The "Employment-first" Welfare State: Lessons from the New Deal for Young People

New Labour is constructing an “employment‐first” welfare state. It plans through Jobcentre Plus to transform the passive culture of the benefit system by creating more explicit links between individual behaviour and engagement with labour market programmes. The New Deal for Young People (NDYP) has been at the forefront of these changes. This paper reports on the findings from four case studies that explored how the NDYP has changed young people's experience of the welfare state. It establishes that NDYP offers a mixture of employment assistance and “pressure” and has made progress in developing front‐line services and helping young long‐term unemployed people into work. NDYP does not, however, work for all. In areas of high unemployment and for some disadvantaged groups intermediate labour markets could enhance the New Deal and make real the offer of “employment opportunities for all”.     

Making welfare work: UK activation policies under New Labour

This paper describes and briefly evaluates the major "New Deal" activation policies introduced by the UK New Labour government since 1997. It outlines the ambitious project to modernize the UK economy and welfare state and, within this overall strategy, to end child poverty and to tackle social exclusion by encouraging movement from welfare benefits into work, and by making work pay. Three sets of New Deal programmes are discussed: those targeted on unemployed claimants, lone parents and people with disabilities. The paper concludes that real change has been achieved with measurable beneficial effects but that there are threats to the further elaboration and extension of the New Deal model.     

From Subsidiarity to 'Free Choice': Child- and Elder-care Policy Reforms in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

This article analyses the patterns of reform in care policies in Bismarckian welfare systems since the early 1980s. Based on a comparison of France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, the article shows that these reforms share similar logics and trajectories, which can be explained by the shared conservative and corporatist traits of Bismarckian labour markets and welfare state institutions and their impact on labour market adjustment possibilities and preferences. Indeed, we argue that care policy reforms have been very closely linked to specific employment strategies, and the politics of welfare without work and subsequent attempts to shift away from such a labour-shedding strategy go a long way in explaining both the nature and the timing of child- and elder-care policy reforms in Bismarckian welfare systems. The article also shows how a focus on promoting ‘free choice’ in all four countries has justified the introduction of measures that have simultaneously reinforced social stratification in terms of access to the labour market – meaning that some women have much more ‘free choice’ than others – and weakened certain labour market rigidities. To conclude, we argue that care policy reforms have provided a backdoor for the introduction of labour-cheapening measures and for increasing employment flexibility in otherwise very rigid labour markets.     

The Italian Case: From Employment Regulation to Welfare Reforms?

This article on the Italian case is based on recent trends in labour market reform. We critically review the reform approach adopted in recent years, mainly centred on marginal legislative reforms in employment contracts. The diffusion of flexible labour contracts, especially among the younger generations and women, together with a welfare system still based on employment seniority and job characteristics, have reinforced the segmentation of the Italian labour market and social inequalities. The absence of a negotiating strategy in introducing reforms has also increased social conflict. These trends ask for a comprehensive reform of the welfare system and for active policies to support labour market transitions, a reform which is increasingly considered in the current political debate.     

The Workfare Illusion: Re-examining the Concept and the British Case

This article contends that workfare programmes pursued by various OECD countries since the mid‐1990s do not amount to a fundamental change in policy. The limited potential of workfare is due to the fact that it fails to transcend the constraints of earlier forms of ‘active’ responses to unemployment. Furthermore, it suffers from specific policy‐making disadvantages not shared by these responses. The article opens with a survey of relevant academic debates on the subject. It then places workfare in a broader context by identifying its functional reach, as compared to other active policy responses to unemployment such as active labour market policy (ALMP). The third section analyses workfare policies in the United Kingdom, as developed since 1997, by re‐examining the British New Deal employment programme. That review demonstrates that workfare policies either depend on their ‘fit’ with the existing policy‐making heritage, or that they remain merely symbolic. The article concludes by suggesting that the potential of workfare to effect change in responses to unemployment continues to be of limited significance. In other words, capitalist employment and welfare systems continue to be characterized by incremental adaptation rather than by fundamental regime change as suggested by the critics of workfare.     

