been extensively researched in the Anglo-Saxon context. Far fewer authors have assessed the role of asset tests on social policy in a continental European context. Although asset tests may be useful in singling out the more deserving of the poor, we know relatively little of their actual impact on eligibility and social outcomes in European welfare states. This paper looks at the prevalence and design of asset tests in European minimum income protection schemes. We distinguish between two main types of asset tests: outright disqualification when assets reach a certain value, versus a more gradual tapering at a fictional rate of return. We then analyse in greater detail how asset tests in Belgium and Germany, as representatives of these two types, affect minimum income protection eligibility and poverty outcomes. We use the EUROMOD microsimulation model on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey data in order to assess the effects of asset tests. This survey was explicitly designed to more realistically reflect assets and capital incomes.


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