Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:10:07.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Are benefit reductions an effective activation strategy? The case of the lowest benefit recipients in Denmark

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2020

M. AZHAR HUSSAIN ,
MORTEN EJRNÆS  and
JØRGEN ELM LARSEN Open the ORCID record for JØRGEN ELM LARSEN [Opens in a new window]
M. AZHAR HUSSAIN
Affiliation:
Department of Finance and Economics, University of Sharjah, and Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University
MORTEN EJRNÆS
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aalborg University
JØRGEN ELM LARSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Decades of commitment to the basic principles of the Danish welfare state have been discarded with a new social policy reducing the benefits for people already at the bottom of the income ladder. The political intention is to increase job search via economic incentives that increase the gap between benefit income and market income. Using a panel dataset with benefit recipients, we show that the intended job search effect did not materialise to any significant extent; rather, the affected people became poorer because the vast majority of individuals could not respond to the economic incentives in the intended manner. Joblessness was not due to lack of incentives. This study confirms the importance of employability and self-efficacy, but it shows that health is an underlying variable that explains both of these factors and the recipients’ difficulties in getting a job. The results have two major social policy implications. Access to early retirement schemes should be easier for recipients who have serious health problems and therefore cannot respond to economic incentives, and there should be an increased focus on how to help the recipients without major health problems to develop self-efficacy.