The Dutch and Danish Miracles Revisited: A Critical Discussion of Activation Policies in Two Small Welfare States

Denmark and the Netherlands are usually considered to belong to two different families of welfare states: the Scandinavian and the Continental model respectively. Yet, in both states active labour market policies, or activation, have increased during the 1990s and are currently prominent. Both in Denmark and in the Netherlands activation has been viewed as an important reason for the low unemployment rates which both states have experienced since the early to mid‐1990s, hence explaining the so‐called Dutch and Danish jobs miracles. The paper examines critically the activation measures taken in both countries and their alleged positive effect upon (un)employment. It further examines their effect on rights and obligations from a citizenship perspective. The paper concludes that in both cases the positive development of labour market performance cannot primarily be attributed to activation measures. Furthermore, activation has reduced the entitlements and increased the obligations affiliated with social citizenship.     

Financial Incentives and Job‐search Training: Methods to Increase Labour Market Integration in Contemporary Welfare States?

In their efforts to increase labour market integration, contemporary welfare states emphasize the importance of financial incentives, active job‐searching and participation in labour market programmes. However, the effects of these policies have been minor and in some cases even inconsistent. The aim of this study was to examine whether and how financial incentives and job‐search training programmes increase re‐employment and the quality of re‐employment. A total of 1,015 unemployed persons participated in a Finnish follow‐up study with a randomized experimental design. Although no overall impact of job‐search training on re‐employment emerged, a positive effect was found for those groups of the unemployed who had a financial incentive to participate in the programme. Nevertheless, among unemployed workers with benefits at a minimum level there were no positive effects on the quality of re‐employment, and the impact decreased when unemployment was prolonged. Financial incentives and job‐search training appear to increase re‐employment among those of the unemployed who generally have better chances on the labour market, whereas these measures are not sufficient for the more disadvantaged groups of the unemployed.     

Activation and social inclusion: challenges and possibilities

The last two decades have seen an increasing focus on the activation of individuals receiving welfare benefits. This has entailed an attempt to transform employment assistance and social security systems to make them more employment‐friendly through the development of explicit linkages between social protection policies, labour market participation and labour market programs. At the same time there has been a growing interest in the concept of social inclusion, and social inclusion has been a commonly stated goal of activation programs. However, despite some synergies between these two approaches, in other respects it is not clear that they are always compatible. This paper explores the extent to which activation programs are central to the social inclusion approach and the similarities and differences between these approaches. It then briefly examines the evidence regarding the ability of activation programs to enhance social inclusion.     

New social risks in postindustrial society: Some evidence on responses to active labour market policies from Eurobarometer

One result of the complex economic and social changes currently impacting on state welfare is the emergence of what may be termed "new social risks" as part of the shift to a postindustrial society. These concern access to adequately paid employment, particularly for lower-skilled young people, in an increasingly flexible labour market, and managing work-life balance for women with family responsibilities engaged in full-time careers. They coexist with the old social risks that traditional welfare states developed to meet, which typically concern retirement from or interruption to paid work, in most cases for a male "breadwinner". New social risks offer policymakers the opportunity to transform vice into virtue by replacing costly passive benefits with policies which mobilize the workforce, arguably enhancing economic competitiveness, and reduce poverty among vulnerable groups. However, the political constituencies to support such policies are weak, since the risks affect people most strongly at particular life stages and among specific groups. This paper examines attitudes to new social risk labour market policies in four contrasting European countries. It shows that attitudes in this area are strongly embedded in overall beliefs about the appropriate scale, direction and role of state welfare interventions, so that the weakness of new social risk constituencies does not necessarily undermine the possibility of attracting support for such policies, provided they are developed in ways that do not contradict national traditions of welfare state values.     

The Political Consequences of Outsider Labour Market Status in the United States: A Micro‐level Study

This article contributes to recent research that seeks to understand the political consequences of ‘outsider’ labour market status. There is an emerging consensus that labour market outsiders have systematically different policy preferences and display systematically different political behaviour to securely employed ‘insiders’ in Europe. Yet the political consequences of outsider status in the USA are less clear. They may be expected to differ from those that have been documented in the European context, because: (1) the USA is characterized by low employment protection of insiders; and (2) there is evidence that Americans are more reluctant than Europeans to hold governments responsible for personal economic hardship. We therefore use the General Social Survey to examine how outsider labour market status is related to voting behaviour and to social policy preferences in the USA. We find that the concept of ‘labour market outsider’ – as conventionally operationalized – holds little explanatory power in the American context. Disaggregating the outsider category, our results suggest that the political consequences of outsider labour market status may be contingent on individual beliefs about government responsibility.     

