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Thoren, Katarina Hjertner (2005): Municipal activation policy. A case study of the practical work with unemployed social assistance recipients. (Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation. Working paper 2005,20), Uppsala, 75 S.

Abstract

"In the 1990s, many municipalities developed local activation programs for social assistance recipients as a response to increasing social assistance expenditures. This study investigates the practical implementation of municipal activation policies in two different activation programs, Jobbcentrum in Skärholmen and Källan in Osby. The purpose with the study is to highlight how the front-line workers systematically translate activation policy into practice in their interactions with the clients. The study utilizes a street-level bureaucracy perspective, which illuminates the role of bureaucratic and professional discretion and how institutional factors shape the practical responses of front-line staff. Coping behaviors at the ground influences the practical work with activation requirements. The staff develop such coping strategies to manage working conditions marked by ambiguous legislation, organizational pressures, limited resources, and little responsibility for program accountability. Findings from this study suggest that the implementation practices in Skärholmen and Osby frequently diverge from formal intentions of activation policy and the programs' own goals and descriptions of their work." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Ashworth, Karl, Andreas Cebulla, David Greenberg & Robert Walker (2004): Meta-evaluation. Discovering what works best in welfare provision. In: Evaluation. The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, Jg. 10, H. 2, S. 193-216.

Abstract

"Numerous programmes designed to encourage welfare recipients to move into work and off benefit have been evaluated in the United States. Many have randomly assigned potential participants into 'experimental' and 'control' groups to generate unbiased estimates of the effectiveness of the programmes. The results of the evaluations have been selectively influential in shaping policy developments on both sides of the Atlantic, but a thorough understanding of the diversity of experience has been lacking. Applying meta-analysis techniques to a specially constructed database of evaluations in over 50 US sites, this article reports on the first programme-level, systematic meta-evaluation of welfare-to-work programmes. The results confirm the superiority of approaches that prioritize immediate work over human-capital investment but reveal that caseload characteristics and local environment can be equally important as or even more important than programme design. The article concludes with a discussion of the potential and limitations of meta-evaluation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Aust, Andreas & Ana Arriba (2004): Policy reforms and discourses in social assistance in the 1990s: Towards 'activation'? Paper presented to the ESPAnet conference, 9.-11. September 2004, Oxford. (Unidad de Politicas Comparadas. Working paper 04-11), Madrid, 38 S.

Abstract

"Social assistance schemes have received more attention in the general welfare state reform debate since the early 1980s. For most of the time after WW II social assistance schemes had been perceived as a residual and declining branch of the overall welfare system. Social inclusion was meant to be achieved through full and life-long employment by the male breadwinner, expanding social insurance systems which increasingly included the whole population and stable family structures. Indeed, most of the West-European countries achieved these goals and the scope for social assistance - where it was already established - as a scheme of last resort was limited. Other countries, particularly in Southern Europe, lacked this kind of scheme. In the paper we are going to analyse reforms of the social assistance scheme in the 1990s for a number of countries. As the relationship between work and social assistance is the most disputed issue in the reform debate we are focusing on the general assistance schemes for unemployed and workless persons. We use the term 'social assistance' to refer to a public, means-tested and tax-financed transfers and services for people in need. Our paper is confined to social assistance schemes targeted at people in an working age. We will discuss continuity and change on two levels: reforms of social assistance policies and the discourses on social assistance. Even though we are well aware that institutions and interests play a major role in the politics of welfare reform we argue that the analysis of ideas and discourses may contribute to the understanding of the overall process of welfare reform. This is particularly true where (1) institutional and political change is taking place and (2) where major political actors are changing their political orientations and thus the contents of their interests. " (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bothfeld, Silke, Sigrid Gronbach & Kai Seibel (2004): Eigenverantwortung in der Arbeitsmarktpolitik. Zwischen Handlungsautonomie und Zwangsmaßnahmen. In: WSI-Mitteilungen, Jg. 57, H. 9, S. 507-513.

