New administrative data on welfare dynamics in Germany: the Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG)

Abstract

The Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG) is a new administrative longitudinal microdata set representative of recipients of Germany’s main welfare programme, the Unemployment Benefit II (UB II, Arbeitslosengeld II). The data set contains detailed longitudinal information on welfare receipt and labour market activities, and hence enables researchers to analyse the dynamics of benefit receipt, income and employment. A distinct feature of the SIG is that it provides information not only for individual benefit recipients but also for family members, including children and partners. This is possible because eligibility for UB II benefits depends on the household structure, and it is means-tested on household income. In addition to socio-demographic and regional information, the SIG contains extensive information on the employment biographies of benefit recipients and their household members from the Integrated Employment Biographies (IEB) of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). This allows researchers to examine the interaction between labour market participation and benefit receipt. The SIG is available to researchers at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the IAB.

Welfare recipients’ transition into employment and employment stability in Germany

“…We use administrative data from the Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG) based on jobcentre records and notifications sent by employers to health and pension insurance funds (Bruckmeier et al, 2020 provide a description of the scientific use file). The SIG comprises a 10 per cent sample of welfare recipients between 2005 and 2014.…”

Underestimating the pandemic: the Impact of Covid-19 on Income Distribution in US and Brazil

“…Italy (Brunori et al, 2020), Germany (Bruckmeier et al, 2020), Australia (Li et al, 2020), Belgium (Marchal et al, 2021), and France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden (Clark et al, 2021).…”

Linking information on unemployment benefit sanctions from different datasets about welfare receipt: proceedings and research potential

“…Third, the Unemployment II Benefit recipient history (LHG; Version V10.00.00-201,904) provides additional information on UB II recipients who are eligible for benefits and capable of work (Dummert et al 2020). The LHG includes on a daily level information about the composition of the benefit unit and the occurrence of benefit sanctions.…”

“…14 Prior to 2014 the IT procedure A2LL was used for this purpose. Linking information on unemployment benefit sanctions from different datasets about welfare… monthly basis, the LST-S contains information about standard benefit claims and the actual received benefits of eligible and registered welfare recipients (Dummert et al 2020).…”

“…16 Table 1 provides some sample statistics (Column 1) for the individuals included in the final linked dataset. I compare these statistics to those of individuals who are included in the Sample of Integrated Welfare Benefit Biographies (SIG) dataset, which is a representative dataset for UB II recipients in Germany and contains information ranging from 2007 until 2017 (see Bruckmeier et al 2020 for an introduction and Dummert et al 2020 for the data report). Approximately half of the welfare recipients included in the SIG are female (cf.…”