Social r~i Policy Research Centre
MUTUAL OBLIGATION AND WELFARE REFORM: AN ANNOTATED BI BLIOGRAPHY
by Diana Encel
SPRC Research Resource No. 16 July 2000 For a full list of SPRC Publications, or to inquire about the work ofthe Social Policy Research Centre (formerly the Social Welfare Research Centre), please contact: The Publications and Information Officer, SPRC, University ofNew South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. Telephone: +61 (2) 9385 3857 Fax: +61 (2) 9385 1049 Email: [email protected]
ISSN 1037 4035 ISBN 0 7334 0759 5
July 2000
The views expressed in this publication do not represent any official position on the part of the Social Policy Research Centre). This report was produced to make available the research findings of the individual authors, and to promote the development of ideas and discussions about major areas ofconcern in the field of social policy. Foreword
Mutual obligation as it operates in the welfare area is the subject of increasing debate among policy makers, community workers and the general public. This bibliography includes descriptions of works which contribute to both sides of that debate. They are drawn from Australian sources, but also from other countries, principally the United States. There, the introduction of a number of different, sometimes experimental, programs in individual states has led to a series of evaluations and evaluations of evaluations. Welfare reform has taken place federally in their wake and policy changes have been followed, sometimes influenced by US programs, in other countries. Australia has also changed its policy in recent years, as documented in this bibliography. Mutual obligation is integral to the current government's social policy philosophy and is the subject of detailed examination by the Reference Group on Welfare Reform. Although the entries here are merely descriptive, neither critical nor evaluative, we hope that, like its predecessors, this volume proves to be a useful resource.
The Social Policy Research Centre has been producing annotated bibliographies as a resource for researchers since 1984 when it published a volume on unemployment. Over the period since then, the Centre has produced a number of such bibliographies mostly complementing projects being carried out by its researchers. This bibliography will be the last to be published in this format by the Centre. From feedback we have received, we know that the previous volumes have been useful resources for people in many fields, not only researchers but students, community organisations and libraries. It is with regret that circumstances require us to conclude this series. Peter Saunders Director 11 Acknowledgements
Several people have been instrumental in the preparation of this bibliography. Lynn Sitsky gave valuable help in the collection of material annotated here. Without her help, the bibliography would not have been as comprehensive as it is. Peter Saunders as director of the Centre has been supportive at all stages. Tony Eardley, whose own research has covered much of the area ofthe works described here, was also helpful in the compilation. Lynda Pawley has been involved in the preparation ofthe manuscript at every stage and to her I am truly grateful. iii Contents
Foreword I
Acknowledgements 11
Introduction IV
Other Sources V
Organisation vi
Annotations 1
Author Index 115
Keyword Definition and Index 123 iv Introduction
This bibliography is concerned with the concept of mutual obligation in the context of welfare reform. It covers such areas as work for the dole programs, the concept of the '.active society' as it pertains to social security and other programs designed to move people from welfare to work.
In Australia, there has been a work test associated with eligibility for unemployment benefits since the time of their introduction. The work test, or activity test as it has been more recently designated, is the first manifestation of the idea that in order to receive income maintenance payments, some commitment is required from the claimant. Several classes of people were excluded from this requirement: widows, sole parents of young children, disabled people. These were subject to other conditions: assets tests, means tests, and, in the case of those with disabilities, assessment of their abilities. It is with the increasing stringency of the work/activity test and the extension of the test to groups other than the unemployed that this bibliography is principally concerned. The effects of policy changes on these specific population groups are the subject of discussion. Non compliance with the work/activity test requirements now incurs increasing sanctions; in the United States, for instance, there are now time limits to income support in some programs.
Debate surrounds the efficiency of compulsory participation in work. A number of evaluation studies have been carried out to assess the effects of the policy and to determine whether it reduces the number of unemployed people or the level of poverty. The debate is also concerned with morality or ethical issues involved. Public attitudes to income support payments and to the move towards a more mandatory system are discussed in a number of the works described here.
This bibliography includes descriptions of works that discuss unemployment and poverty only when efforts to reduce them involve concepts of mutual obligation. It includes works about programs initiated overseas, principally in the United States; their influence on policy development in Australia has been important both in general terms, but also in some specific details.
The scope of this bibliography is further defmed by the keywords chosen which indicate the specific areas covered. Users with particular interests will gain from a careful reading ofthe keyword definitions. v Other Sources
• The bibliography includes descriptions of major Australian government policy documents in the body of collection. However, it does not include Budget Statements or media releases; most of these are available on the internet.
• The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes figures on labour force participation, reasons for non-participation and job search experience.
• Welfare Reform in the United States has been enacted by law; most relevant Acts have been summarised or discussed by
• the US Department ofHealth and Human Resources; • the Urban Institute; • the US Department ofHousing and Urban Development; or • the Children's Defense Fund These documents are often available on the intemet.
• Descriptions, evaluations and discussion of welfare-to-work projects have been prepared by
• the US Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC); and • the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Some but not all ofthese have been described in the bibliography.
• The Social Policy Research Centre publication Does Case Management Help Unemployed Job Seekers? A Review of the International Evidence, Reports and Proceedings No. 132 (Eardley and Thompson, 1997) presents summaries ofevaluations of a number ofrelevant programs. vi Organisation
This bibliography cites whole books, parts or chapters of books, papers in series and journal articles. No newspaper material or items of one page or less have been included nor has unpublished material, such as theses or unpublished conference papers. All the items have been sighted. Some items have been sighted only from web sites and in those cases internet addresses are included in the publication details. Each item has been annotated to give an indication of the scope and nature of the work. The annotations are descriptive only and no attempt has been made to review or evaluate the contents. Wherever possible the author's or publisher's abstract has been used (indicated by quotation marks) and in the other cases an attempt has been made to use the language ofthe author or authors concerned.
All annotations are arranged alphabetically by author, or, where applicable, corporate body. Where no author is known, the item is entered by title, also alphabetically. The name is followed by the year ofpublication. When more than one work by the same author is cited, the works are arranged chronologically from the earliest to the most recent, and if there are several in the same year, they are then ordered alphabetically by title. Authors as single authors appear first, followed by that author in joint authorship with others.
The title ofthe book or name of the journal appears in italics.
Where the item appears in a journal the volume number is given followed by the number within that volume in brackets so that volume 3, number 2 appears as 3(2). The last numbers in the citations indicate the length of the item (x pp. for a complete publication or x-y for part of a book or journal). Each annotation is followed by one or more keywords which indicate the subject matter covered in the item. An index lists each keyword which is followed by a group of record numbers indicating which annotations have been placed within that keyword category. The keywords are listed in alphabetical order. There is an alphabetical listing of authors, separate from the annotation, which includes joint authors. The number(s) following the names are the record numbers ofthe annotations (not page numbers). 1 Alston, Richard (1987), 'Workfare: does it work, IS it fair?', Current Affairs Bulletin, 63(11), April, 21-7.
'Senator Alston argues that, at least in the current economic climate, there is a pressing need for a radical rethink of traditional attitudes to the dispensing of unemployment benefits. Such benefits, he suggests, should be tied to community work or job training and he urges the government to devise real education, training and employment schemes which will be of lasting benefit to the total community.' He discusses the attitudes of the International Labour Organisation to such schemes, concluding that the ILO Convention 'specifically contemplates many of the workfare initiatives which have been vigorously pursued in the United States and until recently generally neglected in Australia'. The unemployment rate in Australia is growing; expenditure on benefits is generous in 'tough times for a country faced with massive current account deficits, increasing public expenditure as a percentage of GDP and a perception of high tax rates'. He comments on the growing disillusion with current welfare practices leading to widespread support for change.
POLICY, TRAINING
2 Altman, 1.C. and D.E. Smith (1993), 'Compensating indigenous Australian "losers": a community-oriented approach from the Aboriginal social policy arena', in P. Saunders and S. Shaver, eds, Theory and Practice in Australian Social Policy: Rethinking the Fundamentals, Proceedings of the Nationa! Social Policy Conference, Volume 2, Contributed Papers, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 112, Social Policy Research Centre, University ofNew South Wales, Sydney, 1-14.
This paper uses an approach from the Aboriginal social policy area to examine how social policy should foster economic adaptation and how far social policy should be concerned with compensating the losers from market forces. The program examined is the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, sometimes referred to as a 'work-for-the-dole' scheme. The operation of the scheme is examined and the paper explores some of the difficulties that mainstream policy might experience in attempts to use the approach more generally. The authors conclude: 'The scheme appears to suit the particular circumstances of many indigenous Australians, but any moves to introduce the scheme more widely would need to proceed cautiously.'
ABORIGINES, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, POLICY 2
3 Anonymous Public Servant (1979), 'The work test: meat in the sandwich', Australian Social Welfare, Impact, 9(3), July, 19-24.
The paper was written by a public servant in the Department of Social Security. It argues that employees of the Commonwealth Employment Service and Social Security offices were being used as 'meat in the sandwich' between the government's continuous changes to eligibility criteria for payments and the beneficiaries who are becoming hostile to staff because of the difficulty they experience in obtaining their entitlements. A brief history of the work test is outlined and changes in eligibility criteria detailed. The effectiveness of the work test, the social consequences ofits application and the administrative problems are all discussed.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, POLICY
4 Australia, Prime Minister (1994), Working Nation: The White Paper on Employment and Growth, AGPS, Canberra, 30pp; and Working Nation: Policies and Programs, AGPS, Canberra, 227pp. The White Paper sets out the policy of the Labor Government on employment. The second publication sets out the details of the programs announced in the White Paper. The Job Compact, one element of the new labour market programs, will provide a job placement for people who have been on unemployment allowances for more than 18 months. 'In return, long term unemployed people will be under an obligation to accept a reasonable job offer or lose their entitlement to income support for a period.' Training availability and case management were part ofthe Job Compact.
CASE MANAGEMENT, POLICY, TRAINING, SANCTIONS, UNEMPLOYED
5 Australian Council of Social Services (1988), Income Support and Unemployment: The ACOSS Response to the Social Security Review Issues Paper No. 4 'Income Support for the Unemployed in Australia: Towards a More Active System', ACOSS Paper No. 15, Australian Council of Social Service, Sydney, 16pp. This position paper is a response to the Social Security Review paper on policies for the unemployed (Cass, 1988, q.v.). While welcoming most of the proposals, including the introduction of labour force incentives combined with removal of income and work test obstacles to casual and part-time employment, ACOSS does express concern about the suggested operation of the work test. The underlying presumption is that without the work test as a deterrent, 'many presently unhappily employed workers would flood onto the unemployed registry'; ACOSS argues that there is no evidence for this. The Issues Paper also raises the issue of 3 reciprocal obligation: an unemployed person must actively search for work or take part in training and in return society accepts an obligation to provide income support. ACOSS argues that this concept is only useful when there is full employment and that government has an obligation to create employment opportunities by itself and by private employers.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, POLICY
6 Australian Council of Social Service (1997), 'Government's "work for the dole" scheme will not work', Impact, March, 8-9.
In seeking to establish a work for the dole scheme, the government appears driven to improve the employment prospects for young people at a cost less than that of the labour market programs abolished in the previous budget, as well as to 'satisfy voters who resent people apparently receiving income support "for nothing"'. This article presents tables to show that the fIrst objective is unlikely to be met. In addition ACOSS argues that 'the existing system already has more than enough punishment to satisfy the harshest heart'.
ETHICS, POLICY, SANCTIONS, YOUTH
7 Australian Council of Social Service (1999), 'Skills, training and choice: improving "Work for the Dole'", Impact, August, 10-11.
The article discusses the evaluation report on the pilot Work for the Dole program. The evaluation focused on the popularity ofthe program and showed that it is seen positively by a majority of participants. The program does not have employment outcomes as one of its objectives; however, some data were included in the evaluation on work obtained following participation in the program, though there is no comparison made with jobs found by counterparts not in the program. ACOSS is concerned that the program could function differently for older unemployed people and argues that 'changes are needed if Work for the Dole is to become more than a program which stigmatises unemployed people and blames them for a lack of skills and employment opportunities'.
ATTITUDES, ETHICS, EVALUATION
8 Australian Council of Social Service (1999), 'Work for the Dole - Briefmg Paper', ACOSS Info No. 116, 9pp. 'This briefIng paper provides background information on the history and development ofWork for the Dole and the governments Mutual Obligation policy. It discusses a recent Departmental Evaluation of Work for the Dole as well as the main criticisms of the program made by ACOSS and other community 4 organisations. Appendices to this paper include an extract from Centrelink's guidelines concerning unemployment benefits - Newstart Allowance, and the relationship between unemployment and poverty.'
AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, EVALUATION
9 Bainbridge, Bill (1997), 'Dole bludgeoned', Arena Magazine, 28, March April, 5-6.
The author argues that the objectives of the work-for-the-dole scheme are cultural and political, not economic. 'The Prime Minister [John Howard] is talking reciprocity. His new work-for-the-dole scheme is based, he says, on the fact that "society has a mutual obligation built into its very ethic". The unemployed owe us so very much. For more than twenty years now we have been keeping very large numbers of malingerers in relative comfort and it's time the favour was repaid.' The author discusses the 'popularity of work-for-the-dole, ten years after an almost identical Bob Hawke proposal was dismissed'. He compares the 'mutual obligation' imposed on the unemployed with the notion of 'mutual obligation' which has 'crept into Howard's justification of taxing the superannuation of high income earners' who are more able to slip the bonds of mutual obligation by using a 'raft of social deregulatory and privatising policies'.
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
10 Baker, Maureen (1997), 'Restructuring welfare states: ideology and policies for low-income mothers', Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, 37-48.
The paper looks at social policy in industrial countries (especially Australia, New Zealand and Canada) focusing on policies for low-income mothers. 'In some jurisdictions, entitlement to social programmes has become conditional on the recipient's willingness to retrain, to search for work and to re-enter the labour force. Consequently, some governments have shifted the rhetoric of social programme eligibility away from "guaranteed annual income", "social security" and "citizenship rights" towards viewing social benefits as temporary, based on "need" and designed to encourage "self-sufficiency" and "employability".' The differences between the three countries in their approaches to the treatment of single mothers in view of these changes, are discussed. The history of the introduction of 'workfare' for mothers in the Canadian provinces is outlines.
ETHICS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS, WOMEN 5
11 Bane, Mary Jo (1995), 'Reviewing the waiver review process', Public Welfare, 53(1), 7-9. The US Department of Health and Human Services administers waivers under the Social Security Act. Waivers give states permission to determine key aspects of their own welfare programs, including standards of need, payment amounts and aspects of eligibility. The Clinton Administration is committed to granting states the flexibility to test innovations designed to assist in the operation of their Aid to Families with Dependent Children programs. In reviewing waiver applications the Department requires that they emphasise benefits to welfare recipients, provide an evaluation design, are cost neutral and encourage policy testing. The resulting demonstration programs should inform federal policy decisions.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
12 Bane, Mary Jo and David T. Ellwood (1994), Welfare Realities: From Rhetoric to Reform, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 22Opp.
The first chapter in the book (by Thomas J. Kane and Mary Jo Bane) identifies 'a major problem with welfare as we know it: an administrative culture that is more concerned with the enforcement of eligibility rules and with making sure that recipients comply with AFDC regulations than with helping clients toward self sufficiency. The eligibility-compliance culture makes the welfare system appear both adversarial and mysterious to the clients it is supposed to serve'. The second chapter (by the book authors) reports on quantitative research carried out on periods of welfare receipt while the third (by Ellwood) looks at the reasons why these are often for long periods. The fourth (by Bane) offer several prescriptions for a welfare system that encourages self-sufficiency, not only through educational, employment and training services but also by giving more control and encouragement to those who do work. The final chapter (by Ellwood) 'lays out ideas for reducing poverty by replacing welfare'.
