Recipients of unemployment benefit II: Activation policies useful even in labour market crisis

Abstract

"The Social Code II (often referred to as 'Hartz IV') stresses the importance of activation for bringing benefit recipients back into employment. Based on recent survey data, the report shows where activation may apply. For a new job, most benefit recipients are ready to accept unfavourable working times or conditions or that the new job is below their occupational level of skill. However, many of them are not ready to make concessions in terms of lower income. Here an incentive problem may arise, especially for solitary persons. Finally, less than one third of the interviewees would be willing to move to a new place in order to get a new job. In both cases, activation mainly consists of individual assistance and counselling. In this regard, activation is the right policy even in the current labour market crisis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bender, S., Koch, S., Mosthaf, A. & Walwei, U. (2009): Erwerbsfähige Hilfebedürftige im SGB II: Aktivierung ist auch in der Krise sinnvoll. (IAB-Kurzbericht 19/2009), Nürnberg, 8 p.