Smaller net or just fewer to catch? Disentangling the causes for the varying sizes of minimum income schemes

Tervola, Jussi; Jokela, Merita; Ollonqvist, Joonas

doi:10.1111/ijsw.12553

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…simulating the effect of different national policy features with fixed microdata (e.g. Popova, 2016;Tervola et al, 2023). However, simulating the contribution requirement, for example, requires detailed comparative microdata of past employment spells which may be hard to find.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The blurred line between social insurance and social assistance — analysis of risk-based benefits in six countries

Tervola,

Iivonen,

Hiilamo

2024

Preprint

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Social insurance and social assistance reflect fundamental principles of social policies. Social insurance benefits cover employed individuals against a social risk event such as unemployment or disability in exchange of paid contributions. Social assistance benefits, in turn, are designed typically to secure the minimum standard of living, regardless of past contribution. In this article we ask if the dualism is feasible to depict contemporary social benefits that cover traditional social risks: unemployment, childbirth, sickness, disability, and old age. A policy analysis of six European countries with extensive social security systems – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, and United Kingdom – demonstrates that while traditional insurance benefits and assistance benefits still make up the majority of risk-based benefits, also different kinds of deviations from the pure forms are observed. Some countries provide hybrid benefits where past contribution affects benefit rate, but non-contributory minimum is guaranteed for all facing the risk. Some countries provide income-tested contributory benefits which is against the traditional insurance logic. Moreover, universal flat-rate benefits are found especially covering the risk of old age.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The blurred line between social insurance and social assistance — analysis of risk-based benefits in six countries

Tervola,

Iivonen,

Hiilamo

2024

Preprint

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“…Benefi t programmes have long been overlooked in social policy research (Morris, 2023). Currently, some scientifi c studies focus on the disproportionality in granting of social security benefi ts in relation to regions (Sales-Fonseca and Otero, 2023;Tervola et al, 2023), on the insuffi cient valorization of social security benefi ts due to infl ation (Hartmann-Cortés, 2022) or examining relationships between the level of social security benefi ts and fi nancial vulnerability (Šubová, 2023). The topic of abuse of social security benefi ts can therefore be identifi ed as an important scientifi c gap that needs to be fi lled.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of Claims Arising from Abuse of Non-insurance Social Security Benefit System

Kukalová,

Moravec,

Hinke

et al. 2023

Politicka ekonomie

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The paper presents the volume of debts incurred as part of non-insurance social security benefits in the Czech Republic from 2016 to 2020 and defines the structure of these debts by individual types of non-insurance social security benefits, where 25% is attributable to parental allowance, followed by housing allowance (17%) and subsistence allowance (20%). The analysis deals with the number of debts broken down into paid, collected, settled by other means, written off for uncollectibility or extinction of the right. The study works with unique data obtained by summarisation from the application programmes used by the Labour Office of the Czech Republic, which showed a continuous decrease in total identified claims by 46% between 2016 and 2020. An analysis of time series and a regression and correlation analysis are performed in the paper. These methods confirm a decreasing trend in the number of total debts and a decreasing proportion of paid debts over time, in contrast to the ratio of outstanding debts, which has been increasing over time. Lastly, they also identify variability in the structure of social security benefits, i.e., inconsistency in the share of individual benefits over the period under review. Social expenditures are fundamental to state spending, but addressing their potential misuse is a sensitive political issue. From an economic perspective, this paradoxical situation leads to overlooking potential resources that could be potentially available through the elimination of purposeful exploitation of the social system, leaving the question of the frequency of purposeful claiming unanswered. Any potential political decision to reduce social expenditures, without an economic evaluation of the frequency and volume of purposefully claimed benefits from the social system, may not be optimal.

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Zero Poverty Society

Marchal,

Marx

2024

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This book is about preventing poverty. The notion that every person living amidst the relative affluence of the rich world has a right to a minimum income enabling social participation, be it frugally and soberly, holds as a fundamental matter of social justice to most people. But how can we make sure that every person has a decent minimum income allowing for a life in dignity in societies rich enough to afford such a right? How can we ensure that minimum income support is cost-effective and compatible with other goals such as promoting work effort, self-reliance, and upward mobility? How can political support for such schemes be fostered and made robust? This book assesses the current state of minimum income protection in the rich world, building on original empirical analysis and thorough literature reviews. What are best practices to learn from? It also engages with debates on topics as diverse as optimal targeting and means-testing, administrative complexity, non-take-up, behavioural economics, the political economy of minimum income protection, and basic income. Sarah Marchal and Ive Marx conclude that more adequate poverty prevention is possible, without the costs having to be prohibitive. However, they are sceptical about ‘silver-bullet’ solutions such as basic income. Adequate minimum income protection is not a matter of getting one scheme or policy right. It is a matter of getting multiple policy levers right, in the right configuration. Incremental, context-conscious expansion is the way forward if we really care about the most vulnerable.

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Smaller net or just fewer to catch? Disentangling the causes for the varying sizes of minimum income schemes

Cited by 13 publications

References 48 publications

The blurred line between social insurance and social assistance — analysis of risk-based benefits in six countries

The blurred line between social insurance and social assistance — analysis of risk-based benefits in six countries

Recovery of Claims Arising from Abuse of Non-insurance Social Security Benefit System

Zero Poverty Society

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