ACTIVITY TESTS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
13 Baratz, Morton and Sammis B. White (1996), 'Childfare: a new direction for welfare reform', Urban Studies, 33(10), 1935-44. This paper challenges the consensus that workfare is a step towards the 'end of welfare as we know it'. The authors argue that workfare programs will 'intensify the plight of welfare children and deepen the economic problems of America in future years'. They agree that the work ethic should be the basis of welfare reform. They propose a program to reduce welfare rolls by making the education 6 and development of children in families receiving support the central obligation of their parents.
FAMILIES, POLICY
14 Bardach, Eugene (1997), 'Implementing a paternalist welfare-to-work program', in L.M. Mead, ed., The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 248 78. This chapter in a book which looks at the rise of paternalism in a range of policy areas, addresses the management of paternalist programs with an emphasis on programs to get welfare recipients to work. It begins by describing the 'moral dimensions of paternalist programming that makes implementing such programs especially challenging'. It then describes briefly the empirical basis for the analysis. Some factors discussed are: recipients aspirations; self-respect; self confidence; reciprocity, responsibility and coaching. 'If welfare-to-work programs consisted largely of coachlike case managers emphasizing the value of jobs and work and if labor markets offered a reasonable supply ofentry-level jobs, it would be easy to imagine running effective and humane programs. In the real world, however, matters stand otherwise.' Some management strategies are discussed. Managers and staff must communicate a sense of mission, a belief that work is possible for most participants in programs. The operation of paternalism with pressure, that is, workfare, and sanctions is examined. Case managers must appeal mainly to the clients' own goals, but participation requirements and sanctions are sometimes needed to get some people to take work seriously.
CASE MANAGEMENT, ETHICS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, SANCTIONS
15 Baugh, Robert and Jane McDonald Pines (1997), 'Taking the road less traveled: workers, welfare, and jobs', Social Policy, 28(2), Winter, 37-43. The authors discuss US government policy on welfare reform, arguing that it is 'the first of a series of training and education programs for which the federal government is relinquishing responsibility by moving to block grants and turning both policy and programs over to the states'. The article looks at some of the results of this policy. The influx of a million or more welfare recipients into the workplace over the next few years could see low-paid incumbent workers replaced by subsidised welfare recipients. Training for workfare participation will have to occur on the job at a time when most front-line workers receive little training. The article also emphasises the importance of minimum wage legislation, the availability of capital, and the role ofunions in providing capital to raise living standards. It discusses ways in which both employers and unions can provide training and establish career ladders for welfare recipients, describing as 7 an example the Wisconsin Regional Training partnership which 'holds lessons for those trying to expand workplace-based training opportunities for welfare recipients'. The authors conclude: 'If welfare-to-work programs are to succeed they must make work fair, make families better off, and create jobs with fair wages.'
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, TRAINING
16 Baulman, Chris (1997), 'A campaign to change the CES activity test', in Making it Work: A Major National Summit on the Future of Work in Australia, A collection of papers, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Fitzroy, 95 102. The author, an active worker in a community organisation, organised a campaign to allow people working as volunteers not to be subject to all requirements of the activity test. 'To achieve this, the CES Activity Test would need to be changed to allow individuals to choose to perform voluntary work in lieu of job seeking without it affecting their dole.' The article puts the case for the change.
ACTIVITY TESTS
17 Beck, Ulrich (1994), 'The reinvention of politics: towards a theory of reflexive modernization', in V. Beck, A. Giddens and S. Lash, Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modem Social Order, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1-55.
In a section of this chapter concerned with 'individualisation', the author places work in the scheme of reflexive modernity. 'Social rights are individual rights. Families cannot lay claim to them, only individuals, more exactly working individuals (or those who are unemployed but willing to work). Participation in the material protections and benefits of the welfare state presupposes participation in the greatest majority of cases ... Participation in work in turn presupposes participation in education and both presuppose mobility and the readiness to be mobile. All these are requirements which do not command anything but call upon the individual kindly to constitute herself or himself as an individual, to plan, understand, design and act - or to suffer the consequences which will have been self-inflicted in case offailure.'
CONCEPTS 8
18 Bedggood, David (1999), 'Beyond dependency or beyond capitalism? A critique of New Zealand's drive towards workfare', Policy Studies, 20(2), June, 133-41.
'This paper attempts to critique, from a Marxist standpoint, the move towards workfare in New Zealand by examining the neo-liberal assumptions underlying the concept of "welfare dependency". Its focus is the Beyond Dependency Conference organized by the NZ department of Social Welfare, among other organizations, in April 1997, to promote the ideology of "well-being" resulting from work. The Beyond Dependency Conference brought a number of overseas experts to NZ as part ofthe Coalition Government's drive towards the Community Wage, which is designed to replace the Unemployment Benefit. The paper concludes that this is a clear move to provide an ideological justification for forcing the unemployed into the reserve army of labour, in order to reduce the labour costs facing NZ employers who must now compete in an open, deregulated market. The paper also critiques the most common market-liberalism responses to the market-liberal policies and finds that the Keynesian assumptions on which welfare-liberalism rests, while always deficient in their grasp of how capitalism works, have been outmoded by the demands of the global economy on the NZ state. It concludes that a revolutionary transformation of the social relations of production will be necessary in order to go beyond dependency, and beyond poverty.'
CONCEPTS, POLICY
19 Bennett, Fran and Robert Walker (1998), Working with Work: An Initial Assessment ofWelfare to Work, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 32pp.
Paid work is at the heart of the new British Labour Government's project to reform welfare. The aim of this paper is to identify the potential and the limits of the proposed welfare to work strategy and to assess the merits of the principal elements in the strategy and the scope for improvement. It is also concerned with specific limitations and unresolved issues. Government policy is premised on 'a new social contract between the citizen and state'. The government sees it as its responsibility to provide opportunities for self-advancement. Citizens, in return, have two obligations: to provide for themselves and their families if they can do so; and those who can take up the opportunities offered must do so. The operation of this 'contract' is evaluated.
CONCEPTS 9
20 Besley, Timothy and Stephen Coate (1992), 'Workfare versus welfare: incentive arguments for work requirements in poverty-alleviation programs', American Economic Review, 82(1), March, 249-61.
The paper explores the incentive case for workfare. It analyses two arguments: a 'screening' argument that work requirements serve as a means of targeting payments and a 'deterrent' argument that they may encourage poverty-reducing investments. The cost of using workfare in the analytical model used here is that public-sector work 'crowds out' private-sector work, increasing the poverty gap and the cost of alleviating poverty. Other factors discussed are the earning capacity of the poor, and the size of work requirement.
CONCEPTS, EFFICIENCY
21 Besley, Timothy and Stephen Coate (1995), 'The design of income maintenance programmes', Review of Economic Studies, 62(2)211, 187 221.
'This paper provides a comprehensive treatment of a basic income maintenance problem for a group of individuals who differ in their income generating abilities. It stresses the impact that imperfect information about such abilities has on programme design. The analysis serves two purposes. First, we are able to unify the theoretical literature on the income maintenance problem. Second we examine the impact of allowing the government to impose workfare on recipients of income support. In addition to being of policy interest, this is a theoretically challenging problem since it requires solving a multi-dimensional screening problem. The solution that we fmd is strikingly simple. It separates the poor into two main categories, with the lower income group subject to workfare while facing a 100 per cent marginal tax rate on earnings. The second group does no public work and is offered a benefit schedule which taxes earnings at a lower rate.'
EFFICIENCY, POLICY, TAXATION
22 Bessant, Judith (1991), 'The Australian agreement', Youth Studies, 10(3), August, 29-33. In July 1991, the Newstart program came into effect. It includes an emphasis on 'reciprocal obligation'. The elements of the program are outlined. The article discusses the impact ofthe changes. The article argues that 'the unemployed have their rights infringed in terms of their privacy, their rights to welfare and a 10 minimum standard of living, and their ability to withhold consent on a contract that they may consider in normal circumstances to be unacceptable.'
AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, ETHICS
23 Bessant, Judith (1998), 'Doling out the work: income security and reciprocal obligation', in J. Bessant and S. Cook, eds, Against the Odds: Young People and Work, Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, Hobart, 248-57. The central justifications offered in support of the government's work for the dole scheme are questioned. The chapter also discusses the Coalition Government's understanding of the causes of youth unemployment, assesses 'the value of the scheme in terms of certain economic criteria'. The author argues that compelling young people to work in return for income support 'is not only discriminatory on the basis of age, but it also constitutes a form of civil conscription which denies the young person's basic civil liberties'.
ETHICS, YOUTH
24 Bessant, Judith (1999), "'Deregulating poverty": Liberal-National Coalition Government policies and young people', Australian Journal of Social Issues, 34(1), February, 1-23. 'It has come to be almost cliche to say that young people are among those Australians most deeply affected by the restructuring and globalisation which have reshaped the Australian experience since the early 1980s. Youth unemployment and a dramatic decline in the quantity of full-time employment available to 16-24 year olds, and especially to 16-19 year olds, have been accompanied by declining incomes and increasing dependency on parents and social security benefits by young Australians. Winning office in March 1996 after 13 years of Labor government, and with a mandate to implement a reform agenda directed in part at improving employment prospects for young Australians, the Howard Liberal-National Coalition government has pursued policies which impact heavily on the lives ofmany young Australians.' Among the policies discussed here are those linking unemployment to education/training and work for the dole. The author argues that the education and training reforms are 'not relevant' to the problem of youth unemployment because high levels ofyouth unemployment are 'not the result of inadequate skills and expertise caused by poor education/training'. The author also reviews the work for the dole plan and argues that it 'constitutes a regression to the principles of the New Poor Law reforms in Britain. What we are experiencing is the re- 11 establishment of old techniques for differentiating between the "deserving" and the ''undeserving'' poor.'
ETHICS, POLICY, TRAINING, YOUTH
25 Bessant, Judith (1999), 'Trade unions and young workers: proposing a new pathway', Arena Magazine, 42, August/September, 43-4.
Jobless young people have been required under 'work for the dole' schemes, to work for their unemployment benefits. 'The "Work for the Dole" scheme should be seen as one element in a wider economic-liberal assault on both the social security system and the wage earner's welfare state.' Although the union movement has a poor record for safeguarding the interests of young workers, the recruitment of young people can help to counter current policies and secure the entitlement of all workers. This article proposes a method of encouraging young people to join a trade union by establishing a link between unions and universities.
POLICY, YOUTH
26 Bessant, Judith (2000), 'Civil conscnptlOn or reciprocal obligation: the ethics of ''work-for-the dole"', Australian Journal of Social Issues, 35(1), February, 15-33.
The paper traces the policies of the Coalition parties since 1996 with regard to joblessness, especially among young people who are considered to have lost the incentive to work and are welfare dependent. The first part of the paper queries 'official justifications for the Australian workfare scheme; concentrating on the arguments for reciprocal obligation [it asks] what those rationales indicate about government understanding of the causes of unemployment.' The value of the scheme is assessed in terms of 'certain human rights criteria' and the author argues that 'it contravenes the Australian constitutions which prohibit any form of civil conscription.' The scheme also provides little reasonable economic justification. The author also points out that the 'principle of reciprocal obligation is not unique to the Liberal National Coalition government, it provides the basis for similar program in the UK, USA and Canada. It was also embedded in the Keating Labor government's Working Nation and has been practiced within many Aboriginal communities for many years' .
AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, ETHICS, POLICY, YOUTH 12
27 Bivand, Paul (1999), 'Evaluating the New Deal Gateway', Working Brief, 102, March, 13-14.
The British Employment Service commissioned research in the New Deal Gateway (the one-stop-shop for benefit claimants). The research found that the relationship between the New Deal Personal Adviser and a young unemployed person is their key to their experience and their views of the program. Some case studies are presented. 'One negative factor was the recognition that the New Deal was a mandatory programme.'
BRITISH PROGRAMS, CASE MANAGEMENT, ETHICS, YOUTH
28 Bivand, Paul (2000), 'New Deal figures on target', Working Brief, 111, February, 7-9.
The article presents the results obtained from monitoring figures for the New Deal for 18-24 year olds, for long-term unemployed people over 25 and for lone parents. The figures show that although young people are being helped into jobs, many of the jobs are not being sustained. It may be significantly harder to help the long-term unemployed than was envisaged at the design stage.
BRITISH PROGRAMS, EVALUATION, UNEMPLOYED, YOUTH
29 Bj~mskau, Torkel, Espen Dahl and Jens B. Gr0gaard (1997), 'The work approach in Norway - aims, measures and results', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, 136-54.
In 1995 the Norwegian Government issued a White Paper on welfare policy detailing a 'work approach' strategy. This meant that 'work must be the first preference, and that policy measures and programmes should facilitate labour market participation among the young, sick, disabled, single supporters and elderly'. This approach has two aims: it is intended to reduce 'the need for redistribution from the occupationally active population to social security beneficiaries' and to enhance individual well-being through remunerated work. The measures taken are designed to provide incentives to work or education as well as making it more costly to rely on social welfare. Two of these measures are described and evaluated: a 'talk' program addressed towards sickness beneficiaries and job-training for youth.
DISABLED, POLICY, TRAINING 13
30 Blank, Rebecca M. (1994), 'The employment strategy: public policies to increase work and earnings', in S.H. Danziger, G.D. Sandefur and D.H. Weinberg, eds, Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change, Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 168-204.
The chapter outlines the history of employment policies in the US. Over the past two decades, changes in welfare policies have tended to concentrate less on the earnings potential of welfare recipients and more on increasing their work effort whether or not this effort enhances their well-being. A proposed mandatory work for-benefits program was defeated in 1981, but states were then allowed to mandate job training, job search and work-for-benefits programs. The author describes and discusses some of the work-welfare programs then initiated. 'The underlying philosophy behind these programs became known as mutual obligations: women who request assistance from the state in the form of AFDC payments must in turn be willing to take advantage of opportunities provided by the state to move off public assistance and towards economic self-sufficiency.' States that began to design these work-welfare programs had to obtain permission to waive certain AFDC program rules. In order to exercise the waiver each state was required to evaluate the programs. The manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) assisted in the evaluations which, in general, showed that the programs improved women's labour market participation, decreased reliance on welfare, created small increases in total family income (mainly through increased work hours rather than wage rates) but did not move many families out of poverty. Since that time, there has been more focus on mandated participation in mutual obligation programs.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, TRAINING, WOMEN
31 Bozic, Suzanne, Astrid Breuer, Michael Fuery and Graeme Grant (1998), 'Recent social security developments - United States, New Zealand and United Kingdom', Social Security Journal, 1998/2, 183-95. This article looks at social welfare reforms in the three countries, drawing out major features. They include an increased emphasis on 'mutual obligation'. Recent aspects of this obligation include: manadatory work and training schemes; requirements for specific groups of people to participate in such schemes as a requirement for receiving income support; time limits on income support; and promotion of 'family responsibilities'. Measures introduced in the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are described.
ACTIVITY TESTS, BRITISH PROGRAMS, EFFICIENCY, FAMILIES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, SANCTIONS, TAXATION 14
32 Bozic, Suzanne and Peter Ritchie (1997), 'Report on the New Zealand "Beyond Dependency" conference', Social Security Journal, September, 18-26. The paper reports on the conference, 'Beyond Dependency', held in New Zealand in March 1997. (Individual papers from that conference appear in Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand: Te Puna Whakaro, 8, March 1997; some are annotated in this volume.) This paper identifies and examines the major themes canvassed and draws out some of the major concerns covered at the conference. The paper includes two main sections: debate concerning the obligation to work and the use of compulsory programs; and the restructuring of the policy framework and program design and delivery issues. In summarising the papers, the authors of this paper conclude that the principal challenge facing policy makers now 'is making income protection and work more compatible, while at the same time ensuring that it is economically and socially sustainable'. While employment and training policies are vital components of strategies to alleviate poverty, strategies in some countries are 'tending toward the enforcement ofjob-searching and work, with lesser emphasis on education and training'. Responsibility or personal welfare is moving from the state and business toward the individual and the family, and partnerships between community and non-government organisations. 'However, conference participants noted that societies consist of complex networks of interdependence and that mutual obligations are mutual - involving responsibilities and costs for government.'