Combining Work and Care: Carers' Decision-making in the Context of Competing Policy Pressures

Issues related to paid work and care are of global importance, reflecting the twin pressures of population ageing and efforts to increase labour market participation. Informal carers of sick, disabled or older people can experience tensions between policies aimed at support for care and support for employment. This article discusses a study of carers’ decision‐making around work and care, drawing on evidence from interviews with 80 working‐age carers in England. Carers are not homogeneous; their circumstances and needs differ reflecting age, gender, ethnicity, labour market participation, and the condition and/or needs of the person they support. This diversity is illustrated by contrasting rural and urban carers’ decisions and experiences about work and care. Key factors that impact on carers’ decisions are: current and anticipated financial need; the constraints arising from receipt of carers’ and other means‐tested income maintenance benefits; personal identity; job opportunities and scope for flexibility; social services provision; carers’ own health. Distance, travel times and transport are unique additional challenges for rural carers who (wish to) work. These difficulties are further intensified when they intersect with other factors such as the Carer's Allowance, the local labour market and social services provision. The findings are evaluated in terms of the adequacy of current government policy measures.     

The Informal Economy: A Case Study in Unrestrained Competition

The New Labour government in Britain is the first post-deregulation regime in Europe and the first to attempt to re-regulate the labour market. In particular, its welfare-to-work programme and New Deal for Lone Parents are aimed at shifting activities from the informal to the formal economy, and at enlarging labour market participation. Its commitment to social justice and inclusion is closely linked to increased employment opportunities and a responsibility for contributing to national prosperity. The new programmes must also reconcile these aims with the retention of the flexibility that it sees as giving Britain a competitive edge over other European economies. In order to combine efficiency and equity, increased participation must not involve excessive transaction and enforcement costs. The problem is that those at present engaged in the informal economy (and especially in undeclared cash work while claiming) do not have strong incentives to cooperate with the new schemes. This paper uses the example of the informal relations of taxi-driving in a small town to illustrate the paradoxes of this situation. It is a case study in the rational strategies of individual actors, which collectively frustrate each other; and in the difficulties of starting collective action for mutual restraint of competition. The New Labour government must solve many such problems if its policies are to succeed.     

Social investment,social service and the economic performance of welfare states

This article begins with an examination of the role of social services as the key instrument of social investment strategy, presenting an empirical analysis of its impact on economic performance. A pooled time series, cross‐section analysis was conducted with the data of 15 welfare states from 1990 to 2007 under the ‘social investment hypothesis’ that more social service orientedness brings about a greater positive effect on the economy. The results show that a larger share of social service spending in the total social expenditure – more social service orientedness – contributes to economic growth and labour market performance, whereas a larger aggregate size of the welfare state may have a negative effect on employment. In conclusion, this study suggests that the relatively ambiguous welfare strategy of social investment could be clarified as a ‘transition from income security to livelihood security’ in which emphasis is placed on social service. Key Practitioner Message: ● This study suggests that the key instrument of social investment strategy is social service; ● The results show that more social service orientedness contributes to economic growth and labour market performance.     

Gender inequalities in European unemployment benefit systems

The most important structural change which has occurred on the labour market over the past 30 years is the sustained and continued growth of female labour supply. Two-earner couples have become a majority in most European countries and lone parents, mostly women, are also on the rise. On the other hand, since 1975, labour market policies have altered the quality and nature of employment in Europe by promoting atypical forms of employment where women are overrepresented. The analysis has shown us that atypical employment results in restricted access to unemployment benefits. Moreover, combining the presence of more stringent conditions with derived rights results in more and more women being dependent upon their spouses for financial as well as social protection and can even have a disincentive effect on formal labour market participation.     

New Labour, Old Functionalism: The Underlying Contradictions of Welfare Reform in the US and the UK

Through references to Hansard, official papers, Fabian pamphlets and pertinent texts from the fields of politics, sociology and social policy, this piece illustrates the similarities of thought behind the deliberations of New Labour and those of the early American functionalists and their modern-day counterparts. Examination of the rhetoric used by both parties shows that there are three main focal points of comparison. On one level there is a shared belief in the cohesive impetus of realistic 'aspiration' in a stratified society. On another, there is a mutual desire to balance individual 'rights' with communal 'responsibilities'. Finally, there is a common concern over the apperceived problem of the 'underclass' and how to deal with it. On the basis that these interrelated topics influenced social policy through the intensity of debate around them, the piece moves on to set the resultant American and British models of 'workfare' alongside the proposed 'New Deals' of New Labour. This has a threefold purpose. First, by detailing these examples the influence of the likes of Charles Murray and Lawrence Mead in future Labour policy may be observed. Second, the American association is particularly important in that the theoretical basis and practical experience of US social policy in the 1980s can act as an actual, realized example of the problems facing the proposed welfare policies of New Labour. Third, this comparison allows the piece to move on and discuss the failings of such authoritarian welfare programmes in the light of modern capitalism and modern society. In this way a conclusion on the effectiveness of New Labour and its unrealized 'New Deal' for Britain is broached.     

