Social assistance in Austria: regulating the poor as in-between

Not only the concept of social inclusion is widely recognized as an important basis today for making social policy, but it also provides a platform for the policing of the poor. Thinking uncritically about social inclusion prevents us from seeing how it operates to re-inscribe subordination even as we help the poor overcome their marginalization. With an awareness of the paradox of inclusion, it is possible to examine how welfare policy today operates to discipline the poor as people who must accept their plight at the bottom of the socioeconomic order. While formal policy may not make this paradox apparent, the disciplinary effects of an inclusionary social assistance policy are starkly visible when we examine its implementation, where we can see how the excluded become included in ways that perpetuate their subordination. Social assistance recipients obtain a benefit, but the way they are treated does not correspond with full social rights, which is reminiscent of Georg Simmel's discussion of the poor. As exemplified by research at one local social assistance office in Austria, welfare recipients are ultimately neither included nor excluded. Welfare, as administered today, upholds the system of social stratification by perpetuating an ‘in-between’ status for the claimants of social assistance benefits at the frontline.     

The potential of the SSI program to reduce poverty among the elderly

Is it more effective to reduce poverty among the elderly by increasing the benefits paid by the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program or by increasing eligibility for the program? This paper answers that question from a policymaker's perspective. At given program cost levels, we compare the potential reduction in poverty from increasing benefit levels to the potential reduction associated with a variety of policy proposals that would increase eligibility for the program. This paper employs a microsimulation model containing an eligibility and benefits calculator, a participation model, and an optimization algorithm. The data are from the Survey of Income and Program Participation supplemented by the administrative records of the SSI program. The results show that increasing eligibility by relaxing the restrictions of the means tests can be more effective in reducing poverty than raising benefit levels.     

Creating stabilizers and safety nets for successor executives' high‐wire act

This article explores executive succession planning in a nonprofit health care organization with a strong values‐based culture. Case study research was used to explore how retiring executives have prepared the organization for their departure and have used various strategies in an attempt to limit any potentially negative impact.     

Women and Economic Security in Retirement:Implications for Social Security Reform

Gender-related parenting roles lower incomes of women during the working-age years and in retirement years. National retirement income programs contribute to this gender-related difference in retirement income to the degree that they consider lifetime earnings in calculating benefits. This article examines two national pension systems: those of Australia and Sweden. The pension systems of these two countries often are considered as the extremes of pension generosity, and they are based upon different philosophies about the role of government in insuring against economic risk. Due to fiscal issues and the changing roles of women in the labor market, both have reformed their systems. How system reforms can balance the role of the government in insuring against income risk and the growing financial independence of women in the work force are discussed.     

Social resistance and the exploited poor in the low-income marketplace

Ce texte traite des mesures de résistance courantes chez les consommateurs à faible revenu. Les résultats font croire que les débiteurs se trouvent souvent en conflit ouvert et actif vis-à-vis les représentants des entreprises de consommation. Les regrets, la réserve, l'adaptation - ce ne sont là qu'un certain genre de réaction de la part de quelques-uns. L'évidence recueillie au cours d'interviews avec des membres de regroupements de citoyens et de consommateurs à faible revenu, suggère fortement que des réactions très différentes, telles que le refus de se laisser dominer, le déjouement des plans des grosses compagnies, la contestation, la lutte politique, etc., sont les méthodes courantes de résistance envers les agences de recouvrement. Une typologie de résistance créancière a été développée et les implications plus vastes du malaise social dans les com-munautés à faible revenu sont analysées.
This paper is concerned with the debt resistance practices of low-income consumers. The findings suggest that debtors are often in active and antagonistic relationships with consumer control agents. Self-blame, withdrawal, and adaptation are some of the responses of the morally defeated. But evidence from citizen's groups and low-income consumers interviewed strongly suggest that refusing, upstaging, outmanoeuvering, subverting, striking back, and political struggle are common methods of resisting debt enforcement. A typology of debt resistance is developed, and the wider implications for social unrest in low-income communities are assessed.     

