Download or read book The Battle against Exclusion Social Assistance in Belgium the Czech Republic the Netherlands and Norway written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 1998-11-06 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutions whose goal is to help those at the margins have been a feature of social life for centuries. Today, social assistance institutions have integration and encouragement as their goal. They seek to avoid exclusion and stigmatisation ...

Download or read book The Battle against Exclusion Social Assistance in Canada and Switzerland written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 1999-10-20 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares social assistance policies in four Canadian provinces -- Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan -- and four Swiss cantons -- Graubünden, Ticino, Vaud and Zürich.

Download or read book The Battle Against Exclusion Social assistance in Belgium the Czech Republic the Netherlands and Norway written by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutions whose goal is to help those at the margins have been a feature of social life for centuries. Today, social assistance institutions have integration and encouragement as their goal. They seek to avoid exclusion and stigmatisation. Poverty can tear at the fabric of society. However, preventing hardship among those with no resources while reducing exclusion and marginalisation is no easy task. How can social assistance best balance these goals, minimising disincentives to paid employment? What can be done to promote independence and individual responsibility?This book compares the social assistance policies of Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway. Although at first sight these countries appear very different, in fact the same policy dilemmas exist in the four countries. That local action is necessary to identify and help the excluded is accepted, but the balance between ensuring that sufficient resources are available at the local level while limiting budgets so as to ensure efficient use of resources is a continuing preoccupation. Governments stress their commitment to combat poverty, but benefits cannot be raised too high because this would harm work incentives. Different institutions sometimes disagree about whether benefit recipients are "job ready" or whether more social help is needed. No country has yet found a policy package which prevents exclusion, but innovative policies in each of these four countries are proving successful in limiting its extent.

Download or read book Using Social Benefits to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion written by Matti Heikkilä and published by Council of Europe. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the nature and scope of the problem of poverty, examines the political responses to poverty (examples of different countries); and investigates the existence and use of various definitions and thresholds applied to poverty in policy making . It also examines the variations within income transfers, i.e. social benefits designed to prevent or alleviate poverty and material hardship and explores the effectiveness of benefit schemes in reducing poverty.--Publisher's description.

Download or read book The Battle against Exclusion Social Assistance in Australia Finland Sweden and the United Kingdom written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 1998-01-23 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the performance of social assistance policies in four countries with similar per capita incomes: Australia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Download or read book Minimum Income Protection in Flux written by I. Marx and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-11-19 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current economic crisis has presented itself as a formidable challenge to the welfare states of Europe. It is more relevant than ever to ask: do existing minimum income protection schemes succeed in adequately protecting citizens, be it whether they are excluded from work, working, retired, or having children? Drawing on in-depth and up-to-date institutional data from across Europe and the US, this volume details the reality of minimum income protection policies over time. Including contributions from leading scholars in the field, each chapter provides a systematic cross-national analysis of minimum income protection policies, developing concrete policy guidance on an issue at the heart of the European debate.

Download or read book Activation or Workfare Governance and the Neo Liberal Convergence written by Ivar Lodemel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-29 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last decade of the 20th century was marked by a shift in how welfare-states deal with those at the bottom of the income ladder. This shift involved the introduction/strengthening of work-obligations as a condition for receiving minimum income benefits - which, in some countries, was complemented by efforts to help recipients return to the labour market, namely through the investment in active labour market policies (ALMP). Based on case-studies of developments in the US and eight European nations (UK, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal and the Czech Republic), this book argues that this first set of reforms was followed by a second wave of reforms that, whilst deepening the path towards the focus on work, brings important innovations- be it the tools used to help recipients back to the labour markets (ex., financial incentives) and in how activation policies are delivered (ex., integration of benefit and employment services). Looking at the array of developments introduced during this period, we discern two key trends. The first concerns the strengthening of the role of the market in the governance of activation, which is visible in the strengthening of the focus on work, or the marketisation of employment services. The second, concerns a move towards the individualisation of service delivery, visible in the expansion of the use of personal action plans or in efforts to streamline service delivery. Finally, we show that the onset of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, has triggered a new wave of reforms. Whilst tentative only, our analysis points to a worrying trend of the curtailment or benefits (Portugal) and activation services (Netherlands, Czech Republic) to minimum income recipients and, in parallel, a further deepening of the focus on work-conditionality (UK and Norway).

Download or read book At the Margins of the Welfare State written by Christina Behrendt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-18 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The persistence of poverty in advanced welfare states casts doubt on the fundamental operating procedures of income distribution and redistribution. What are the reasons for this apparent failure of the welfare state in alleviating poverty? Why are some countries more effective than others in this respect and what can explain these variations in effectiveness? Addressing one of the major puzzles in comparative welfare state research, this volume examines why there is income poverty in highly developed welfare states. Focusing on the basic safety net of the welfare state, it offers a systematic analysis of the effectiveness of minimum income schemes in a comparative study across three highly developed welfare states: Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Blending insights from a combination of institutional information and quantitative data from income surveys, the author evaluates the causal mechanisms for the persistence of income poverty in highly developed welfare states and derives conclusions for political reforms

Download or read book Income Support for the Poorest written by Emil Tesliuc and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-06-26 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study reviews the role and workings, with their strengths and weaknesses of last-resort income support (LRIS) programs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It draws on a combination of household survey and administrative data for a large group of countries and detailed case studies for a smaller number of countries that span the spectrum of the income range in the region. It thus combines the value of wide, comparable multi-country work with that of in-depth, country-specific probing on key themes. The experiences of LRIS programs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have demonstrated the technical feasibility of highly efficient poverty-targeted programs in the region. The detailed case studies suggest how programs can improve their coverage, control error and fraud and be implemented effectively in decentralized settings. This experience is pertinent to other regions as well, adding to the know-how for poverty targeting programs in middle and low income countries. Perhaps especially importantly, the book shows that means testing can be accomplished in settings with sizeable informal sectors and at reasonable administrative costs. The study also suggests that currently the role of last resort income support programs within the overall social protection systems of the region is often too small and that their eligibility thresholds should be revised and indexed, so that the programs continue to serve a meaningful swath of the low income households in each country. Moreover the programs can be used as the nexus to weave together a variety of income supports and services for low income households.

Download or read book Pushing Ahead with Reform in Korea Labour Market and Social Safety net Policies written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2000-06-26 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows that government labour and social policies, together with improved basic workers’ rights, helped minimise the costs of Korea's economic and financial crisis while also contributing to overcome it.

Download or read book A Caring World The New Social Policy Agenda written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 1999-03-15 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book paints a complete and accessible picture of the current situation and shows how to reform policy. Social policy should aim to promote employment and healthy living, rather than just coping with joblessness and ill-health. Investing in children and families ensures that all can contribute.

Download or read book Counting the Poor written by Douglas J. Besharov and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-05 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions from the world's foremost authorities on social measurement, this volume promises to be the definitive reference for poverty researchers and policymakers seeking to disengage politics from measurement.

Download or read book Social Security in the Global Village written by Christina Behrendt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is growing recognition that globalization places major pressures on the development of social security schemes. Internationalization of the economy has important consequences for labor markets: employment is becoming less secure and inequality and social exclusion more pronounced in many countries. At the same time, there are some fundamental socio-demographic changes: new family structures, an aging population, and migration. Increased uncertainty and exclusion intensify the need for social security. Both the public and private sectors are redefining their roles, reshuffling responsibilities between states, markets, families, and individuals. Social Security in the Global Village investigates the new challenges for social security in an increasingly globalized world and analyzes strategies of adjustment. A group of internationally renowned experts in this field assess the variety of effects that globalization has had on national social security schemes. A common theme of a first set of chapters is the relationship between common pressures of globalization and the role of national institutional frameworks in shaping the impact of these pressures on social security. Countries are dealing in different ways with these challenges and follow diverse pathways of adjustment that quite often contradict widespread assumptions about the effects of globalization. A second set of chapters is devoted to challenges in selected policy areas: migration, labor markets, and social cohesion issues. Among the topical issues discussed are the social rights of migrants, the changing rights and obligations in unemployment insurance, lessons to be drawn for the promotion of employment, the relationship between family policy and employment policy for mothers, the management of social risks, and the protection of an adequate income in an active welfare state. Research can help to enlighten and inform the policy debate about the legitimacy of social security in the new, glob

Download or read book European Social Charter written by European Committee of Social Rights and published by Council of Europe. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 9 - Italy.

Download or read book The Generational Welfare Contract written by Simon Birnbaum and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-25 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book brings together perspectives from political philosophy and comparative social policy to discuss generational justice. Contributing new insights about the preconditions for designing sustainable, inclusive policies for all of society, the authors expose the possibilities of supporting egalitarian principles in an aging society through balanced generational welfare contracts.

Download or read book Social Market Or Safety Net written by Stephens, Mark and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2002-02-20 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social rented housing in Britain is undergoing radical reform - often inspired by European experiences. This timely report provides a comparative analysis of the social rented sector in seven European countries. Combined with analysis of labour market and social security systems, it challenges the assumptions behind the British reform agenda. Social market or safety net?: analyses the ownership, allocation, pricing and financing of the social rented sector in seven European countries; presents the first comparative data on the social composition of the main tenures; highlights the comparative poverty of tenants of social rented housing in the UK compared with their European counterparts; links housing to social security systems; provides a critique of the current reform agenda in the UK

Download or read book Social Policy and Poverty in East Asia written by James Midgley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-09-11 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at the role of social policy and particularly social security in addressing the ongoing challenge of poverty in East Asia despite the region’s spectacular experience of economic growth in decent decades. The East Asian miracle resulted over the last four decades in a transformation of the region’s traditional agrarian economies and significant increases in standards of living for many ordinary people. Even though it was given little attention, poverty has remained an ongoing problem. The problem became particularly evident however with the Asian financial crisis of 1997 when many low income and middle class workers became unemployed. As a result of this crisis, the need for effective social policies and social security programs were recognized. The idea that economic growth would solve the problem of poverty was increasingly challenged. Even in China today, where rapid growth has created new employment opportunities and the promise of prosperity for many, the government has recognized that the problem of poverty cannot be addressed only through economic growth but that comprehensive social policies must be formulated, and this includes the development of an effective security system.