Jobless or Working Poor in the Kyrgyz Labour Market: What Role for Social Policies?

This paper attempts to identify the multiple aspects of vulnerability in the Kyrgyz labour market. Particular attention is devoted to the working poor and precarious workers. This analysis is undertaken using the Kyrgyz Poverty Monitoring Survey, which is the only survey to date that allows a comprehensive analysis of poverty and labour market outcomes in the Kyrgyz Republic. The period under investigation covers the years 1997 to 1998, for which data are available. The results point to the extreme vulnerability of individuals with less education and women, who cumulated a high risk of being unemployed, of remaining longer in unemployment, of being discouraged unemployed and, if employed, of being low‐paid or working in precarious jobs. Other groups facing a high risk of exclusion, both from and within employment, were people with disabilities, individuals living in rural or depressed areas, young people and internal migrants. The multiple aspects of vulnerability in the Kyrgyz labour market, in particular the large overlap between work and poverty, have important implications for the design of effective social policies.     

Labour Force Participation,Social Inclusion and the Fair Work Act: Current and Carbon‐Constrained Contexts

The notion that employment is a precondition for personal wellbeing and social inclusion is almost sacrosanct in Australian culture. Yet, the working and living conditions of Australia's low paid workers tells a different story. While labour market participation is a cornerstone of the Federal Government's Social Inclusion Agenda, it is recognized that low pay and poor job quality often derail this key objective. Indeed, the difficulty of ‘making work pay’ at the bottom end of the labour market is a social inclusion challenge that has yet to receive the policy or public attention that it warrants. This article considers what the Fair Work Act means for the social inclusion of disadvantaged workers, in the context of wider‐ranging strategies to address low pay. It concludes with some considerations of the challenges that a carbon‐constrained economy is likely to present for labour force participation as a remedy for social exclusion.     

The Recognition of Wifely Labour by Welfare States

This article is concerned with questions about the amount of support given by welfare states towards the maintenance of a wife engaged in housework and child care. It compares the value of the support supplied by the tax/benefit packages of 15 countries. The article defines support for wifely labour as the difference between the net disposable income of a single person and a couple with the same earnings. In analysing the data, three models are used: the “traditional” model where the wife is economically dependent on her husband; the “modern” model where the wife remains outside the labour market while she has young children; and the “dual breadwinner” model where the mother of young children is in full- or part-time employment. Much of the analysis is concerned with patterns of social policy in which support for wives is associated with support for children. While the evidence shows that welfare states do provide support to wives, both with and without young children and engaged in paid as well as unpaid work, the levels of support vary greatly between welfare states. The variations are not associated with the generally discussed categorizations of welfare state types.     

Labour Markets,Care Regimes and Foreign Care Worker Policies in East Asia

This article analyzes the politics of foreign care worker policies in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In the face of socio‐demographic challenges, these countries have responded differently to the increasing demand for hiring foreign care workers, creating distinct policies with respect to the origins of the foreign care workforce, the size of the foreign care workforce in the labour market, and job specifications. In this article, I argue that the interaction of female employment patterns, the public provision (or lack) of social care, and labour market policies in the care service sector determines the diverging political pathways of foreign care worker policies in these three countries over the past two decades.     

Differences in Well‐being among People with Disabilities in Paid Employment: Level of Restriction,Gender and Labour Market Context

This study investigates the variability in well‐being of people with disabilities in paid employment in two different labour market contexts: the beginning (1998) and end (2009) of a period of growth in non‐standard hours and work intensification. It focuses on the well‐being constraints that arise from three influences: a person's disability, a person's gender, and the labour market context. Hypotheses are developed using the social model of disability and social identity theory. Hierarchical moderator regression is employed to examine two national samples of nearly 4,000 people with disabilities in paid employment. Individuals who are most limited by their disabilities, particularly women, reported lower well‐being in 2009 than in 1998. Welfare‐to‐work policies affecting these disadvantaged groups are discussed in relation to the labour market and national regulatory environments.