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, TRAINlNG
33 Brady, Peter and Michael Wiseman (1997), Welfare Reform and the Labor Market: Earnings Potential and Welfare Benefits in California, 1972-1994, Discussion Paper No. 1128-97, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 34pp.
'Promotion of work is prominent in the rhetoric of current welfare reform efforts. The success of welfare-to-work policies is in part dependent on earnings available in employment. In this paper we use Current Population Survey data for the years 1972-1994 to develop measures of potential earnings from full-time work for low skilled men and women in California and to compare the trend in earning capacity for such people to welfare benefits. We find that while benefits have declined, earnings capacity has fallen faster, and the downward trend is particularly pronounced for men. Both the downward trends in benefits and potential earnings appear to have accelerated in recent years. State attempts to address the problem of low wages by expanding the opportunity for combining welfare with work may conflict with federal efforts to require that assistance be transitory.'
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION 15
34 Bray, Marianne and Justin Strang (1996), 'Tackling unemployment: the Government's response to the recommendations of the Employment Task Force', Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 6, July, 108-22.
The article explains the changes being implemented by the Government in New Zealand in response to the recommendation of an Employment Task Force and 'how the changes fit within the Government's wider goals of employment and economic growth'. Both the recommendations and the changes are detailed. Special attention is paid to the situation of the Maori people. 'The rationale behind the government's response was ... to balance incentive with obligation. Government aimed to provide the necessary encouragement and opportunities for beneficiaries to move towards work, at the same time formalising the obligations beneficiaries have to seek work as part of the condition of their receipt of income support.
POLICY
35 Brennan, Deborah (1999), 'The new paternalism', in Australian Council of Social Service, Work, Wages and Welfare, Congress Papers, ACOSS, 39 42. This is a response to the discussion paper released by the Minister for Family and Community Services (Newman, 1999, q.v.). The author notes that the convergence of ideals from the US and the UK alluded to in the paper is based on principles which mean that social justice 'is not about redistribution or the elimination of poverty it is about the need to create a "something for something" society in which "rights are matched by responsibilities".' The new paternalism which has emerged 'sees the purpose of government intervention as being to enforce certain types of behaviour and to restrict others'. While the author endorses the ideal of participation in the work force where people are able, she is concerned about the possibility that there could be a 'slide into coercive and punitive measures which could effectively deny the citizenship of welfare recipients' .
ETHICS, POLICY
36 Brett, Craig (1998), 'Who should be on workfare? The use of work requirements as part of an optimal tax mix', Oxford Economic Papers, 50(4), October, 607-22. 'The possibility ofusing workfare as a supplement to an optimal nonlinear income tax scheme was explored. A set of conditions in which required work of less value than market work forms part of an optimal redistributive taxation scheme 16 was presented. Results showed that those who face high marginal tax rates may participate in a well-designed workfare program. However, no evidences were gathered supporting the notion that workfare is always the best alternative to targeted schemes with high effective marginal tax rates.' The paper concludes: 'At its best, workfare can be a way to give those members of the poor who do not find work too onerous an opportunity to supplement their income.'
TAXATION
37 Breuer, Astrid (1998), 'Distinctive features of social policy reform in the United States', Social Security Journal, 1998/2,129-54.
Many countries are responding to social and economic changes by 'attempting to integrate welfare recipients into the labour market through employment-oriented policies'. This paper focuses on the US and the policy reforms introduced there under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. 'These reforms are unlike those implemented in other OECD countries because the idea of time-limited social assistance (welfare) has been introduced. That is, if welfare recipients do not participate in schemes that aim to place them in work after a specified period, their benefits will be cut.' The paper describes and discusses the changes and also their outcomes and implications. The major features are: the shift from remedial education to work-readiness training; timely job-search assistance; promotion of self-sufficiency; integration of similar government policy portfolios; devolution; greater flexibility; case management; and the state of the economy. The importance of putting in place measures to offset any negative outcomes and to ensure overall improvement is stressed.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SANCTIONS, TRAINING
38 Brock, Thomas and Kristen Harknett (1998), 'A comparison of two welfare-to-work case management models', Social Service Review, 72(4), December, 493-520.
'An experiment in Columbus, Ohio, randomly assigned clients in a mandatory welfare-to-work program to one of two case management models. A traditional model required clients to interact with two staff members: an income maintenance worker who processed welfare benefits, and an employment service worker who enrolled clients in work activities. An integrated model required clients to interact with one worker for income maintenance and employment services. The study examined effects on program participation, welfare receipt, employment rates, and earnings. Over 2 years, clients in the integrated group had significantly higher rates of participation in program activities and significantly lower welfare 17 payments but had similar employment rates and earnings to clients in the traditional group.'
CASE MANAGEMENT, EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
39 Brotherhood of St Laurence (1998), 'Priorities for the 1998 Commonwealth Budget', Brotherhood Comment, May, 6-7; and http:/www.bls.org.au/comment/may98003.htm
These excerpts from a letter to the Prime Minister present the priorities that the budget should address as seen by the Brotherhood of St Laurence. They concluded by arguing that 'initiatives which claim to embody "mutual obligations" must be genuinely mutual. If unemployed citizens are to devote themselves to making a contribution and improving their situation, so too must the government devote itself to remedying the problem through more jobs and through worthwhile activities.'
ETHICS, POLICY
40 Brown, David M. (1995), 'Welfare caseloads in Canada', in Helping the Poor: A Qualified Case for 'Workfare', The Social Policy Challenge 5, C.D. Howe Institute, Toronto, 37-90.
This paper examines what is known about the work-welfare choice in Canada. It presents statistics on changes in Canadian labour market earnings compared to cash welfare benefits, comparing them with appropriate US numbers. An examination of caseloads in four Canadian provinces shows that despite considerable variation there has been a positive relationship among labour market conditions, benefit levels and welfare enrolments. The author makes recommendations about changes to Canadian welfare programs. He also recommends that the provinces experiment with welfare-to-work transition programs, workfare, and training and remedial programs designed to meet the needs of clients.
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
41 Buckingham, Alan (1999), 'Welfare reform in Britain, Australia and the United Sates', Family Matters, 54, Spring/Summer, Special Issue on Families, Welfare and Social Policy, 24-9.
'In the United States, radical welfare reform now leaves individuals with no alternative to fmding and keeping a job, and the government has forced lone parents into employment whether they want it or not'. Although the principle of "mutual obligation" lies at the heart of recent welfare reforms in Britain and 18
Australia too, the policies that have been adopted so far have been much less dramatic, particularly with regard to the welfare rights of lone parents. Eventually, however, Britain and Australia will have to confront the same tough choice which the Americans have faced: do we want to defend the right of lone parents to choose not to work, or do we really want to reduce the levels of welfare dependency?' The changes for lone parents already in place in Australia, related to the Work for the Dole concept, are described.
ETHICS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
42 Burghes, Louie (1990), 'Workfare: lessons from the US experience', Social Policy Review 1989-90,2,169-86. This chapter looks at the experience of the United States with its workfare programs, that is, programs which include the imposition of compulsory work for those claiming benefits or welfare. It also reviews more broadly based work programs of which workfare is a part. It presents the history of workfare and outlines the philosophical debate surrounding the programs, discussing such issues as mandatory participation, attitudes to workfare and sanctions, as well as presenting some results. 'The chapter concludes that the policies have been neither as extensive nor as successful as is sometimes supposed.'
ATTITUDES, ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, SANCTIONS
43 Burghes, Louis (1993), Working for Benefits: Lessons from America, Low Pay Unit PampWet No. 57, London, 36pp.
'This report reviews the US experience of work programmes. Some of these include workfare, the imposition of compulsory work for those claiming social security benefits.' It outlines the major legislative moves associated with the programs and workfare and the relevant social security benefit. It looks particularly at the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and changes to it. Although it is compulsory for all states to have work programs, it is not mandatory for claimants to participate in all States. The report presents a critique of the program before presenting the issues in the philosophical debate. 'These conflicting views are, in general, about rights versus obligations, incentive versus disincentives, dependence versus barrier to self-sufficiency.' The author also looks at wider issues, putting work/welfare programs into the context of poverty, the difficulties of self-sufficiency for women, and the circumstances facing low-income workers.
ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, WOMEN 19
44 Casey, Bernard (1986), 'Back to the Poor Law? The emergence of "workfare" in Britain, Germany and the USA', Policy Studies, 7(1), July, 52-64.
The article discusses programs which require participation in work and training schemes for certain recipients of means-tested benefits. It presents an account of recent debate in Britain which led to the introduction of such schemes. The introduction, implementation and evaluation of workfare programs in the US are described and discussed. Similar 'help to work' programs were introduced in Germany under the Federal Social Help Law. The author discusses some implications of these policies and programs, commenting on the political and philosophical traditions which advocate them. The provision of basic training in addition to the performance of socially useful work is an important part of the policy. The element of compulsion and 'unreasonable' refusals to participate is discussed. The author argues that such schemes are of little benefit to the individuals involved and 'little, none and possible even negative benefits to the community'.
ACTIVITY TESTS, EFFICIENCY, ETHICS
45 Cass, Bettina (1988), Income Support for the Unemployed in Australia: Towards A More Active System, Issues Paper No. 4, Social Security Review, Department of Social Security, AGPS, Canberra, 33Opp; a summary appears as 'Unemployed in Australia', Social Policy and Administration, 22(2), Summer, 150-65.
The Social Security Review conducted by the Department of Social Security was concerned with all aspects of social security, including income support policies for unemployed people of work force age. This volume focuses on the labour market circumstances of all unemployed people and on the income support and labour market programs available to them. It addresses issues of adequacy and equity, legitimacy (fairness), incentive effects and activity. 'How can closer links be forged between income support programs and labour market programs whose aims are to facilitate job search and job placement, and to increase skills through training and retraining programs? This is a question of devising a more active and integrated income support system which translates into an examination of the work test and its expansion to an activity test.' 'The work test involves reciprocal obligation. An unemployed person is required to actively look for work and in return society accepts an obligation to pay income support.' This pattern is of reciprocal obligation is discussed.
ACTIVITY TESTS, CONCEPTS, POLICY, TRAINING, UNEMPLOYED
.~-----_._.------20
46 Cattacin, Sandro and Veronique Tattini (1997), 'Reciprocity schemes in unemployment regulation policies: towards a pluralistic citizenship of marginalisation', Citizenship Studies, 1(3), November, 351-64.
'Recent developments in unemployment regulation policies indicate that universal treatment of social welfare recipients is increasingly being replaced by selective programmes which are characterised by lower subsidies and the introduction of reciprocity in social welfare. Such programmes generally introduce the condition that people who benefit from social assistance perform some kind of work in return. These tendencies have important consequences on the organisation of our welfare society. We believe that the application of schemes based on selectivity and reciprocity to a significant portion of the population undermines the basic characteristics of the Welfare State, i.e. class stabilisation policies and the universal basis of treatment. This article will discuss these tendencies in the light of the workfare debate. It proposes to transform these measures into unconditional ones, sustained by universal basic income schemes.'
ETHICS
47 Chapman, Bruce (1995), 'The Jobs Compact: a critical analysis', in T. Aspromourgos and M. Smith, eds, The Pursuit of Full Employment in the 1990s, Proceedings of a Symposium, 1994, Department of Economics, University of Sydney, 21-59 (including comments by Peter Saunders and Warren Hogan); a version of the paper was published (1993) as 'Long-term unemployment: the case for policy reform', Economic and Labour Relations Review, 4(2) December, 218-40.
This paper examines the rationale for and the possible benefits of the Jobs Compact suggested in the Report of the Committee on Employment Opportunities (1993, q.v.). It has been argued that there are sound reasons from economic theory for promoting active as opposed to passive labour market expenditure. A reciprocal obligations approach has important advantages over on-going income support which does not present clear job choices for the long-term unemployed. 'The challenge for the Jobs Compact lies in the delivery of employment (or training) that actually does and is seen to improve the labour market skills of the targeted group. However, there are reasons not to believe that the solution lies mainly with JOBSTART, because of the likelihood of strong employer selection processes biasing the evaluation data which underlie the emphasis placed on this particular delivery mechanism. Consequently several other possibilities have been suggested, to be added to the range of alternatives offered in the Green paper and elsewhere. It is essential that proper evaluation procedures are put in place before policies such as the Job Compact begin, in order that changes can be made to the 21 orientation ofthe scheme towards areas of relative effectiveness. It is possible that if this is achieved the longer run dynamic benefits to the economy will justify expansions in the Jobs Compact, to include ultimately all of those who have been without work for a year or more. However, without proper monitoring, the structures of which need to be put in place early on, this will not be known with any confidence.'
In his commentary on the paper, Peter Saunders suggests that the imposition of reciprocal obligations on the long-term unemployed could be expanded to cover employers, on the grounds that they benefit from government spending on infrastructure and other programs.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, EVALUATION, POLICY
48 Cochrane, Allan (1998), 'What sort of safety-net? Social security, income maintenance and the benefits system', in G. Hughes and G. Lewis, eds, Unsettling Welfare: The Reconstruction of Social Policy, Routledge, London, 291-331.
The book in which this chapter appears is a publication of the Open University; it is intended as a teaching tool and includes suggested activities for students. This chapter traces the history of income maintenance in Britain from the introduction of the 1834 Poor Law which 'was intended to ensure that low-paid and casualized labour remained more attractive than life on poor relief'. The 1942 Beveridge Report provided the basis for postwar changes, in an attempt to achieve 'freedom from want'; the 1946 National Insurance Act was the result. Further changes are described and discussed. These changes stimulated debates about whether benefit rates above subsistence level acted as disincentives to work. As a result, 'benefit levels were squeezed dramatically and rules on entitlement were more tightly drawn [and] schemes such as the jobseeker's allowance were launched to target advice and to require at least some of those receiving benefit to move into employment within a certain period. The notion of workfare ... has become increasingly attractive ...'. Workfare is discussed and the possibility is raised that 'we have come full circle', towards a new Poor Law, though this is not the position of the author.
CONCEPTS
49 Committee on Employment Opportunities (M.S. Keating, chair) (1993), Restoring Full Employment: A Discussion Paper, AGPS, Canberra, 241pp. This report, commissioned by the Prime Minister, sets out to 'fashion an effective response to the problem of unemployment'. The various chapters look at labour market trends, the potential for growth, the skill of the work force, labour market 22 programs, the possibility of a Job Compact, delivery of labour market assistance, income support arrangements and ways of reforming social security. In particular, the committee proposed 'a Job Compact between people who have been unemployed for a long period of time, the Commonwealth Government and, more broadly, the Australian community'. Under this scheme temporary but worthwhile jobs would be provided for people who have been unemployed for a long time, mostly in the private sector. 'A major principle underlying the Job Compact is that of responsibility on both sides, or reciprocal obligation. On the one side. the Commonwealth Government would have responsibility to ensure that long-term unemployed people had opportunities to gain employment consistent with the longer term, full employment goal .. , On the other side, there are obligations on unemployed people. Although the Committee rejects the approach of some other countries of cutting off or reducing income support, it agrees that people receiving income support should accept reasonable job or program opportunities or else lose entitlements.' The chapter dealing with this proposal details the types of obligation on both sides, examines the reasons for such a compact, the population who would be first included in the program, the provisions that would be made under such a compact, the sources of new employment opportunities, the expansion of existing programs, extra work options such as community service, the effects the proposal could have, the estimated cost, feasibility issues associated with participants in remote areas and some other difficult situations.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, CONCEPTS, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED
50 Corbett, Thomas J. (1995), Welfare Reform in Wisconsin: The Rhetoric and the Reality, Reprint Series No. 747, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, reprinted from D.F. Norris and L. Thompson, eds, The Politics ofWelfare Reform, Sage Publications, 19-54.