Abstract

"Seit den 90er Jahren wird in der deutschen Arbeitsmarktpolitik verstärkt an Arbeitslose appelliert, durch Wahrnehmung von Eigenverantwortung ihre Beschäftigungsfähigkeit zu erhöhen. Inwieweit sich das Verhältnis von Handlungsautonomie und Zwang in der deutschen Arbeitsmarktpolitik der 90er Jahre entwickelt hat, ist Gegenstand des Beitrags. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Veränderungen durch die aktuelle 'Hartz-Gesetzgebung' werden dazu die Bereiche Lohnersatzleistungen bei Arbeitslosigkeit, berufliche Weiterbildung, Beratung und Vermittlung und 'Reziprozität' analysiert. Einschränkungen im Leistungsrecht, Verschärfungen der Zumutbarkeit und Sanktionierung stehen (unzureichende) Verbesserungen in den Entscheidungsstrukturen der Beruflichen Weiterbildung gegenüber. Ob im Bereich Vermittlung die Handlungsautonomie für die Arbeitslosen in Zukunft gestärkt werden kann, ist unsicher. Von einem ausgewogenen Verhältnis zwischen Rechten und Pflichten in der aktivierenden Arbeitsmarktpolitik kann - bislang jedenfalls - noch nicht gesprochen werden." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Dorsett, Richard (2004): The new deal for young people. Effect of the options on the labour market status of young men. London, 67 S.

Abstract

"The New Deal for Young People was introduced throughout Great Britain in April 1998 as a key element of the government's welfare-to-work strategy. Participants enter a period of intensive job search known as the 'Gateway' and then enter one of four options. In this paper, the relative effectiveness of these options on unemployment exit and job entry is evaluated. The evaluation uses a non-parametric matching approach and finds that the employment option dominates the other NDYP options. Remaining on the Gateway appears more effective than entering the remaining options. The relative strength of these effects changes over time." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Giertz, Anders (2004): Making the poor work. Social assistance and activation programs in Sweden. (Lund dissertations in social work 19), Lund: School of Social Work, 242 S.

Abstract

"Making the poor work and improving them have been major issues throughout the history of poor relief. Such policies have been common in history and first emerged during the formation of commercial and industrial towns with a labour market in the fourteenth century. Government, the majority of citizens, and poor relief officers considered able-bodied poor as a serious problem, as individuals who could not be excused by sickness or old age. ... The book is divided in three parts. The first part starts with a discussion of the concepts of poverty, marginalisation and social exclusion (chapter two). These concepts are often used in studies on social assistance, unemployment, and groups with a vulnerable social and economic situation. Are these concepts contradictory or complementary, or is their usefulness dependant on context? Chapter three is an overview of the historic development of means-tested relief and the criteria for eligibility regarding social assistance and previous systems of poor relief. ... The second part of the dissertation will describe and discuss some important structural conditions related to social assistance. A large part of the recipients of social assistance are of working-age and healthy. They are unemployed and sometimes participating in introductory programs for immigrants, or other kinds of activation programs. Very few of the recipients are working poor, and the others are excluded or have a marginal position on the labour market. The objective of this part of the book is to describe the situation and changes in the socioeconomic conditions of groups with a marginal position on the labour market, the objects of activation policies. ... The third part is devoted to activation programs as a method to move the recipients of social assistance into the labour market. Participation in activation programs has become common in the municipalities in the form of work practice, educational activities or assisted job-search. We know very little about the effects of these programs on participants' wellbeing and future work and incomes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Greenberg, David, Karl Ashworth, Andreas Cebulla & Robert Walker (2004): Do welfare-to-work programmes work for long? In: Fiscal Studies, Jg. 25, H. 1, S. 27-53. DOI:10.1111/j.1475-5890.2004.tb00095.x

Abstract

"Evidence that welfare-to-work programmes in the USA succeed in boosting welfare recipients' earnings at modest cost has helped shape policy in Britain since 1997. So too has the belief that programmes that prioritise moving people into work quickly are more effective than ones that seek to enhance human capital. However, there is little evidence on how long the beneficial effects of programmes persist after individuals leave them. The analysis reported draws on the experience of 64 US welfare-to-work programmes that have all been evaluated using random assignment. It concludes that, on average, these programmes have a positive effect on participants' earnings for five to six years. The effects of 'work first' interventions are most marked early on and decline more rapidly than those of programmes emphasising human capital. Nevertheless, work first interventions typically increase earnings received over six years by more than two-and-a-half times that achieved by human capital approaches." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hansen, Henning & Mette Marie Juul (2004): Evaluierung af projekt "Virksomhedssamarbejde i Kgs. Enghave". Slutrapport. København.

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Klammer, Ute & Simone Leiber (2004): Aktivierung und Eigenverantwortung in europäisch-vergleichender Perspektive. In: WSI-Mitteilungen, Jg. 57, H. 9, S. 514-521.

Abstract

"Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit Aktivierung und Eigenverantwortung im europäischen Vergleich. Der erste Abschnitt beleuchtet die Rolle der genannten Konzepte in der Europäischen Beschäftigungsstrategie (EBS). Anschließend werden zwei EU-Länder, deren Strategien und Erfahrungen für das Thema besonders relevant erscheinen - nämlich Großbritannien und Dänemark - auf die jeweilige Ausgestaltung von Aktivierung und Eigenverantwortung in der Arbeitsmarktpolitik sowie auf den Einfluss der EBS hin untersucht. Eine exemplarische Analyse Polens verweist auf die neue Konstellation durch die EU-Osterweiterung. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, dass sich hinter der gemeinsamen Terminologie von Aktivierung und Eigenverantwortung in Europa unterschiedliche Interpretationen und Ausgestaltungen verbergen. Deutschland erweist sich als 'Latecomer' und könnte daher einige wichtige Erfahrungen anderer Länder (besser) nutzen. Abschließend wird die Frage diskutiert, wie ein sinnvolles Konzept von Aktivierung im Rahmen der europäischen Sozialpolitik(en) aussehen könnte." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Kok, Lucy, Jaap Anne Korteweg & Marc van der Meer (2004): Evaluatie Sluitende Aanpak 1998-2003. Onderzoek In opdracht van het Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid. Amsterdam.

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Lissenburgh, Stephen (2004): New Deal option effects on employment entry and unemployment exit. An evaluation using propensity score matching. In: International journal of manpower, Jg. 25, H. 5, S. 411-430. DOI:10.1108/01437720410554133

Abstract

"This paper uses propensity score matching techniques to evaluate the impact of new deal options on the chances of exiting unemployment for a cohort of entrants to the new deal for young people in Scotland between September 1998 and February 1999. The paper uses information from the new deal evaluation database and from a two-stage survey based on a random sample of the cohort. It finds that the employment option was the most effective of the new deal options, both in terms of increasing the likelihood of exit from unemployment by February 2001 and increasing the amount of time spent off by JSA from February 2000 to February 2001. Remaining on the Gateway was the next most effective route for clients to take with regard to reducing the amount of time spent on JSA and increasing the likelihood of JSA exit." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Nicaise, Ides & Thea Meinema (2004): Experimente zur sozialen Aktivierung in den Niederlanden. Synthesebericht des Peer Review Meeting, Den Haag, 15. und 16. Juni 2004. Wien, 29 S.