Keywords

economic incentivessocial assistancehealthemploymentself-efficacyregression
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 569 - 587
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, J., Larsen, J.E. and Møller, I.H. (2009), ‘The exclusion and marginalisation of immigrants in the Danish welfare society’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 29, 5/6, 274–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, L.H., Hansen, H., Schultz-Nielsen, M.L. and Tranæs, T. (2009, 2012), Starthjælpens betydning for flygtninges levevilkår og beskæftigelse, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag.Google Scholar
Andersson, K. (2015), ‘Predictors of re-employment: A question of attitude, behavior, or gender?’, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 56, 4, 438–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Apel, H. and Fertig, M. (2009), ‘Operationalisierung von “Beschäftigungsfähigkeit” - ein metodischer Beitrag zur Entwicklung eines Messkonzepts’, Zeitschrift für Arbeitsmarkt Forschung, 42, 1, 5–28.Google Scholar
Arendt, J.N. and Jacobsen, R.H. (2017), Litteraturreview om progression for ikke-arbejdsmarkedsparate ledige, Copenhagen: KORA Rapport.Google Scholar
Arendt, J.N., Andersen, H.L. and Saaby, M. (2017), Measuring employability trajectories among social welfare recipients, Copenhagen: KORA Rapport.Google Scholar
Arni, P., Lalive, R. and Van Ours, J.C. (2013), ‘How effective are unemployment benefit sanctions?’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 28, 7, 1153–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bach, H.B. (2012), Arbejdsmarkedsparathed og selvforsørgelse, SFI 12:31, Copenhagen: SFI.Google Scholar
Bach, H.B. and Larsen, B. (2008), 300-timers reglen. Betydning af 300-timers reglen for gifte kontanthjælpsmodtagere, Copenhagen: SFI.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1993), ‘Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning’, Educational Psychologist, 28, 2, 117–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandura, A. (1997), Self-efficacy: The exercise of control, New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Berntson, E., Näswall, K. and Sverke, M. (2008), ‘Investigating the relationship between employability and self-efficacy: A cross-lagged analysis’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 17, 4, 413–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1990), The logic of practice, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1998), Practical reason: On the theory of action, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Clasen, J., Kvist, J. and van Oorschot, W. (2001), ‘On condition of work: Increasing work requirements in unemployment compensation schemes’, in Kautto, M., Fritzell, J., Hvinden, B., Kvist, J. and Uusitalo, H. (eds.), Nordic welfare states in the European context, London: Routledge, 198–231.Google Scholar
Clasen, J. (2005), Reforming European welfare states. Germany and United Kingdom compared, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diop-Christensen, A. (2015), ‘Is “making work pay” effective for the “unemployable”? The impact of benefit sanctions on social assistance recipients in Denmark’, Journal of European Social Policy, 25, 2, 210–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diop-Christensen, A. (2018), ‘Beating the ‘unemployable’ with a stick? How Danish street-level workers transformed a Danish work-first policy’, in Kamali, M. and Jönsson, J.H. (eds.), Neoliberalism, Nordic welfare states and social work, London: Routledge, 205–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dølvik, J.E., Fløtten, T., Hippe, J. and Jordfald, B. (2015), The Nordic model towards 2030. A new chapter?, NorMod Final Report, Fafo Report 2015:07, Oslo: Fafo.Google Scholar
Economic Council (2007), Dansk økonomi, juni 2007, Copenhagen: Det Økonomiske Råd.Google Scholar
Ejrnæs, M., Hansen, F.K., Hansen, H., Hussain, M.A. and Larsen, J.E. (2011), På laveste sociale ydelser et år efter: en kvantitativ forløbsanalyse. Copenhagen: CASA.Google Scholar
Fawcett, H. and Papadopoulos, T.N. (1997), ‘Social exclusion, social citizenship and de-commodification: An evaluation of the adequacy of support for the unemployed in the European Union’, West European Politics, 20, 3, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fieseler, C., Meckel, M. and Muller, S. (2014), ‘With a little help of my peers. The supportive role of online contacts for the unemployed’, Computers in Human Behavior, 41(Dec), 164–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geiger, B.B. (2017), ‘Benefit conditionality for disabled people: stylized facts from review of international evidence and practice’, Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 25, 2, 107–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goul Andersen, J., Schoyen, M.A. and Hvinden, B. (2017), ‘Changing Scandinavian Welfare States – Which Way Forward?’, in Taylor-Gooby, P., Leruth, B. and Chung, H. (eds.), After Austerity: Welfare Transformation in Europe after the Great Recession, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 89–114.Google Scholar
Graversen, B.K. (2006), Making Work Pay: Is there an Employment Effect for Disadvantaged Families, Copenhagen: SFI.Google Scholar
Graversen, B.K. and Tinggård, K. (2005), Loft over ydelser. Evaluering af loftet over ydelser til kontanthjælpsmodtagere, Copenhagen: SFI.Google Scholar
Griggs, J. and Evans, M. (2010), Sanctions within conditional benefit systems: A review of evidence, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Hansen, F.K. and Hussain, M.A. (2009), Personer og familier med de laveste ydelser som forsørgelsesgrundlag: en registerundersøgelse. Sociologisk Institut, Copenhagen: Københavns Universitet.Google Scholar
Hansen, H. and Schultz-Nielsen, M.L. (2015), Kontanthjælpen gennem 25 år, Copenhagen: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
Huynh, D.T., Schultz-Nielsen, M.L. and Tranæs, T. (2010), ‘Employment effects upon arrival of reducing welfare to refugees’, in M.L. Schultz-Nielsen, Essay in migration and fertility, PhD thesis 2010:1, Aarhus: Handelshøjskolen i Århus.Google Scholar
Huynh, D.T., Schultz-Nielsen, M.L. and Tranæs, T. (2007), Employment effects of reducing welfare to refugees, Copenhagen: Rockwool Fondens Forskningsenhed.Google Scholar
Kellett, S., Purdie, F., Bickerstaffe, D., Hopper, S. and Scott, T. (2013), ‘Predicting return to work from health related welfare following low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy’, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51, 3, 134–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kemp, P.A. and Davidson, J. (2010), ‘Employability trajectories among new claimants of incapacity benefit’, Policy Studies, 31, 2, 203–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirk, R.E. (1996), ‘Practical significance: A concept whose time has come’, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 56, 5, 746–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koen, J., Klehe, U. and Van Vianen, A.E.M. (2013), ‘Employability among the long-term unem-ployed: A futile quest or worth the effort?’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82, 1, 37–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuivalainen, S. and Nelson, K. (2012), ‘Eroding minimum protection in Nordic countries? Reassessing the Nordic model of social assistance’, in Kvist, J., Fritzell, J., Hvinden, B. and Kangas, O. (eds.), Changing social equality. The Nordic model in the 21st century, Bristol: Policy Press, 67–89.Google Scholar
Madsen, P.K. (2006), ‘How can it possibly fly? The paradox of a dynamic labour market in a Scandinavian welfare state’, in Campbell, J., Hall, J. A. and Pedersen, O. K. (eds.), National identity and the varieties of capitalism. The Danish experience, Montreal: McGill University Press, 321–55.Google Scholar
Manroop, L. and Richardson, J. (2016), ‘Job search: A multidisciplinary review and research agenda’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 18, 2, 206–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McArdle, S., Waters, L., Briscoe, J.P. and Hall, D.T. (2007), ‘Employability during unemployment: Adaptability, career identity and human and social capital’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 71, 2, 247–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Labour (2000), Effekter af aktiveringsindsatsen, Copenhagen: Arbejdsministeriet.Google Scholar
Müller, M., Hussain, M.A., Larsen, J.E., Hansen, H., Hansen, F.K. and Ejrnæs, M. (2015). Fattigdom, afsavn og coping. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.Google Scholar
Nilsson, S. and Ekberg, K. (2013), ‘Employability and work ability: Returning to the labour market after long-term absence’, Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, 44, 4, 449–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quinto Romani, A. (2017), ’Videregående multivariat lineær regression’, in Hussain, M.A. and Lauridsen, J.T. (eds.), Videregående kvantitative metoder, Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur, 19–45.Google Scholar
Rosholm, M. and Vejlin, R. (2010), ‘Reducing income transfers to refugee immigrants: Does start-help help you start?’, Labour Economics, 17, 1, 258–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svane-Petersen, A.C. and Dencker-Larsen, S. (2016), ‘The impact of self-reported health and register-based prescription medicine purchases on re-employment chances: A prospective study’, SSM-Population Health, 2, 580–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2008), ‘Choice and values: Individualised rational action and social goals’, Journal of Social Policy, 37, 2, 167–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Hooft, E.A.J. (2014), ‘Motivating and hindering factors during the reemployment process: The added value of employment counselors’ assessment’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 19, 1, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Kersbergen, K. and Hemerijck, A. (2012), ‘Two decades of change in Europe: The emergence of the social investment state’, Journal of Social Policy, 41, 3, 475–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldfogel, J. (1997), ‘The Effect of Children on Women’s Wages’, American Sociological Review, 62, 2, 209–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weichselbaumer, D. and Winter-Ebmer, R. (2005), ‘A meta-analysis of the international gender wage gap’, Journal of Economic Surveys, 19, 3, 479–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, J.M. (2013), Introductory econometrics: A modern approach, 5th Edition. Mason, Ohio: South-Western, Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Wright, S. (2012), ‘Welfare-to-work, agency and personal responsibility’, Journal of Social Policy, 41, 2, 309–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar