Welfare Reform on the Web (October 2001): Social Security - Overseas
COMMITMENT TO WORK AMONG WELFARE - RELIANT WOMEN
P A Monroe and V V Tiller
Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 63, 2001, p.816-828.
Research allows the voices and stories of 84 welfare-reliant women from rural communities in the US to reveal where and how commitment to work exists in their world. Discussion focuses on:
- the women's formal labour market participation in the past and desire for paid work in the future;
- barriers to labour market participation, both personal and in the rural job market;
- informal work and the work of care;
- support networks;
- survival strategies for making ends meet while receiving welfare;
- the stigma of welfare receipt.
DISABILITY INSURANCE AND THE LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION OF OLDER MEN AND WOMEN IN CANADA
M Campolieti
Canadian Public Policy, vol.23, 2001, p.179-194.
Paper estimates the effects of the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan (C/QPP) disability programme on labour force participation rates of older people. The regression estimates indicated, for the most part, that the "implicit" replacement rates of C/QPP disability benefits have reduced the labour force participation of older people.
FUNDS SHORTFALL IN JOBLESS SCHEME
M Nakamoto
Financial Times, Jul.19th 2001, p.9.
Japan's labour insurance scheme has been paying out more in unemployment benefits than it has been receiving in premiums over the last six years. This has resulted in a fall in the schemes reserves from a peak of about Y4,750 bn (£27 bn) in 1995 to just Y139.2 bn this year. The article goes on to discuss the options available to the Japanese government to resolve the situation.
THE LABOUR MARKET ORIENTATION OF SINGLE MOTHERS ON WELFARE IN THE NETHERLANDS
F van Wel and T Knijn
Journal of Marriage and Family, vol.63, 2001, p.804-815.
Following the implementation of the General Assistance Act 1996 in the Netherlands, single parents are obliged to seek work as soon as their youngest child reaches the age of five. This article presents a study of 1,049 Dutch single mothers on welfare. Using LISREL, a conceptual model is examined for the effects of both past and present circumstances on their labour market orientation and steps towards a full time job. Results show that an individual mother's motivation to work is particularly related to the importance she attaches to caring as opposed to working and to the problems she anticipates in combining care and work.
PREDICTING THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN WELFARE PAYMENTS ON THE PROBABILITIES OF RECEIVING ALTERNATE SOURCES OF INCOME: THE CASE OF HOMELESS PERSONS IN LOS ANGELES
S J Conroy
Contemporary Economic Policy, vol.19, 2001, p.299-312.
Using a cross-sectional random sample of 1,489 homeless persons in Los Angeles, the author analyses the effect of reducing state benefits on:
- the probability of earning
- the level of income from various traditional and non-traditional sources.
Findings suggest that reducing state benefits by $100 increases the probability of receiving income from traditional and non-traditional sources by 1.37% and 2.18% respectively. Among the latter are selling items on the streets (eg. sex, drugs) and "other" sources (eg. theft).