Abstract

"Am 15. und 16 Juni 2004 fand in Den Haag, Niederlande, das vierte Peer-Review- Seminar im aktuellen Peer-Review-Programm im Bereich der Bekämpfung sozialer Ausgrenzung statt. ... Bei diesem Treffen sollten der Erfolg der in den niederländischen Stadtbezirken zwischen 1996 und 2001 durchgeführten Versuche zur sozialen Aktivierung ausgewertet und die Möglichkeiten zur Übertragung dieser Initiativen auf andere EU Mitgliedstaaten eingeschätzt werden. Zwischen 1996 und 2001 flexibilisierte die niederländische Regierung das nationale Sozialhilfegesetz um zu erreichen, dass Menschen mit wenig Aussicht auf eine sichere Beschäftigung aktiver werden. Sie konnten z.B von ihrer Verpflichtung zur Arbeitssuche befreit werden, und unter der Bedingung, dass sie aktiv an einem Programm zur sozialen Aktivierung teilnahmen wurde ihnen gestattet, Vergütungen für Tätigkeiten wie (berufliche und andere) Trainings oder freiwillige Arbeit zu erhalten, ohne dass dies zu einer Reduzierung ihrer Unterstützung führte." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Ochel, Wolfgang (2004): Welfare-to-work experiences with specific work-first programmes in selected countries. (CESifo working paper 1153), München, 37 S.

Abstract

"This paper reviews the evidence of specific mandatory work-first programmes (job search assistance and workfare) for welfare recipients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. It primarily refers to experimental and econometric evaluations. The effectiveness of specific programme elements in promoting the transition from welfare to work is compared. The advantage of combining work-first with training programmes and inwork benefits is discussed. Some policy conclusions are drawn." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Oorschot, Wim van (2004): Balancing work and welfare. Activation and flexicurity policies in The Netherlands, 1980-2000. In: International journal of social welfare, Jg. 13, H. 1, S. 15-27.

Abstract

"As a result of the flexibilisation of labour and the trend towards the 'activating welfare state', social policies show an increasing interconnection of work and welfare issues. The Netherlands is no exception. It is generally believed that the Dutch welfare state is successfully activating its unemployed labour potential (often referred to as the 'Dutch Miracle'), and that flexible and part-time work is protected by adequate 'flexicurity'. This article critically reviews Dutch activation and flexicurity policies. It concludes that there is still more unemployment than the miracle-story suggests; that important target groups of activation policies have not profited from 'die miracle'; that part-time workers have sufficient social protection but that social security for flex-workers still needs major improvements, despite favourable adjustments of labour law." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Salonen, Tapio & Rickard Ulmestig (2004): Nedersta trappsteget. En studie om kommunal aktivering. (Rapportserie i socialt arbete Nr. 1, 2004), Växjö.

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Wolff, Charlotte de & Arnold Veenkamp (2004): Uit de bijstand. De resultaten van trajectactiviteiten. Groningen, 105 S.

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(2004): Employment zones - changes to the programme. (Department for Work and Pensions. Touchbase 35), London, S. 19.

Abstract

"Employment Zone contracts were originally awarded for two years from Spring 2000 but later extended until March this year. New, five-year contracts have now been awarded. In the new contracts, lone parents and people who would otherwise return to New Deal for Young People will also benefit. There are two types of contract - single provider Employment Zones, which were established on 27 October 2003 and multiple provider Zones, which started on 26 April 2004. In the multiple provider Zones, more than one contractor provides the service. This will test whether competition between providers dealing with the same client group, in the same labour market, will produce better performance." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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(2004): Extra help for older people. (Department for Work and Pensions. Touchbase 36), London, S. 6.

Abstract

"From 25 October 2004, Pension Credit will be a qualifying benefit for Jobcentre Plus programmes. This means that people aged 60 and over who want to carry on working can use Jobcentre Plus programmes to help them find a job." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Abstract

"The objective of this report is to provide a brief overview of the UK labour market. The report gives an outline of the key institutional and legislative features underpinning the operation of the labour market, rather than analysing current performance. Accordingly, the first section of the report is a descriptive analysis of the key institutions shaping and implementing UK labour market policy. The characteristics and role of each institution is described. The second section of the report provides an overview of the legislative framework for employment in the UK, with particular emphasis on the instruments and processes by which the labour market is governed. The third section describes the measures currently in place, while the fourth section highlights available information and data sources on the UK labour market. The fifth chapter is devoted to Northern Ireland, this specific chapter contains information from the year 1999." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bergmark, Åke (2003): Activated to work? Activation policies in Sweden in the 1990s. In: Revue Francaise des affaires sociales, Jg. 57, H. 4, S. 291-306.