The paper deals with the efforts of the state of Wisconsin 'to respond to society's growing dissatisfaction with AFDC'. The criticisms leveled at the program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, are outlined. The reforms and proposed reforms are tabulated. These included the Work, Not Welfare program. The author argues that the nature of the political debate about reform affects the outcome. 'When Governor Thompson asked for legislative approval for Work Not Welfare, the discussion in Wisconsin was less about the harshness of the proposal .. , than whether the proposal went far enough. Welfare reform is a political winner ...'
ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY 23
51 Corbett, Tom and Michael Wiseman (1988), Managing Workfare: What are the Issues, Discussion Paper No. 859-88, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 34pp. This paper catalogues the principal management problems encountered in designing and implementing workfare programs as part of welfare reform. 'The hallmark of the new workfare is explicit linkage of income maintenance to employment or employment preparation. These programs tend to be processes, steps certain welfare-receiving adults are expected to take in conjunction with receiving income support.' The five features of these programs are: they augment or substitute for financial incentives for employment; they add a real-time dimension to income support; they are interventionist; they are politicised; and there is some local variation. The goals cited for the linkage include: deterring voluntary dependence; reducing dependency; improving skills; and helping people learn to function independently. These goals may conflict with 'the general income maintenance objectives of assuring adequate benefits, protecting the recipient from stigma and abuse, and minimizing costs'. Management of welfare begins with deciding which goals to pursue. The paper reviews six structural features of workfare programs: choice of recipients to be targeted; program components; methods of determining services appropriate for each client and procedures for excusing recipients from requirements; recipient rights; and the extent to which members of the target population are exposed to program services and requirements. Further management problems concern the vesting of authority, the degree of discretion allowed, methods and monitoring. Program design must allow for evaluation of outcomes: the nature of the program, the effects on participants, and the consequences for non-participants. The authors argues that the 'most important immediate objective is to demonstrate the operation of a complete workfare program, that is, a program in which the various choices outlined above have actually been faced and addressed with specific policy decisions'. They also call attention to the challenges of managing such programs and ask 'where will the managers for such programs come from?'
CONCEPTS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
52 Costello, Tim (1999), 'Mutual obligation: finding the storyline', Canberra Bulletin ofPublic Administration, 92, June, 1-4. This article uses the Bible story of the Good Samaritan to discuss the concept of mutual obligation. The author argues that we 'are exchanging citizenship for customership; deconstructing the public; privatising even public spaces'. He 24 discusses the role of government in facilitating the growth of healthy communities.
ETHICS
53 Davidson, Peter (1986), 'Social security: is it secure?', Australian Left Review, 97, Spring, 32-8.
This is a general discussion of the Australian social security structure, 'unique in the capitalist world', and the threats to it. Among the changes foreseen by the author are those affecting conditions governing eligibility for unemployment benefit and the work test. Prime Minister Hawke, for instance, announced in a policy speech in July 1986 that a program would be established to encourage unemployed people to perform voluntary work for their benefits. The author comments that : 'He clearly wants the scheme to be compulsory'. Even though there has been opposition, and if it fails for lack of organisational and cabinet support, 'it has already shifted the whole debate over unemployment from one of government responsibility to provide jobs, incomes and training, to the responsibilities (or debt to society) of the unemployed themselves' .
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, POLICY
54 Deacon, AIan (1997), 'Reducing unemployment: what role for "welfare to work" schemes?', in A. Robertson, ed., Unemployment, Social Security and the Social Division ofWelfare: A Festschrift in Honour ofAdrian Sinfield, Department of Social Policy, University ofEdinburgh, 31-9. The focus of this paper is on 'employment measures'. The author asks whether 'employment measures make a significant contribution to the reduction of unemployment or are they simply another imposition upon unemployed people? In short, are employment measures part of the solution or part of the problem?' After describing some of the measures proposed by the Labour Party in Britain, the author places them in an historical context before presenting 'three reasons to be sceptical about employment measures'. The paper concludes that the employment measures now being advocated can be justified provided that they satisfy certain requirements. First, they should combine different approaches in one package. Second, they must address the issue of cost; and third, they 'must avoid the snare of compulsion'. Fourthly, there must be 'mechanisms in place to ensure the quality of the work experience or training which is offered'. 'Finally, there is a need to be realistic about what can be expected of politicians or the electorate.'
ETHICS, POLICY 25
55 Deacon, B. with Michelle Hulse and Paul Stubbs (1997), Global Social Policy, Sage, London, 252pp.
There is a very short discussion in the chapter on post-communist social policy, of the use of public work, or workfare, as a substitute for means-tested social assistance. 'The workfare idea ... seems to have fallen out of favour as World Bank policy. This, interestingly, is a strategy that now seems to be favoured by the IMF ... In defence ofthe workfare strategy IMF officials also point to the need for the urgent implementation of social protection rescue strategies while longer term, problematic means tested administrative capacity is put in place.'
POLICY
56 Dean, Mitchell (1993), 'Social security practices, self-formation and the active society', in P. Saunders and S. Shaver, eds, Theory and Practice in Australian Social Policy: Rethinking the Fundamentals, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Volume 2: Contributed Papers, Reports and Proceedings No. 112, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 99-110.
The paper looks at the ethical issues involved in the operation of social security practices of income support for the unemployed, with particular reference to the active society concept as presented in papers of the Social Security Review (Cass, 1988, q.v.) and put in place by the Department of Employment, Education and Training. Fundamental to these practices is the notion of reciprocal obligation. 'Whether we embrace or reject the ideal of an active society or an active system of income support, we should realise that more is at stake than the role of the state and the achievement of certain social objectives. It is true that active systems place new obligations on the state for the provision of services and that this distinguishes them from the radical anti-statist version of neoliberalism. Nevertheless, it is also true that at stake, in both neoliberalism and the active system, are our hopes and fears about who we are and what we might become.'
ACTIVE SOCIETY, ETHICS
57 Dean, Mitchell (1997), 'Administering the unemployed citizen', in P. Saunders and T. Eardley, eds, States, Markets, Communities: Remapping the Boundaries, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Volume 1, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 136, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 87-101. The paper looks at the labour market policies of the Coalition Government, introducing work for the dole and compares them with the policies of the previous government as set out in Working Nation (Australia, Prime Minister, 1994, q.v.) 26 arguing that the similarities are striking. Both policies are discussed as they apply to the government of the unemployed. Comparison is made of the 'active system of income support' of the Labor Government and the 'active jobseeker' of the Coalition Government. 'Under both Labor and conservative rule in Australia, active policies towards the unemployed oblige the citizen to exercise choice, and to undertake an intensive work on the self, as they undertake to ensure that the services and expertise exist to enable that work on self to be performed. What distinguishes them most clearly is how that provision is to be made and the kind of choices that are required of the unemployed citizen. The unemployed citizen, who might have recently become accustomed to a freedom exercised under the benevolent tutelage of the pastoral state, will now, it appears, have to adopt yet another kind of freedom: the exercise ofthe responsible and informed choice that absolves all collective obligation save that of providing the opportunity to exercise that choice.' The author also argues that under Labor, 'power relations operate neither through pure coercion nor pure consent but under the careful cultivation of attributes by which choice can be exercised in relation to a labour market. This strategy seeks to transform the risky population into active citizens. Under the other, choice and coercion are bifurcated so that while the active citizen is obliged to exercise choice, (at least some) targeted populations are simply forced to work:
ACTIVE SOCIETY, ETHICS, POLICY
58 Dean, Mitchell (1998), 'Administering ascetism: reworking the ethical life of the unemployed citizen', in M. Dean and B. Hindess, eds, Governing Australia: Studies in Contemporary Rationalities of Government, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 87-107.
The chapter examines questions of the relation between governmental concerns and the ethical life of unemployed citizens. The issue is analysed particularly in the period before and after the introduction of the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Work for the Dole) Bill 1997. Labor Party policies put in place following the Social Security Review and under Working Nation are compared with Coalition policies put in place after they came to office in 1996. 'The work for-the-dole legislation appears after a decade of recurrent problematisations of the role of national governments in regard to unemployment'. The chapter looks at how agencies of Australian governments concern themselves with a broad sense of government 'in that they seek to assemble multiple and heterogeneous agencies and instruments in the direction of the actions, behaviours and orientations of certain classes of citizens'. The analysis takes four questions related to unemployment policy: what do governments seek to govern? How are the unemployed to be governed? Why are the unemployed governed through the mechanisms of a governmentally contrived market? and What is the type of 'relation to self that these practices promote? 27
The author concludes that if 'we are to take seriously the work-for-the-do1e scheme as a key component in the Coalition government's strategy toward unemployment, we might say that the difference between the strategy of the two Governments is something like the following. Under one, power relations operate neither through pure coercion nor pure consent but under the careful cultivation of attributes by which choice can be exercised in relation to a labour market. This strategy seeks to transform the targeted population into active citizens. Under the other, choice and coercion are bifurcated so that while the active citizen is obliged to exercise choice, (at least some) targeted popu1ations are simply forced to work.'
ETHICS, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED
59 Deavers, Kenneth L. and Anita U. Hattiangadi (1998), 'Welfare to work: building a better path to private employment opportunities', Journal of Labor Research, 19(2), Spring, 205-28.
Welfare reform legislation in the US has produced a remarkable employment creation performance. This paper examines the economic environment facing the we1fare-to-work efforts. One section looks at the jobs available and the characteristics required of the welfare population to fill them. The strategies companies are using to hire former welfare recipients are examined. Ways of making employment regulation more 'we1fare-to-work friendly' are discussed; the authors suggest that employment policy regulation could be changed to ease the often difficult transition.
MANAGEMENT ISSUES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
60 Eardley, Tony (1997), New Relations of Welfare in the Contracting State: The Marketisation ofServices for the Unemployed in Australia, Discussion Paper No. 79, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales,Sydney,26pp.
'A significant feature of the organisation of public affairs in the 1990s in liberal welfare states has been a rebirth of contractualism. In Australia, the provision of social security and employment assistance to unemployed people has been characterised by an incremental shift away from entitlement as of right once certain preordained eligibility requirements are met. Instead, payments are becoming more dependent on compliance with individualised quasi-contractual agreements between the unemployed person and the relevant agency. Moves to create a competitive market in employment services also make it increasingly likely that this agency will not be a public body, but a private or non governmental provider which itself operates in a contractual relationship with the state and in competition with other providers. 28
The paper examines the nexus between the contracting-out of services for the unemployed and the quasi-contractual relationships being established with individual job seekers. It considers whether through this process we are seeing new relations of welfare developing which could be shifting Australian social security towards some different model. Supporters of the "new contractualism" suggest that individual contract status could offer advantages compared to previous forms ofpaternalistic collectivism. The paper argues that job seekers are in a weak position to assert such status in the quasi-contractual employment assistance regime, and that there will be a need for greater attention to securing clients' rights if the positive aspects of case management and public/private complementarity are to be retained.'
CASE MANAGEMENT, ETHICS, POLICY
61 Eardley, Tony (1999), 'Public attitudes to mutual obligation', Impact, December, 1, 16.
The government is emphasising mutual obligation as a guiding principle in recasting social security for the unemployed, arguing that this is in line with public opinion. This article examines results from a survey commissioned by the fonner Department of Social Security and carried out by the Social Policy Research Centre (see Eardley and Matheson, 1999), in which a number of relevant questions were asked. 'Overall, the results suggest that while the Government can realistically claim widespread support for its policies towards the young unemployed it may need to be cautious about the extension of mutual obligation to some other groups if it wants to carry public opinion with it.' In addition, 'there does seem to be a perception that obligations in relation to unemployed people need to be mutual, not just a one-sided burden of compliance to be shouldered by the unemployed themselves.'
ATTITUDES, UNEMPLOYED
62 Eardley, Tony (2000), 'Sole parents and "welfare dependency''', SPRC Newsletter, 76, May, 1,4-6. 'Now that "mutual obligation" has become the watchword of social policy, it is not surprising that attention has begun to focus on social security arrangements for sole parents.' This article draws on survey data to discuss the rationale for changes in sole parent policy and public attitudes towards those changes. The author concludes that while public attitudes seem to offer support for change, 'there is an overwhelming view that sole parents should be off welfare and into work. Perhaps policy should be focused more on reducing the barriers to 29 employment and increasing the incentives as well as on expanding the support services that make work possible.'
ATTITUDES, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
63 Eardley, Tony and George Matheson (1999), Australian Attitudes to Unemployment and Unemployed People, Discussion Paper No. 102, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 36pp.
'Social security support for unemployed people in Australia in the last decade has become increasingly conditional on their demonstrating ever greater job search effort. Yet we know relatively little about whether this shift accords with public opinion. This paper draws on a study of community attitudes to unemployment and unemployed people, commissioned by the former Department of Social Security, based on review and analysis of attitudinal survey data. Overall the evidence is ambiguous. Although, by international standards, Australians take a relatively hard line on the responsibilities of unemployed people to actively seek work, there is little information available about views on the specifics of activity testing. Also, although a majority opposes greater public expenditure on unemployment, they still see an important role for government in addressing unemployment and supporting unemployed people.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, ATTITUDES, UNEMPLOYED
64 Eardley, Tony, Peter Saunders and Ceri Evans (2000), Community Attitudes Towards Unemployment, Activity Testing and Mutual Obligation, Discussion Paper No. 107, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 46 pp.
'Those elements of activity testing described as "mutual obligation" are becoming increasingly important in social security policy towards unemployed people. In order to provide more information about public attitudes to this policy, the SPRC included a set of questions in its survey on Coping with Economic and Social Change, carried out in 1999. The survey found broad support for the application of many, though not all, aspects of mutual obligation principles to young unemployed people and, to a lesser extent, to the long-term unemployed. When applied to other groups, however, especially older unemployed people, those with disabilities and those with parental responsibilities, this support was considerably more qualified. Respondents made clear distinctions in how they viewed the requirements appropriate for different groups. In relation to most unemployed groups except the young, attitudes varied according to respondents' age, labour force status, income, education, political affiliation and housing tenure. In particular, attitudes to mutual obligation seemed 30 to soften with older age, while they hardened as income and education levels rose. There was also some support for reconsidering the rules of eligibility for income support for sole parents, but no overwhelming view that they should automatically be expected to seek paid work when they still have young children to care for. Although there are differing views on what should be done about unemployment, most Australians believe that government still has an important role. In this sense, people see obligations as needing to be mutual, not just a one-sided burden of compliance to be shouldered by the unemployed.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, ATTITUDES, DISABLED, UNEMPLOYED, YOUTH
65 Field, Frank (1997), 'Re-inventing welfare: a response to Lawrence Mead', in L.M. Mead, From Welfare to Work: Lessons from America, Choice in Welfare No. 39, A. Deacon, ed., Institute of Economic Mfairs (lEA) Health and Welfare Unit, London, 59-64. This comment on Lawrence Mead's policy proposals and American programs, by the Minister for Welfare Reform in the new British Government, argues that while compulsion and sanctions do have some part, 'the use of sanctions would represent a failure on our part as much as the individual concerned'. He advocates a voluntary approach for lone parents. The political implications of changes to policy are canvassed.
POLICY, SANCTIONS, SOLE PARENTS, UNEMPLOYED
66 Finn, Dan (1997), Working Nation: Welfare Reform and the Australian Job Compact for the Long Term Unemployed, Unemployment Unit, London, and the Australian Council of Social Service, Sydney, 94pp.