Social Security in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

In terms of numbers of people, the global challenges facing social security systems are largely Asian. Because of rapid population aging in Asia, while it accounted for 28% of the world's population aged 60 and older in 1985, that percentage will more than double to 58% in 2050. Provident funds are a prominent feature of retirement income systems in the region-Asia and the Pacific contain the majority of the world's countries with provident funds. These programs typically provide lump-sum benefits, and thus, do not provide annuity protection against outliving one's resources. Because of the influence of Confucian philosophy with its emphasis on family responsibility for elders, countries in the region have been relatively slow in developing social security programs. China does not have a social security program for workers who do not work for the government or in government-owned enterprises.     

Social Security and the Baby Boom Generation

No abstract available for this article.     

Women and Social Security:

This article explores some major assumptions underlying the Social Security system and alternative approaches to rendering the system more economically viable, meeting the income needs of the elderly and/or providing greater equity under its benefit and taxation provisions. It attempts to show that the current structure of Social Security not only reinforces but also exacerbates the underlying economic inequalities in our nation's political economy under the guise of a social insurance program. In addressing selected benefit and taxation issues, the article focuses on how working and older women are faring in the 1990s under the Social Security system. It argues that although the program theoretically is gender neutral, its impact is not. Women, particularly those who are single, are poorly served. The article concludes that a progressive restructuring of the Social Security system itself is imperative if we are to meet the needs of a large percentage of workers, older people, and the economic and social demands of the 1990s and beyond. It also offers some suggestions for such change.     

Social Security reform: implications for women

Despite recent economic gains for women, a substantial gender gap in financial security during old age remains, making women more dependent than men upon Social Security. Social Security plays an important role in providing for women's economic security. The implications for women of several proposed changes in Social Security policy, including the call for the partial privatization of Social Security via the introduction of individual accounts, are analyzed. Many of the proposals would have the effect of asking women, particularly low-income women, to shoulder a disproportionate share of the risks and burdens associated with the changes.     

Social Security in the Middle East

Abstract

The countries of the Middle East all have traditional social insurance type social security programs. The move towards defined contribution individual accounts that is occurring in some regions has not affected this region The social security programs in the Middle East are not facing the problems of financing found in Europe and North America, in part because they still have relatively high fertility rates and are thus little affected by population aging. They tend to have low retirement ages and some of the wealthy countries of the region provide very generous benefits. Many of them need to consider reforms that raise retirement ages. A characteristic of many of the social security old-age benefit programs of the region is that they exclude foreign workers, who in some countries account for more than half the workforce.     

残疾儿童社会保障制度的研究

目前,政府通过发展社会保障以增进社会和谐的政策方向基本确立,倡导残疾儿童社会保障制度的适度公正机制是基于经济发展和现代社会平等两者之间的权衡。目的是使社会成员都能够普遍以适度标准不断享受经济社会发展的成果,从而有效地实现社会整合。我国已经初步具备实现残疾儿童社会保障制度的适度公正目标的条件,基于此目标,残疾儿童的社会保障制度仍存在以下制约瓶颈：相关社会保障制度建设法规滞后;政府保障主体地位缺失,财政经费投入不足;残疾儿童参与社会保障层次低、覆盖面窄;保障政策执行部门行政多头管理。因此,残疾儿童社会保障制度的制度设计需要着重于：保持经济发展水平下残疾儿童保障支付享受标准;倡导公正和能动的残疾儿童权利保障价值取向：界定政府责任边界和立法,广泛动员社会力量;整合政府部门残疾儿童社会保障资源。     