Working Nation, the White Paper published by the Australian Labor Government in 1994, outlined a strategy aimed at reducing general unemployment. 'At the heart of the Government's approach was a Jobs Compact under which the long term unemployed or those at risk ... were guaranteed the offer of a temporary job or training place.' The first chapter of this book 'charts the transition from a full employment economy towards the "active society" approach, which created the foundations on which the Working National superstructure was built.' It looks briefly at government responses to the growth of unemployment and describes the emergence of various labour market programs and training reforms. 'It also describes the creation of a social security regime which became ever more focused on administering income and work tests designed to contain costs and ensure that the unemployed looked for jobs.' The chapter then outlines the 1991 Newstart strategy and concludes with the defeat of the Coalition parties 'Fightback' proposals in 1993. The second chapter describes the Working Nation package and 31 the ways in which the Job Compact worked, concluding with the responses to the strategy.
Chapter Three explores the new 'reciprocal obligation' between Government and unemployed and the benefit sanctions which underpinned it. It describes the case management system and the organisations who delivered it. Finally it looks at the impact of the new benefit regime. Other chapters describe and examine the impact of the Youth Training Initiative for unemployed schoolleavers; the social security reforms which were aimed at redesigning the relationship between the benefit system and the labour market, including the changes made in the treatment of couples; and the overall impact of the Job Compact on long-term unemployment including the fmdings of an evaluation published by the Coalition Government. The fmal chapter looks at political implications and the impact of unemployment and the Jobs Compact; it concludes with a description of the new Governments' plans to cut expenditure, privatise employment services and redesign labour market programs.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, ACTIVITY TESTS, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED, YOUTH
67 Finn, Dan (1998), 'Labour's "New Deal" for the unemployed and the stricter benefit regime', in E. Brunsdon, H. Dean and R. Woods, eds, Social Policy Review 10, Social Policy Association, London, 105-22. The article describes and discussed the 'New Deal' put in place by the Labour Government in Britain. It explores the extent to which the approach of this government shares assumptions with those of its predecessor in terms of the strictness of benefit eligibility, the conditions of receipt of the jobseeker's allowance, the use of employment subsidies and temporary work programs and time limits on benefit entitlement. The author also looks at problems which might be met while implementing the new Deal against the background of the Conservative legacy.
ACTIVITY TESTS, POLICY, SANCTIONS
68 Finn, Dan (1999), 'Job guarantees for the unemployed: lessons from Australian welfare reform', Journal ojSocial Policy, 28(1), January, 53-7l. Most OECD countries are addressing the problem of long-term unemployment by changing to more active systems, replacing passive benefit payment systems with those which improve job search and provide programs designed to get people into work. This article describes the program instituted by the Australian Labor Government (1993-96) which combined labour market programs and social security reforms. 'It analyses the achievements of the strategy and what went wrong, and it draws out lessons of relevance to the British Labour government 32 which has committed itself to using job guarantees to build new bridges between welfare and work.'
ACTIVE SOCIETY, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED
69 Finn, Dan (2000), 'Welfare to work: the local dimension', Journal of European Social Policy, 10(1), February, 43-57.
'Welfare systems in the European Union and in other OECD countries are under pressure. In response, governments have embarked on major reforms aimed at creating work-based welfare systems. The new approaches involve radical changes in traditional welfare and employment agency bureaucracies. In most countries this has been coupled with decentralization and the increased use of local partnerships and organizations in designing and implementing new "Welfare to Work" programmes. This article assesses these broad developments and describes the implementation of recent Welfare to Work strategies in three countries - Great Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands. The article compares and contrasts the approach of each country and outlines some of the key developments and implementation problems that have emerged. It briefly assessed the evaluation evidence so far available and analyses the potential and problems that more flexible local delivery arrangements are likely to generate.'
BRITISH PROGRAMS, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
70 Fortin, Bemard, Michel Truchon and Louis Beausejour (1993), 'On reforming the welfare system: workfare meets the negative income tax', Journal ofPublic Economics, 51(2), June, 119-51.
'Using a simulation model for a small open economy (Quebec 1986) various Negative Income Tax (NIT) and workfare schemes are compared from the point of view of efficiency and equity. The main finding is that there exist workfare schemes that are superior to both the Quebec regime of 1986, and to a NIT characterized by a 100 per cent implicit tax rate. However, these workfare schemes are dominated by some NIT programs. This suggests that it may be necessary to have work requirements that vary across socio-demographic classes for a workfare plan to be superior to any NIT. Combining workfare with an NIT could also be the prescription.'
EFFICIENCY, TAXATION 33
71 Frame, Laura (1999), 'Suitable homes revisited: an historical look at child protection and welfare reform', Children and Youth Services Review, 21, (9/10), 719-54.
'Welfare reform will impact the child protection population not only by effecting changes in family life, but also by altering the nature of the relationships between welfare and child protection institutions. Certain aspects of TANF [Temporary Assistance to Needy Families] recall the historical tendency for mothers' pensions, AFDC [Aid to Families with Dependent Children] to be restricted to certain kinds of ''fit'' parents, for "suitable homes" policies to act as caseload containment measures, and for social services within welfare to serve a surveillance function without evidencing clear success in resolving fmancial dependency or problems with parenting. Such characteristics of welfare have supported a strong linkage to the child protection system, although the nature of this relationship has varied over time. A view of selected events highlights the problems encountered when welfare-based social services attempt to perform a child protection function, problems that are particularly relevant given current concerns that welfare reform will intensify the poverty experienced by already precarious families. It is suggested that the blended family service/welfare-to work model of TANF be implemented with care - to avoid repeating the mistakes of prior eras - and that some degree of functional and philosophical separation between welfare-to-work and child protection will facilitate the best provision of service to families.'
FAMILIES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
72 Freeland, John (1986), 'Reasserting the right to work', Australian Social Welfare Impact, 16, July, 6-8.
The article is a response to the policy push towards work for the dole. The rationale put forward by the Hawke Government for such a policy was 'that while society had an obligation to the unemployed, the unemployed had a reciprocal obligation to society, and that there was a widely held view in the community that unemployed people should work for the dole'. The author argues that there were other motives and implications and these are explored in the article, especially as they impinge on young people. It also puts forward arguments against such a policy.
POLICY, YOUTH 34
73 Friedlander, Daniel and Garry Burtless (1995), Five Years After: The Long term Effects of Welfare-to-Work Programs, A Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation Study, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 230pp. A number of experimental programs designed to 'reform welfare' and to move recipients of welfare from public assistance to stable employment are evaluated. The evaluation used data not previously available, of long-term effects on recipients from some of the programs.
The evaluations show that while the programs overall increased employment among AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) recipients, reduce AFDC receipt, increased the share of sample members' income from earnings, and saved money for government budgets in some cases, they did not increase the quality of the job held. However, the authors found that basing improvements on what has been learnt from these programs, may result in more success in the future.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
74 Friedlander, Daniel, Barbara Goldman, Judith Gueron and David Long (1986), 'Initial findings from the demonstration of state work/welfare initiatives', American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 76(2), 224-9.
'The problem of providing work incentives along with adequate income support to poor families under the federally supported Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program has been addressed in two ways. One approach involves changes in the rules for determining welfare eligibility and benefit amount to increase the financial incentives for choosing work over welfare ... a second approach would condition AFDC receipt on the fulfillment of an obligation to take a job, search for work, or participate in education or training activities designed to prepare an individual for work.' This approach is mandatory. The article describes some of these programs, and looks at evaluations in three states. 'The available evidence for these three states indicates that mandatory programs of job search, short-duration unpaid work experience, and training can be implemented for AFDC clients, that they can be operated at relatively low cost, and that they can have some short-run effect on employment.' However, much more research must be done to answer questions, especially about long-term AFDC recipients.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS 35
75 Gager, Owen (1999), 'After the Job Network, the deluge', Arena Magazine, 38, December-January, 12-14.
The article, subtitled 'Lives wasted in the overflow', discusses changes in the Australian Government Ministry and the effects on policy. The author argues that the relationship between the Job Network, Centrelink, the Department and Ministers involved is increasing inefficiency in treatment of the unemployed. 'The Government has already begun to circumvent the labour market - that is, after all, what work for the dole is about ... The state allocation of the unemployed to unwaged jobs, so undermining existing waged labour, is such an extreme form of labour conscription that it represents a reversion to pre-capitalist corvee labour ... The schemes lead, unsurprisingly, to a fall in the quality of work, and high replacement rates for tools and machinery ... they are also a waste of human lives.'
MANAGEMENT ISSUES, POLICY
76 Gardiner, Karen (1997), Bridgesfrom Benefit to Work, A Review, Work and Opportunity Series No. 2, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, 60pp. The paper reviews welfare-to-work programs in the UK and other countries and sets out a framework for the evaluation of schemes. It places emphasis on the need for evaluation schemes to be comprehensive and also discusses briefly the issue of compulsion in welfare-to-work programs.
ETHICS, EVALUATION
77 Gardiner, Karen (1998), 'Getting welfare to work', New Economy, 5(1), March, 19-23. The article describes a number of initiatives designed 'to get people off the dole and into jobs' which were in place before the Labour Party came into office, and evaluates their effectiveness. There has been an increasing use of compulsion in at least one of these programs (Restart interview) with some evidence of positive outcomes for participants.
BRITISH PROGRAMS, EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION
78 Good, Rob (1992), 'What's wrong with "actively seeking work"?', Poverty, 81, Spring, 9-11. The author analyses the impact of new rules requmng unemployed people claiming benefit to be 'actively seeking work'. He compares the system with a similar discredited test in Britain some sixty years earlier and argues that the 36 system will come 'to be administered more and more severely, especially for less articulate and less well-informed claimants'.
ACTIVITY TESTS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED
79 Goodman, James (1997), 'Scapegoating and surveillance: unemployment policy in Australia', Arena Magazine, 27, February-March, 20-3; a version appears as 'New deals and privatising unemployment in Australia', Australian Political Economy, 40, December, 27-43.
The author argues that the work tests for eligibility for the 'dole' as administered under the Howard Government are forcing people into low-paid work or absolute poverty. The 'role of the Australian welfare state in alleviating poverty is increasingly overlaid with a new-found role in controlling the poor.' These policies were fIrst initiated under the Keating Government, with the Working Nation program. The history of these reciprocal obligations and the Job Compact, through to the initiative under the Howard Government, rewarding agencies for placing the unemployed persons in a job, is outlined. The author concludes: 'maintenance of the means of living - whether through work or welfare - must have the absolute priority ofeconomic policy.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, POLICY
80 Green, David G. (1988), Social Welfare: The Changing Debate, CIS Occasional Papers No. 20, Centre for Independent Studies, St Leonards, 28pp. This paper is concerned with the growth of dependence and the changes in welfare policy that are being put into place, or canvassed, to reduce it. It examines the work of Charles Murray in the US, who argued that the spirit of self-reliance among recipients of welfare benefIts has been undermined by those benefits. Lawrence Mead (1986 q.v.) supplements this thesis by arguing that much unemployment has more to do with the jobless themselves than with economic conditions. Mead argues that certain duties must be 'enforced bureaucratically'. Solutions put forward by Murray and Mead are examined. 'The most significant reform proposed by Mead is that recipients of welfare should be under an obligation to work.' While it is plainly preferable if people work out of a sense of personal responsibility, the poor are dependent on government and, according to Mead, there is no alternative to a government role in socialising them. This 'new thinking' has become accepted in America and has resulted in a variety of workfare programs, as in some other countries. The appropriateness of these programs is discussed. The author concludes: 'Lawrence Mead may be correct that, in the short run, governments must take the lead in re-socialising the people who have fallen prey to welfare dependency; but in the longer run, there would 37 seem to be less risk in seeking out the private institutional forms that encourage good character and help to create a richer culture with the minimum of compulsion.'
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
81 Green, David G. (1996), From Welfare Sate to Civil Society: Towards Welfare that Works in New Zealand, New Zealand Business Roundtable, Wellington, 228pp.
The author argues that welfare programs 'have tended to impair human character', pandering to people's weaknesses rather than appealing to their strengths, and 'diminishing opportunities for people to be of service to each other'. The book discusses rationales for collectivism and looks at gradually changing perceptions of welfare, describing particularly the effects of 'five intellectual errors': behaviourism, which can provide a rationale for political paternalism; victimisrn which provides a rationale for hatred and political discrimination; non judgementalisrn which confuses external control with self-imposed moral restraint; resource rights which result in 'calls for other people to work or save in order that the holder of the right can live without necessarily working or saving'; and integrationism which claims that people can only be integrated into the community by giving them spending power. Several recommendations are made for the reform of the benefit system: encouragement of voluntary organisations which do not depend on government grants; more insurance and few benefits such as sickness and invalid benefits; provision of assistance to the unemployed by government and voluntary organisations sharing; income support should be given only when all capital is exhausted; claimants should avoid income tests by opting to receive help from voluntary organisations; never-married mothers (but not divorced or widowed sole parents) should be required to work, though the benefit should not be abolished for the sake of the children; and men should be deterred from fathering illegitimate children and should have to pay full maintenance. Health care should be fmanced by insurance, and education by parental payment, not through taxes, but using a system of tax credits. Provision of income in retirement should be an individual's responsibility, and changes should be made to pension and superannuation systems in this direction.
CONCEPTS, POLICY, SANCTIONS, SOLE PARENTS
82 Greenberg, David and Michael Wiseman (1992), What Did the Work Welfare Demonstration Do?, Discussion Paper No. 969-92, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 155pp. 'The 1981 [US] Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) spawned numerous welfare employment demonstration programs that sought to encourage and require 38 adult applicants and recIpIents of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to participate in job search, training, or public employment programs. The authors review evaluations of these demonstration programs and assess the influence they have had on welfare policy and social science research. In so doing, they explain how the OBRA demonstrations worked, how they were evaluated, what impact they had on the earnings of AFDC recipients, and how successful they were in reducing the AFDC caseload. The authors pay particular attention to the efforts of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), the private nonprofit organization that evaluated many of the OBRA demonstration programs. They conclude that MDRC deserves credit for entrepreneurship in encouraging states to conduct rigorous evaluations of their innovations, for sound judgement in choice of methodology for evaluating the outcomes, and for conservatism in drawing inferences from the results. They point to opportunities for improvement in evaluation of process, impact, and benefits and costs of future demonstrations. While appreciating the historical role of MDRC, they argue for development of more systematic methods for encouraging implementation and rigorous evaluation of state welfare reforms.'
EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
83 Griffiths, David (1988), 'Labour market programs: a philosophical basis', Equity, 2, March, 6. This article is a response to the Social Security Review paper on policies for the unemployed (Cass, 1988, q.v.). The author is concerned that there has been a shift in the characteristics of labour market programs towards 'workfare incrementalism': the integration of work and welfare policies. The article discusses the operation of the work/activity test and the contrast between 'voluntary workfare' and 'compulsory workfare'. The author argues that work force participation should be voluntary rather than mandatory, 'that work and activity tests are inappropriate because they are coercive and eliminate free choice' and that choice should not involve rewards and punishments.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS
84 Grover, Coos and John Stewart (1999), "'Market workfare": social security, social regulation and competitiveness in the 1990s', Journal of Social Policy, 28(1), January, 73-96. 'A Regulation Approach framework has been adopted to analyse the very rapid period of change in social security policy since the late 1980s. It is argued that the changes can be explained in terms of a number of regulatory dilemmas which emerged or were intensified under neo-liberal capital accumulation. Some of the regulatory dilemmas - high levels of economic inactivity, inflationary pressures 39 consequent to higher employment and low levels of wages - it was thought could be managed through the social security system using what we call "market workfare"; by which we mean in-work means-tested social security benefits which have some measure of compulsion to work attached, such that it counts as workfare. The aim of in-work benefits is to reduce wages further so that the market can respond by creating more low-wage employment. By this stratagem it is the market which responds to labour demand, rather than the government creating work opportunities. The parliamentary neo-liberal right's approach to "market workfare" is discussed, and then it is suggested that the market similarities between New Labour and the previous parliamentary neo-liberal right can be explained because both administrations were attempting to manage the same regulatory dilemmas.'