Social security and social networks among the urban poor in Pakistan

This paper is based on the urban case studies undertaken during a study of social safety nets and social networks and their role in poverty alleviation among low-income communities in Pakistan. A participatory assessment approach was adopted and findings reflect the perceptions of the urban poor themselves, disaggregated on the basis of age, gender and occupation. It was found that official safety net programmes fail to reach the poorest. Instead people rely on informal social networks of exchange and reciprocity during times of economic stress. However, the coping mechanisms of the poor do not always represent sustainable survival strategies. Some customary forms of obligations such as dowry, can constitute an obstacle to social development. Social networks are not always harmonious or undifferentiated, while some can be both oppressive and exploitative. It is argued, therefore, that to understand and build positively on the experience and life chances of the urban poor, the processes which undermine their ability to sustain or improve their circumstances and assure their long-term security must be addressed. It is suggested that the concept of social security provides the basis for a more flexible policy framework for responding to the particular characteristics of urban poverty than one which relies exclusively on the individual or collective coping strategies of the urban poor themselves, topped up with targeted social safety nets which often fail to hit the mark.     

Implications of the Social Security amendments of 1983 for older blacks

The 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act reduced early retirements benefits and increased the retirement age for future retirees. These changes will differentially affect various segments of the older population. The author examines implications of these changes for older blacks, and concludes that disability and low income are primary factors that put older blacks at risk for negative consequences as a result of the 1983 amendments. The findings suggest that blacks are likely to be disproportionately affected by the changes, and that the changes, as they relate to blacks, do not address the amendments' goals encouraging private savings and discouraging early retirement.     

The Case for the Welfare State: From Social Security to Social Equality,Social Security and National Policy: Sweden,Yugoslavia, Japan,the Study of Social Policy: A Comparative Approach

The question of whether social workers participate in continuing social work education because social service organizations regard continuing education of their staff essential for improved organizational performance, or because social workers regard it as essential for improved professional performance is examined using two data sources. The data suggest that social workers engage in continuing education programs primarily for professional rather than organizational reasons. The viability of these programs seems to depend on whether they are on the cutting edge of new knowledge and the opportunities they afford for intellectual stimulation. The discussion is set in an organizational environment perspective.     

约旦社会保障制度改革及其启示

和世界上大多数国家一样,约旦也面临着越来越严重的人口老龄化问题。为此,约旦政府在社会保障领域实施了三项重要的改革措施。一是参数式改革,即不改变现有制度的性质,只是调整具体的参数;二是整合碎片化制度改革,把公务员和军事人员纳入全国统一的社保制度中来;三是未雨绸缪,积极开展公共预筹积累制改革,融资模式由现收现付制逐步过渡到部分积累制,不断完善投资管理体制。这三项改革不仅符合世界银行提倡的改革模式,而且这三项改革措施之间的相互配合与协调,有力地推动了约旦社保制度的改革和发展,具有极强的借鉴意义。     

约旦社会保障制度改革及其启示

和世界上大多数国家一样,约旦也面临着越来越严重的人口老龄化问题。为此,约旦政府在社会保障领域实施了三项重要的改革措施。一是参数式改革,即不改变现有制度的性质,只是调整具体的参数;二是整合碎片化制度改革,把公务员和军事人员纳入全国统一的社保制度中来;三是未雨绸缪,积极开展公共预筹积累制改革,融资模式由现收现付制逐步过渡到部分积累制,不断完善投资管理体制。这三项改革不仅符合世界银行提倡的改革模式,而且这三项改革措施之间的相互配合与协调,有力地推动了约旦社保制度的改革和发展,具有极强的借鉴意义。     

Consumer Behavior in the United States: Implications for Social Security Reform

This article shows theoretically and empirically that an aggregate Euler equation relates the growth rate of per capita consumption to the real interest rate, the ratio of private wealth plus asset income to consumption, and the ratio of social security wealth to consumption. Using the estimated Euler equation, the paper then calculates the steady-state effects of social security reform. Reforms that reduce the ratio of social security wealth to consumption are found to shift the balanced growth paths for the capital stock, output, and consumption upward appreciably.