CONCEPTS, POLICY
85 Gueron, Judith (1986), 'Work for people on welfare', Public Welfare, 44(1), Winter, 7-12.
The article presents interim findings from a major study three years into a five year program by the Manpower Research Demonstration Corporation (MDRC) to examine US State efforts to restructure the relationships between welfare and work. States have introduced participation requirements, changed the mix of employment and training services and institutional structures for administering programs. The study addressed four questions as follows. Is it feasible to impose obligations as a condition for welfare receipt? What does workfare look like in practice and how do welfare recipients judge the fairness of requirements? Do the initiatives reduce welfare rolls and cost andlor increase employment and earnings? How do program benefits compare to program costs? The interim findings indicate that 'a number of quite different program approaches will lead to increases in employment, but that the gains will be relatively modest and in some cases will translate into even smaller welfare savings', but the benefit-cost results suggest that society as a whole benefits.
This issue ofthe journal includes a number of articles each about a particular State program.
Inestimable-but tangible - results in Maine Michael R. Petit and Linda A. Wilcox
Finding work for the poor in Arizona Douglas X. Patifio
Study links training and reduced dependence Daniel C. Hudgins [Durham Country, North Carolina] 40
20,000 chose paycheck over welfare check [Massachusetts} Charles M. Atkins
A business executive looks at ET [Massachusetts] Thomas J. Hourihan
Broad support buoys California's GAIN David B. Swoap
A model program for all California Randall C. Bacon
Workfare: is the honeymoon over - or yet to come? Morton H. Sklar
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
86 Gueron, Judith (1986), Work Initiatives for Welfare Recipients: Lessons from a Multi-State Experiment, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, New York, 28pp.
The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) has run a large scale social experiment examining new state initiatives to restructure the relationship between welfare and work. States are doing this in a variety of ways. This publication looks at the results three years into the changes and addresses a number of key questions about the feasibility and effects of the new programs with particular regard to the way they may be used in the design of future welfare policy. 'Can the current welfare delivery system be adapted to improve obligations - or participation requirements - on its recipients as a condition of welfare receipt? What do these mandatory activities look like in practice, and how do welfare recipients view this limitation of their entitlement? How does the joint ''treatment'' - i.e. the imposition of an obligation to participate and the specific activity participated in - affect employment and welfare outcomes over time? How do impacts vary across different environments and among different groups of welfare applicants and recipients? How do overall program benefits compare to costs, and how are costs and gains distributed between "taxpayers" and welfare recipients?' The monograph summarises the major lessons midway through the project.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
87 Gueron, Judith M. and Edward Pauly with Cameran M. Lougy (1991), From Welfare to Work, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 316pp.
The book summarises 'what is known about the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs' in the US, focusing on the 'major element of all recent proposals to redesign welfare with the goal of encouraging self-support and reducing long-term 41 welfare receipt: requmng people on welfare to partIcIpate in employment directed services'. It is also concerned with the context and issues involved in evaluating those programs. The authors argue that more information is required on 'the effects of particular service components on specific populations, and the effects of entire service delivery systems, which include multiple service components and management processes, on the broad welfare population and selected groups within it'.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
88 Handler, Joel F. (1995), The Poverty of Welfare Reform, Yale University Press, New Haven, l77pp.
'Once again, America is getting tough on welfare.' Both parties and some states have legislative proposals which place time limits on welfare. 'Disputes are whether the recipient will receive education and training during that time or be immediately pushed into work and whether, at the end of two years, the recipient will be completely cut off or required to take a job in either the private or the public sector as a condition ofreceiving aid.' This book provides a brief historical overview of welfare showing continuity in basic assumptions about what is wrong with public assistance to the poor and what can be done about it. It analyses aid to single mothers and their children and the role of paid labour; looks at poverty; the nature of available jobs; and less than-full-time employment. One chapter analyses some of the successful welfare to-work projects evaluated by the Manpower Development Research Corporation, arguing that success rates of even the 'successful' projects have been exaggerated. Another chapter examines the states' efforts to reform welfare so as to strengthen 'family values'. Current reform proposals are examined and their probable outcomes discussed. The central argument of the book is that welfare reform by itself does nothing to improve the job market. The way ahead is to 'make work pay' through the Earned Income Tax Credit, emphasising health care benefits and the value of private sector employment. Unless there are more jobs that pay a higher income, poverty will remain and welfare will not be reduced.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS, TAXATION
89 Handler, Joel F. and Yeheskel Hasenfeld (1991), The Moral Construction of Poverty: Welfare Reform in America, Sage, California, 269pp. The book is based on two arguments. 'The first is that social welfare policy cannot be fully understood without recognizing that it is fundamentally a set of 42 symbols that try to differentiate between the deserving and undeserving poor in order to uphold such dominant values as the work ethic and family, gender, race, and ethnic relations.' Welfare policy thus defines the 'deviants'. The second argument is that federalism in the US is used to control the deviants and 'to manage the conflicts such control generates'. Early chapters in the book trace these ideas as they influence policy while the later chapters 'tell the contemporary story - the vast changes in the demographic and legal characteristics of AFDC, and the consequent rise of work requirements'; discuss the tension among strategies designed to cope with welfare through changes in administration 'and the emergence of the regulatory work test as the dominant policy choice'; and describe two major programs, ET or Employment and Training Choices in Massachusetts and GAIN or Greater Avenues for Independence in California, comparing GAIN with other state programs. In the final chapter the authors 'discuss the current welfare reform consensus and the Family Support Act, and present our views concerning the likely unfolding of the present reform act.
ACTIVITY TESTS, CONCEPTS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
90 Handler, Joel F. and Yeheskel Hasenfeld (1997), We the Poor People: Work, Poverty and Welfare, Yale University Press, New Haven, 282pp.
The book examines the welfare policy changes in the US which were enacted in 1996. It argues that the changes are based on longstanding assumptions. First, that welfare dependency is not just being poor, it is being out of work, a problem of attitude and a 'moral failure to have the proper work ethic'. Secondly, moral condemnation is reserved for those who are poor and different in terms of race, ethnicity; country of origin or religion. The third assumption is that providing aid destroys the work ethic and other family values. Fourth, welfare reforms are directed at changing individual behaviour rather than the environment and fifth, the reforms are directed at adult welfare recipients who are almost all women.
The authors also argue that the problem is not welfare, but poverty; that poverty is caused by the deterioration of the low-wage labour market; and that the best way to help most welfare recipients is to help the working poor. They discuss the current strategy of requiring work as a condition of aid and the reasons they believe it will fail.
ETHICS, WOMEN 43
91 Hasenfeld, Yeheskel and Dale Weaver (1996), 'Enforcement, compliance and disputes in welfare-to-work programs', Social Service Review, 70(2), June, 235-56.
'Mandatory welfare-to-work programs are a cornerstone of current welfare reform efforts, but achieving compliance has been difficult for these programs, in part because the organizational issues facing welfare-to-work programs have not been considered. In this analysis of case management practices in four of California's Greater Avenues to Independence programs, we demonstrate how organizational arrangements influence client compliance with program requirements. Compliance is associated with an ideology that does not stigmatize welfare recipients, goals that stress education and skill training, a service technology that is people-changing, and dispute management strategies that emphasize lenience and professional treatment.' The authors conclude that the factors mentioned above de-emphasise the mandatory aspects of the program and thus channel the energies of both staff and participants towards a commitment to success, more likely to result in a high degree of client compliance and cooperation.
CASE MANAGEMENT, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, POLICY
92 Haveman, Robert H. and John Karl Scholtz (1994-1995), 'The Clinton welfare reform plan: will it end poverty as we know it?', Focus, 16(2), Winter, 1-11. The article includes a critique of the welfare reform package prepared by the Clinton administration. The package has four main themes: 'make work pay', strengthen the system of child support, provide education and job training to poor people, and place limits on the length of time many recipients are able to collect welfare benefits. The authors argue 'past experience tells us that the magnitude of the poverty problem will not be reduced significantly unless budgetary resources are increased to match the rhetoric accompanying the proposals. Terminating recipients from access to income support or enforcing public service employment as a requirements for income support - ending welfare as we know it - cannot be accomplished without major increases in spending on child care, health, and education and training, unless the nation is prepared to become harsher and more punitive toward the poor than it has ever been.' The article presents an overview of antipoverty programs, assesses the efficiency of current taxes and transfers as antipoverty policy, suggests ways of improving tax and transfer antipoverty policies to encourage responsibility and self-sufficiency and makes a number of proposals alternative to the Clinton Administration welfare reform proposals.
POLICY, SANCTIONS, TAXATION 44
93 Rawke, Anne (1997), 'The Australian labour market - March 1997', Australian Bulletin ofLabour, 23(1), March, 3-27.
This survey article of the labour market includes a short section titled 'Working for the dole: good or bad?'. The author points out that such a scheme is already operating in Australia in a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities under the guise of the Community Development Employment Program. Some issues which need to be resolved in the formation of the scheme are canvassed. Conditions for success are identified. 'Of course, none of these general guidelines ensure success. Indeed, the history of such schemes suggest the anticipated benefits to both the community and participants will not equal or exceed the costs.'
ABORIGINES, EFFICIENCY, POLICY
94 Rawke, Anne (1998), "'Work for the dole" - a cheap labour market program? An economist's perspective', Australian Journal ofSocial Issues, 33(4), November, 395-405. This paper explores some ofthe issues associated with the design oflabour market programs. It also looks at evaluation processes which are required to determine the merits of a scheme. It examines particularly the 'work for the dole' scheme announced in 1996, under which unemployed persons enter into work as part of their reciprocal obligations to the Australian community who pay their unemployment benefits. The author raises a number of evaluation issues which have not been addressed.
EVALUATION, POLICY
95 Rein, Jay and John Clark (2000), 'The political economy of welfare reform in the United States', in D. Smith, ed., Welfare, Work and Poverty: Lessons from Recent Reforms in the USA and the UK, Institute for the Study of Civil Society, London. The chapter traces the history of the 'revolution in social welfare' in the US through the 1990s as well as the earlier history of welfare provision since 1935. The debate about the effects of welfare on recipients as well as the problems associated with increasing welfare expenditure is examined. Components of the new welfare system brought about by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 are described and their implications discussed. As well as discussing the important aspect of the reform, moving the able-bodied poor from welfare to work, the chapter looks at the devolution of primary responsibility from the federal level to states and cities, and the shift in the focus of social power from state to market. There has also been an emphasis 45 on the role of the civil society. 'One of the controversial parts of the new law, called Charitable Choice, allows faith-based organisations (FBOs) to provide services to welfare recipients without impairing the religious nature of the organizations. This is a significant departure from past government practices, which forbade the use of public funds for religious activity.' The involvement of FBOs, it is argued by supporters, not only cuts costs but may change the motivations and belief structure of welfare recipients.
The last section of the chapter, 'Rethinking the relation between economy and policy in the future' , presents arguments for and against the changes. The authors conclude that 'it is one thing to leave welfare, and another thing to leave poverty' . 'The fIrst job after welfare may not pay much more than the welfare package. If a new worker remains at that wage, welfare reform will not have achieved its promise. But if that job leads to increased wages and a career progression, these families will be able to escape poverty permanently ...' The challenge is for program administrators to prepare welfare-to-work participants for jobs and careers.
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
96 Heron, Emma and Peter Dwyer (1999), 'Doing the right thing: Labour's attempt to forge a new welfare deal between the individual and the state', Social Policy andAdministration, 33(1), March, 91-104.
'This paper explores the rhetoric behind the Labour Government's welfare reforms. Recent publications and statements emanating from the new administration indicate the extent to which Labour feels comfortable with notions of communitarianism and stakeholding. The influence and (potential) impact of these two concepts upon welfare policy is explored through the works of Macmurray, Etzioni, Hutton and, in spite of his departure from Government, Field. The paper argues that in attempting to create a welfare system based largely on conditions of work, set fIrmly within a framework of self-help and individual responsibility, labour's reform agenda is concerned with the establishment of a new moral order for welfare in which individuals are urged to "do the right thing": that is, to take control of their own welfare and ultimately to be responsible for meeting their own needs whenever possible. The Government presents this attempt to forge a welfare settlement between the individual and the state as both new and inclusive. However, it is concluded that such claims are contentious as the Government's "new" approach echoes old individualistic ideas about the causes and solutions to poverty, and may also result in the exclusion of some citizens from publicly fInanced welfare provision.'
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY 46
97 Higgins, Jane (1999), 'From welfare to workfare', in J. Boston, P. Salziel and S. St John, eds, Redesigning the Welfare State in New Zealand: Problems, Policies and Prospects, Oxford University Press, New Zealand, 260-77.
Workfare constituted a major component of the employment strategy of the NationallNew Zealand First coalition government. The chapter explores the way in which this strategy has operated: through the replacement of unemployment benefit by a 'community wage' in a program commonly called 'workfare'. The author identifies this as part of a trend from 'soft' to 'hard' targeting where the education and training options previously open to unemployment beneficiaries are replaced by a requirement to take up work. Workfare aims to address both employment and the obligations of welfare recipients. The role and operation of the labour market in this system are discussed; the type of work incorporated in workfare programs is also explored. The author looks at some evaluations which have been made of similar programs elsewhere before discussing concepts of reciprocal obligation and social contract. She argues that workfare is not an effective way of reducing unemployment, involving as it does problems of displacement, low-paid work, and 'the manifest failure of unpaid work experience to improve employment options for participants in overseas programs'. Workfare also raises issues concerning the balance between rights and obligations.
CONCEPTS, EFFICIENCY, ETHICS, POLICY
98 Hirsch, Donald (1999), Welfare Beyond Work: Active Participation in a New Welfare State, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 34pp.
'Work has been adopted as the centre piece of welfare reform, because it can help relieve poverty, cut welfare bills and restore the dignity of people who have been excluded.' This paper argues that work alone will not necessarily achieve these goals and that other aspects ofpolicy must be addressed at the same time. The first section looks at the limits of a work-based strategy. The second presents statistics about people outside the labour force. In the third section, four dimensions of welfare beyond employment are discussed: income; activity and obligations; use of time; and guidance. Four examples are then presented of how a new agenda could affect policy. The paper focuses on the situation of people of working age who are not working, pointing out that this is not a static group. 'In providing financial and social support to those who can find it from neither employment nor family relationships, the state too needs to value and encourage contributions that cannot always be measured through a market wage.' The paper is written in the context of the British Government's New Deal programs, the Gateway to Work and the New Deal for Young People.
BRITISH PROGRAMS, POLICY 47
99 Holcomb, Pamela A., LaDonna Pavetti, Caroline Ratcliffe and Susan Riedinger (1998), Building an Employment Focused Welfare System: Work First and Other Work-Orientated Strategies in Five States, Urban Institute, Washington, http://aspe,hhs.gov/hsp/isp/wfirst, unnumbered.
This report begins by presenting the context for reform, that is, the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 and the replacement of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). These programs gave the states greater flexibility while requiring higher rates of participation in work or work-related activities and imposing time limits on benefit receipt. The report then provides a framework for understanding the work oriented welfare reform in the five states in the study. The following chapters of the report describe the study states' Work First programs in greater detail, explaining the mix ofjob search, subsidised employment, unpaid work experience and education and training; provide an overview of coverage issues and exemption policies; look at the role of sanctions and time limits; explain financial policies to encourage and support work and the role of earned income disregard; examine up-front diversion strategies; highlight some key organisational strategies used to support the shift to a more employment-focused assistance scheme; and present some recipient participation patterns.
MANAGEMENT ISSUES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SANCTIONS
100 Howard, John (1998), 'Keynote address to the ACOSS National Congress', in Facing and Financing the Future, Selected Papers from the 1998ACOSS Congress, ACOSS Paper 98, Australian Council of Social Service, Strawberry Hills, 7-17.
In this address, the Prime Minister refers to a previous address in which he sought to provide some insight into the Coalition Government's direction for social policy. In this paper he reviews their record against those commitments and maps out some of the social challenges to be faced and the broad direction the government intends to pursue in handling the problems. Among the new approaches outlined is the Work for the Dole scheme which is 'an example of how government can help instil a work ethic in our young people, while demonstrating to the young unemployed the need to give something back to the community that supports them generously. The extension of Work for the Dole to Year 12 school leavers, after three months receipt offull Youth Allowance, will not only reinforce our commitment to mutual obligation, but will also ensure that this group is helped from the outset to develop and maintain self esteem, confidence, and good work habits. It will help many to make a smooth transition to the workplace.'
POLICY, YOUTH 48
101 Hay, Shirley (1995), 'Building mutual accountability in welfare', in Helping the Poor: a Qualified Case for 'Workfare', The Social Policy Challenge 5, C.D. Howe Institute, Toronto, 184-99. This paper is the final chapter in the book and comments on the preceding contributions while presenting the author's views on workfare as the key to welfare refonn. She argues that there should be separate income support programs for the employable unemployed and other welfare clients. The program proposed is based on mutual accountability of client and caseworker. 'One aspect of the new system should, however, be mandatory: the acceptance of mutual obligations and responsibilities, on the part of both welfare worker and client, to plan to get the individual off welfare.' Sanctions would only be applied where necessary supports are supplied through the caseworker (child care where necessary, financial recognition of the costs of participation) and the client still fails to meet the plan agreed by the caseworker and client together.
CASE MANAGEMENT, POLICY, SANCTIONS
102 Jayasuriya, Kanishka (1999), 'Revisionist social democracy', AQ, 71 (3), May-June, 25-31. This review essay looks at the work of Anthony Giddens and Mark Latham and their approaches to the 'third way' which is distinct from the policies of the traditional left as well as the neo-liberal right. In the field of welfare they espouse a social investment model of welfare which is associated with radical changes in the mode of welfare delivery 'which is often the direct result of privatisation of services andlor construction of internal markets, but perhaps the significant change is the transformation of welfare from a set of entitlements to a contractual bargain between the welfare recipient and the welfare agency'. This contractualism emphasises reciprocity or mutuality, underscoring the idea that the welfare recipient enters into certain obligations when they 'contract' for unemployment benefits. 'Reciprocity and mutuality of welfare benefits clearly depart from ideas of welfare entitlement.'
CONCEPTS, POLICY
103 Jensen, Leif and Yoshimi Chitose (1997), 'Will workfare work? Job availability for welfare recipients in rural and urban America', Population Research and Policy Review, 16(4), August, 383-95. Discontent with the degree of welfare dependency fostered by the US Aid to Families with Dependent Children programs has resulted in the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Under the provisions of the Act, welfare recipients will be expected to find gainful 49 employment within two years or lose their eligibility for benefits. The states themselves also face reduction in their block grants from the federal government if they do not achieve employment targets. The debate has not focused on the labour market in which welfare recipients will have to find jobs. This paper analyses data from the March 1994 Current Population Survey to estimate job availability. Results indicate that, depending on criteria used to require recipients to work, between 18 and 45 welfare recipients and other unemployed individuals would be competing for each available job. The analysis is also used to look at differences between rural and urban areas. Debate is taking place about whether job creation can fill the gap, and whether, even if sufficient jobs can be found, the earnings will be sufficient to support workers and their families.
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
104 Johannson, Jan (1997), 'The Rinkeby experience - building partnerships in Sweden's largest multicultural borough', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, 166-72. The paper describes a variety of programs which have been put in place in a Swedish borough. 'Until recently, unemployment as a main reason for needing a social benefit was very unusual ... Now we face a situation where social welfare benefit is the basic source of income for many people without any other problem than unemployment ... The demand to actively seek employment is supported by existing laws and praxis '" What we are doing now is to systematically provide opportunities for study or work training for every unemployed person and then we more or less demand that they accept the offer.' Some of the opportunities offered are described.
CONCEPTS, POLICY, TRAINING
105 Jones, Martin (1996), 'Full steam ahead to a workfare state? Analysing the UK Employment Department's abolition', Policy and Politics, 24(2), April, 137-57. 'In July 1995 the British government announced that the Employment Department was to be abolished and its functions redistributed throughout Whitehall. This article analyses the reasons for this abolition presenting an argument that is intended to act as a stimulus for further research and policy debate. The article argues that the Employment Department's demise must be seen as part and parcel of continued restructuring in state intervention from welfare to worlifare. In a workfare state, social policy is subordinate to the needs of the market and the unemployed are forced to 'work off' benefits through compulsory participation on training schemes. This argument is developed through an historical analysis of British "trainingfare" 1979-95, defined as hidden compulsion on training schemes 50 in return for state benefit. Attention is also given to the June 1995 Jobseeker's Act which, it is contended, represents the introduction of a stricter "trainingfare" regime and a radical restructuring of the welfare state. The article argues that within this new policy framework, there was no role for the Employment Department and the decision to abolish this section of Whitehall is interpreted from this perspective.'
BRITISH PROGRAMS, POLICY, TRAINING
106 Jones, Michael A. (1996), The Australian Welfare State: Evaluating Social Policy, 4th edition, AlIen and Unwin, Sydney, 283.
A section of the chapter on employment in this comprehensive account of the Australian welfare state, is concerned with an evaluation of the operation and policies of Working Nation (Australia, Prime Minister, 1994, q.v.). The program was designed to reduce the unemployment rate. The Job Compact, a key part of Working Nation was directed towards solving long-term unemployment; its major features are outlined. Working Nation is derived from overseas innovations, especially 'workfare'. The problems associated with administering the work test contributed to the perceived need to change the program then operating with regard to the unemployed to include training options and subsidised work opportunities. Evaluation of the schemes suggest that such programs are not effective.
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, EVALUATION, POLICY, TRAINING
107 Jordan, Alan (1981), Work Test Failure: A Sample Survey ofTerminations of Unemployment Benefits, Research Paper No. 13, Research and Statistics Branch, development Division, Department of Social Security, Canberra, 42pp.; a version appears as 'Failing the work test: a sample survey of terminations of unemployment benefit in Australia', International Social Security Review, 34(4) 47-98. This report describes an early survey, undertaken in the late 1970s, of people who had failed the work test for eligibility for unemployment benefit. Apart from describing the survey itself, the characteristics ofthose who failed the test, and the reasons for failure, the author discusses conceptual issues surrounding the issue of work testing.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS 51
108 Jordan, Bill (1998), The New Politics of Welfare, Sage Publications, London, 260pp.
'This book is an analysis of the emerging orthodoxy on social welfare in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.' It focuses on three features of the new politics of welfare: an appeal to national renewal through a strong work ethic; a claim of moral authority in the implementation of measures to restrict the payment of benefits and the institution of stronger conditions around eligibility for social protection; and a denial of the continuing relevance of class and exploitation with an emphasis on employability and equality of opportunity, in a population treated as competing for commensurable rewards. The second chapter analyses labour markets as the keys to social justice, considers the case for increasing formal economic participation by improving education and training and making benefits more conditional, and questions an approach to social justice that treats the national economy as a unitary system of cooperation. In particular, it examines 'the concept of work obligations, as they apply to men and women, and members of majority and minority groups, and how these can be understood within the tradition of liberalism'. Other chapters deal with social justice in a global context; rights, equality and need; and the scope for self-responsibility and private provision. One chapter presents an alternative program 'that accepts the aims of the new orthodoxy, but seeks a way of implementing them that is more consistent with the political traditions ofliberal democracy' .
ETHICS, POLICY
109 Kalisch, David W. (1991), 'The active society', Social Security Journal, August, 3-9. The article provides an introduction to the concept of the 'active society' which has influenced some aspects of Australia's social security policy. The features affected are changes to income support and labour market assistance which encourage short-term employment or training opportunities (when full-time jobs are not available) in preference to passive acceptance ofincome support.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, POLICY, TRAINING
110 Kerr, Lorraine and Harry Savelsberg (1998), 'Volunteering for the dole: toward a new social contract', in E. Carson, A. Jamrozik and T. Winefield, eds, Unemployment: Economic Promise and Political Will, Australian Academic Press, Brisbane, 218-26; a version appears (1999), as 'Unemployment and civic responsibility in Australia', Critical Social Policy, 59, 19(2), May, 233-55. The paper looks at a Coalition Government policy initiative which allows recipients of unemployment cash benefits to undertake voluntary work in the 52 community for longer hours than previously without jeopardising their eligibility for benefit. 'This paper argues that the volunteering option satisfies two key aspects of the welfare bargain, that is the ideological imperative that those in receipt of welfare benefits must be "deserving" of that benefit, and the notion that there be some form of reciprocity on the part of the beneficiary.' The option thus becomes an affirmation of civic responsibility owed by recipients to the community. Introduction of this policy may be regarded as the next step in dismantling the statistllabourist welfare tradition in Australia and the legitimation of a new social contact, one in which working for one's welfare benefits becomes a requirement rather than an option.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, POLICY
111 Kildal, Nanna (1999), 'Justification of workfare: the Norwegian case', Critical Social Policy 60, 19(3), August,353-70.
'During the 1990s the principle of workfare has dominated welfare reforms in Europe; claimants are increasingly obliged to work in return for their benefits, otherwise they are denied the right to income support. In Norway this strategy is called the "work line", and this article gives a critical account of five arguments used by the Norwegian government to justify it. The discussion focuses on the normative content and empirical assumptions involved in the arguments, and the conclusion is that none of them give good reasons to deny citizens basic opportunity goods. The article gives particular attention to the idea of social justice as reciprocity which is tacitly expressed in the arguments. '
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
112 King, Julian (1996), 'A time limit for the dole?', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro,6, July, 92-107.
This paper starts with a brief description of unemployment benefit in New Zealand, then discusses unemployment trends and presents data on the unemployed population. The concepts involved in the theory of time limits for benefit payment are discussed, in particular the way in which time limits affect work incentives. Three options are canvassed: the status quo, a 'hard time limit' and a 'soft time limit'. Concurrent programs are suggested. The situation in New Zealand (where benefits are not insurance-related) is compared to that in other countries where some form of assistance is available when benefits are cut off.
POLICY, SANCTIONS 53
113 Koslowski, Peter and Andreas FS1Sllesdal, eds (1997), Restructuring the Welfare State: Theory and Reform of Social Policy, Springer, Berlin, 402pp.
The book consists of various chapters discussing the sustainability and the nature of the welfare state, mainly in European states but also in the context of globalisation.
Restructuring the welfare state: introduction Peter Koslowski Is the British welfare state sustainable? Frances Cairncross Is the welfare state of the Netherlands sustainable? Kees Schuyt Is the German welfare state sustainable? Diether Doring The principle of subsidiarity and the transition of the welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe TiborCz€h The social security system in Japan Yoshifumi Fushimi State and citizenship in the age ofglobalisation Peter Baldwin Origins ofthe 'social state' in German philosophy and'Staatswissenschaft' Stefan Koslowski Do welfare obligations end at the boundaries of the nation state Andreas FS1Sllesdal Meeting needs versus respecting autonomy dilemmas of the welfare state Elisabeth Lilja Forward to the nineteenth century: has growing old gracefully become a luxury? Peter Curwen The unpaid work of mothers and housewives in Annekevon the different types ofwelfare states Doorne-Huiskes Social rights in a gender perspective Amlaug Leira Does the welfare state destroy the family Michae1 Opielka The justification of welfare rights PerBauhn Risk, justice and social policies Serge-Christophe Kolm Sweden: towards a 21st century post-modem people's home? Sven E. Olsson Hort The social state in the post-modem Peter Koslowski On the moral foundations ofthe welfare state: three research programmes Philippe Van Parijs (q.v.)
In the introduction, Peter Koslowski formulates the four questions which guided the investigations on which the book is based. The first relates to the sustainability of welfare states at the present high degree of benefits and public 'insuredness'; the second is a comparison of private insurance programs and social security schemes; thirdly, why do strong welfare states exist in the north western part of Europe and not in other parts of the world?; and finally, does the Europeanisation 54 of the nation state enforce the Europeanisation of the welfare state and thereby the down-sizing of social security systems in Europe?
POLICY
114 Kosterlitz, Julie (1985), 'Liberals and conservatives share goals, differ on details of work for welfare', National Journal, 43,26 October, 2418-22. 'In late September, with much fanfare in the press, California unveiled a state law that will require nearly all welfare recipients to participate in work and training programs in exchange for their benefits. Those who can't find jobs through early job search and training phases of the program will be required to work off their benefits at unpaid jobs with public or non-profit organisations for as long as a year, and failure to do so could ultimately result in a loss of benefit.' Other states followed suit in introducing similar workfare programs. The article looks at the political 'shaky consensus' which has brought this about. Liberals have accepted the fact that income maintenance is not the answer but do not all agree that workfare is. Various states experiment with variations on the theme and the article includes discussion and reports of evaluation studies.
EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SANCTIONS, TRAINING
115 Krashinsky, Michael (1995), 'Putting the poor to work: why "workfare" is an idea whose time has come', in Helping the Poor: A Qualified Case for 'Workfare', The Social Policy Challenge 5, C.D. Howe Institute, Toronto, 91-120. The paper looks first at the possibility of helping the poor in Canada by introducing a negative income tax: the author finds 'a generous negative income tax is simply not feasible'. It then reviews the case for and against workfare programs. The author fmds that much of the potential savings in lower welfare payments are absorbed by expenditures on training, job search and monitoring. Workfare clients may displace other workers rather than reduce unemployment among the poor unless the government acts as 'employer of last resort', which also imposes costs. The case for workfare involves dis,cussion of the need to preserve 'social capital', the erosion of the 'work ethic' and the culture of welfare dependency. A work requirement for those who are employable permits society to be reasonably generous in setting benefit levels without generating incentives for welfare. The author concludes that 'in the end, despite all the rhetoric, a work oriented welfare system has little to do with cost, especially in the short run. But it has everything to do with self-respect and the work ethic, and with the political legitimacy of our social programs'.
CONCEPTS, EFFICIENCY, TAXATION 55
116 Latham, Mark (1998), Civilising Global Capital, AlIen and Unwin, Sydney, 191pp.
Australian Labor Party policies have never sought to replace capitalism, but to ameliorate its impact on people and places marginalised by the profit system. This book looks at the possibilities of policy changes to achieve this aim. The role of the welfare state remains, but changes are foreseen. The author discusses the nature of some aspects of the Working Nation program which introduced the concept of 'reciprocal responsibilities' for long-term unemployed people. He also comments that the Howard Government 'sought to cast its work-for-the-dole scheme under the banner of mutual obligations'. These two approaches are described and their differences discussed.
POLICY
117 Latham, Mark (1998), 'Economic policy and the Third Way', in Economic and Social Policy in Australia: Is There a Third Way?, Speakers papers from a Policy Forum Seminar, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne, 8-23; comments in following papers by Clive Hamilton and Peter Dawkins. 'The purpose of this paper is to argue that good economic policy and good social policy are highly interdependent. This is the basis of the Third Way project - the belief that a strong economy and a strong society are mutually reinforcing.' The paper discusses both economic and social policy. 'Already the way is clear in social policy. A revitalised welfare state has just two purposes - to move people into work or into new skills. Government needs to fund active citizenship, not pander to the inactive. Unless welfare recipients are willing to take responsibility for improving themselves and the society in which they live, they have no right to permanently live off society. The days of open-ended welfare need to end. Old government was based on passive welfare - transfer payments, bureaucratised services and social engineering. New government needs to generate active wellbeing - community-based employment, lifelong learning and social devolution. The Third Way wants to overhaul the post-war welfare state. Not to dismantle it, but to rescue it.'
CONCEPTS, POLICY
118 Latham, Mark (1999), From Campbelltown to Cape York - Rebuilding Community, paper presented to Brisbane Institute Seminar, http://www.prisinst.org.aulpapersllathamm_community/print-index.htrnl
The paper discusses the crisis in welfare brought on by globalisation and the massive economic changes of the last 20 years. It argues that welfare may be 56 doing more hann than good to the people it is meant to assist. The need for a 'third way' is clear. 'Ifthe Federal Government was serious about ending welfare dependency ... it would introduce mutual responsibility across the public sector. Welfare payments should be conditional on people making an effort to learn new skills, to improve their health, to educate their children and, wherever possible, to accept new work opportunities.' However, the author argues, the Howard Government is making unemployed people participate in programs like Work-for the-Dole, 'yet it is not discharging its own responsibility for expanding training and employment schemes.' Examples of schemes which use community strengths to overcome some of the problems associated with welfare dependency are described.
POLICY, TRAINING
119 Layard, Richard (1997), 'Preventing long-term unemployment', in John Philpott, ed., Working for Full Employment, Routledge, London, 190-203.
This paper is one of a series ofbackground papers prepared for a 1994 conference entitled Working for Full Employment. The author looks at the relationship between the duration for which unemployment benefits are available and the proportion ofthe labour force who are long-term unemployed in various countries. He rejects the American solution which is to reduce the duration and put nothing in its place. Instead he suggests that after twelve months, the state should accept a responsibility to find people work for at least six months. He specifies that the work, which would be subsidised, be with a regular employer and not in a job creation scheme and responds to criticisms made about substitution and displacement. The costs of the scheme are discussed.
POLICY, SANCTIONS, UNEMPLOYED
120 Leech, Marie (1997), 'Work for the dole - does it work?', Uniya Focus, 6, May, 1-2. The leaflet describes the proposed Work for the Dole Program in Australia. The author argues that such programs have been discredited because they 'fail to deliver real jobs and reduce unemployment'. She presents evidence to support this argument and then discuses the consequences of unemployment. Finally the paper looks at the issue of social coercion as against citizenship rights and suggests a different approach.
EFFICIENCY, ETHICS, POLICY 57
121 Leigh, Duane E. (1993), Did FIP Increase the Self-Sufficiency of Welfare Recipients in Washington State? Evidence from the FIS Data Set, IRP Discussion Paper No. 1012-93, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin - Madison, 63pp.
The Family Independence program (PIP) was introduced in Washington state in 1987 as an alternative to the national AFDC program and other state programs which offered short-tenn job search assistance and community work experience. 'In contrast, the objective of FIP was to increase economic self-sufficiency through a new program model designed to change the behaviour of both public assistance clients and welfare agency staff.' This study uses data from a state funded longitudinal data base - the Family Income Study (FIS) - to assess the success of the program. The author found that enrolment and training activities increased under FIP but that it had no impact on employment rates and earnings and that it led to increases in welfare participation and welfare benefits. The program failed to encourage job placement and job development.
EFFICIENCY, FAMILIES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
122 Levine, Marlene (ed.) (1997), Beyond Dependency, Special Issue of the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, Social Policy Agency, Ropii Here Kaupapa, Wellington, 187pp.
This special issue of the journal focuses on the Beyond Dependency Conference hosted by the New Zealand Department of Social Welfare. The central theme is benefit dependency and ways of exiting from it. An international panel of contributors present a wide spectrum of views on the policy responses to the problem of increasing dependency.
Rising work levels among the poor Lawrence M. Mead (q.v.) Welfare benefit refonn David A. Preston (q.v.) Restructuring welfare states: ideology and policies for low-income mothers Maureen Baker (q.v.) Aboriginal people: addressing dependency in Australia Cedric Wyatt The measure of success for beyond dependency: aims, methods and evaluation Susan St John Designing work-focused welfare replacement programmes Jean Rogers (q.v.) Development ofthe disability regulations in Joke de Vroom and The Netherlands Michel Rovers Workfare: The New Zealand Experience and Future Directions AIex McKenzie (q.v.) Lowering the barriers to work in Britain AIan Marsh 58
The work approach in Norway - aims, measures Torkel Bj~mskau, and results Espen Dahl and Jens B. Gr~gaard (q.v.) A springboard away from dependency Anne Foreman, Murray Hawtin and Kevin Ward The Rinkeby experience: building partnerships in Sweden's largest multicultural borough Jan Johansson (q.v.) Energy link: a support service focusing on prevention and early intervention John Murphy
CONCEPTS, DISABLED, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
123 Lightman, Emie S. (1995), 'You can lead a horse to water, but ...: the case against workfare in Canada', in Helping the Poor: A Qualified Case for 'Workfare', Social Policy Challenge 5, C.D. Howe Institute, Toronto, 151 83. The author begins with discussion of the 'double standard' in Canadian society where the 'rich and powerful' cheat with respect to certain types of income and expenditures while unemployed people who are caught accepting cash payment are abused and penalised. 'Among the most interesting manifestations of this double standard is the increasing readiness of many Canadians to force welfare recipients to work or undertake other specified activities as a condition of accepting benefits.' The paper refines the definition of workfare and examines some Canadian experience. 'It is a central theme of this paper that the case for workfare has more to do with values, norms, and ideology than with any rational or empirical of cost, investment in human capital, work, productivity or employability'. Some Canadian programs are described. The success or otherwise of workfare is discussed in terms of goals, operational problems, the effects of compulsory labour, eligibility for participation, costs and the policing of costs. The author concludes that there are two approaches to moving people from dependence on social assistance to meaningful paid employment: 'We can coerce recipients to act in ways they perceive to be counter to their self-interest, imposing our own judgments as to what is good for them. Alternatively ... we can provide them with real opportunities and positive incentives - affordable and accessible child care, for example, or training programs that lead somewhere.' He draws attention to the fact that as long as unemployment remains high, no incentives can lead to substantial employment gains.
EFFICIENCY, ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY 59
124 Lynn, Laurence E. Jr, ed. (1989), 'Symposium: the craft of public management', Journal ofPolicy Analysis and Management, 8(2),284-306.
The symposium consists of a number of papers, listed below.
In designing public welfare programs, should participation in work and training be voluntary or mandatory Laurence E. Lynn, Jr Welfare reform and mandatory versus voluntary work: policy issue or management problem? Mary Jo Bane Mandatory or voluntary work programs?: it depends on power Leslie H. Garner, Jr Welfare reform and work Robert A. Leone and Michae1 O'Hare Mandatory or voluntary work for welfare recipients? Operations management perspectives Stephen R. Rosenthal Reflections on the symposium Laurence E. Lynn, Jr
The papers are summarised in Lynn's reflections. Bane notes that the question addressed by the symposium - should participation in welfare-related work and training programs be voluntary or mandatory? - could be resolved by ideological strictures related to income support payments as entitlements, or as discretionary benefits entailing a reciprocal obligation, or as determent from welfare dependence. However, she concludes that either voluntary or mandatory approaches could be effective: what matters is good management. The risks of slipping into bad management practices are seen as greater under mandatory programs. Garner argues that the choice 'depends on power' which in turn depends on the political strength of those in power in each state. Leone and O'Hare discuss the notion that work may come to be seen as a punishment, and those who do not work carry a greater stigma, if it is mandatory. Rosenthal turn the question around and asks how well-equipped are welfare departments to handle the challenges. Voluntary programs have a greater chance of success and both managers and workers will be more highly motivated where this is the case. In summing up, Lynn argues that the introduction of participation and training activities will involve change; that success will depend on good management; that voluntary programs send the right message to clients, workers and the public because of reduced risk to the reputation of the reform and the clients. He concedes that other analysts, for instance Lawrence Mead, could argue, drawing on the same evidence, 'that the risk to clients of a failed voluntary program may be higher than that of a failed mandatory program'. However, the managerial arguments remain persuasive.
ETHICS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, POLICY 60
125 Macintyre, Clement (1999), 'From entitlement to obligation in the Australian welfare state', Australian Journal ofSocial Issues, 34(2), May, 103-18.
'This article examines recent debates relating to the provision of welfare in Australia. It starts with an assessment of the trend towards the acceptance of the philosophy of "mutual obligation" by governments, commentators and lobby groups, traces the process of the movement of welfare from "entitlement" to "obligation" and argues that this is being used to justify a re-working of the relationship between citizen and state. The paper argues that a "genuine" mutual obligation has always been part of the Australian welfare system and that, in contrast to the current rhetoric of individual responsibility, it should rather be seen as a community based obligation.'
ETHICS, POLICY
126 Mackay, Ross (1998), 'A coat of many colours: welfare reform around the world', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 11, December, 1-27. Welfare reform is taking place in several countries, accompanied by some political risk. 'The process of expansion of the welfare state is quite different from the process of retrenchment: the former is characterised by credit-claiming as benefits are extended to ever wider groups, while the latter is characterised by blame - avoidance as entitlements are progressively shrunk. In addition, the losses in welfare reform are typically concentrated on quite specific groups who are likely to organise against them, whilst the gains are more generally spread across the general population through a slight lessening of the tax burden.' However, there now appears to be a sense in which potential gains are more generally perceptible. This paper looks at the reforms that have taken place in different contexts. In the United States reforms have been focused on lone parents and the features discussed here are time-limited assistance, work requirements and funding arrangements. In the United Kingdom the emphasis has been on welfare to-work strategies and the paper discusses the 10bseekers Allowance instituted under the previous government before turning to the New Deal programs, first for youth, then for long-term unemployed and also lone parents and the disabled. The paper looks at the rise in the number of welfare recipients in the Netherlands and the reforms which have resulted in the 'Dutch miracle' including privatisation and marketisation. Reforms in Chile are also discussed. The author then draws out the common themes in these welfare reforms: increased emphasis on work requirements; cost containment; privatisation and reliance on 61 market solutions; partnership-building; and the presentational aspects of the reforms. The paper ends with a discussion ofthe New Zealand reforms.
EFFICIENCY, POLICY, SANCTIONS, SOLE PARENTS, YOUTH
127 McClelland, Alison (1998), 'Am I my brother's keeper? The welfare state in the twenty first century', Brotherhood Comment, May, 1-3.
This is a general description and discussion of Australia's welfare provisions. The author argues: 'The concept of community or reciprocal obligation must be balanced if it is to be effective and inclusive rather than alienating and punitive. It must be accompanied by the community's (or the government's) obligation to provide useful and effective activities. We should not compel people to undertake activities which will not help their long-term position. This is at the heart of the community sector's opposition to ''work for the dole".'
ETHICS, POLICY
128 McCormick, James (1998), 'Brokering a New Deal: the design and delivery of welfare to work', in J. McCormick and C. Oppenheim, eds, Welfare in Working Order, Institute for Pubic Policy Research, London, 85 121. The chapter looks at the New Deal in Britain from the point of view of its design, drawing on work done in other countries to evaluate its chances of success. It argues for flexibility. 'The problems it seeks to address are too dynamic for any programme to be carved in stone.' Design issues include the timing of government intervention; when a limited amount of money is available, who should take priority; how should budgets be spent; and the length of time dedicated support should last. The chapter discusses the need for early preparation of clients. The following elements of the program are described: job search assistance; employment training; wage subsidies; and the period of time for government support to continue. The views of both employers and claimants are canvassed. The question of whether programs should be mandatory or voluntary is discussed; the roles of local initiatives and of alternate providers (a market in brokering) are also explored. Finally, issues of evaluation and accountability are discussed. The author concludes that programs which are 'heavily biased towards only labour force attachment, wage subsidies, social security reforms or employment service programmes will be less effective in helping people to get jobs and keep them. Those which fail to invest in effective job preparation, assessment and matching will not win the confidence of employers ... programs must include each of these different elements in appropriate measure in different 62
localities. If the design is in the right direction, then the higher the investment the higher quality we should expect the outcomes to be'.
ATTITUDES, BRITISH PROGRAMS, EFFICIENCY, ETHICS, MANAGEMENT ISSUES, TRAlNING
129 McKenzie, Alex (1997), 'Workfare: the New Zealand experience and future directions', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna VVhakaaro, 8, March, 97-110. 'This paper discusses the notion of "workfare" in the context of the reciprocal obligations associated with the receipt of welfare payments, and briefly outlines some of the work-related requirements placed on welfare recipients in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.' The notion of compulsion in workfare programs has only recently been introduced into New Zealand, though it has been an integral part of some overseas programs. 'This paper outlines the formalisation of requirements embodied in the work test in New Zealand, along with the extension of work testing to new groups of welfare recipients from April 1997. Also detailed is a small-scale work-for-benefit scheme that has been operating in New Zealand since 1991.
ACTNITY TESTS, POLICY
130 McLaughlin, Eithne (1997), 'Workfare - a pull, a push or a shove? Balancing constraint, opportunity, compulsion and autonomy in individual experience', in L. M. Mead, From Welfare to Work: Lesson from America, Choice in Welfare No. 39, A. Deacon, ed., Institute of Economic Affairs (lEA) Health and Welfare Unit, London, 79-96.
In this comment on Lawrence Mead's policy and American programs, the author examines the lessons the UK can draw from the experience of program intervention. The second part ofthe comment 'focuses on what Mead describes as the causes of poverty and unemployment - "[in]competency" - and his argument that the only effective remedy for [in]competency is compulsion'. The author argues that Mead has not demonstrated that it is compulsion itself which accounts for the effectiveness of some US programs; that 'Mead's explanation of long-term poverty and joblessness among those of working age in terms of a culture of poverty is not sufficiently substantiated, and that it is simply inadequate to explain the presence of low expectations and reactivity among long-term poor jobless people (that he describes as a problem of "competency") primarily in terms of weak or abusive parenting'; and that the 'liberal hesitancy' he notes in relation to the use of compulsion may have a sound basis.
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY 63
131 Mead, Lawrence M. (1986), Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship, The Free Press, Macmillan, New York, 318pp.
The author argues that the central problem in US social policy is 'Washington's inability to obligate the recipients of its [welfare] programs, even for their own benefit. This book is the first to approach social policy in terms of those authority problems. It traces the poor record of Great Society programs, in part, to their failure to set standards for their clients. Special attention is given to work requirements in welfare and other programs, since it seems that work must be enforced for many workers today, especially the low-skilled. The work tests, which are still very limited, demonstrate both Washington's reluctance to obligate and the potential that requirements might have to improve functioning. The permissive nature of programs is deeply rooted in federal politics, yet some politicians already call for a more demanding policy, and the public would support one.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, CONCEPTS, POLICY
132 Mead, Lawrence M. (1988), 'The potential for work enforcement: a study of WIN', Journal ofPolicy Analysis and Management, 7(2), Winter, 264 88. 'Given the impediments around them, can welfare recipients be required to work? Most analysts have answered no. They say the recipients are usually kept from employment by socioeconomic barriers, such as insufficient jobs, and the disincentives to work inherent in welfare. Studies ofrecent AFDC work programs make them look promising but do not directly address the potential for work enforcement. This article, a cross-sectional study of state WIN programs in 1979, suggests that work requirements could raise work levels substantially despite the impediments. But requirements probably do not improve the quality of jobs recipients are able to get. Therefore, enforcement serves the goal of integration, but to achieve greater economic equality will require additional reforms.'
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
133 Mead, Lawrence M. (1989), 'The logic of workfare: the underclass and work policy', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 501, January, 156-69. 'Much of today's entrenched poverty reflects the fact that poor adults seldom work consistently. The problem cannot be blamed predominantly on lack of jobs or other barriers to employment, as the chance to work seems widely available. More likely, the poor do not see work in menial jobs as fair, possible, or obligatory, though they want work in principle. Government has evolved policies 64 explicitly to raise work levels among the poor. Workfare programs, linked to welfare, show the most promise but still reach only a minority of employable recipients. Welfare reform should, above all, raise participation in these programs, as the share of clients involved largely governs their impact. Welfare should also cover more nonworking men to bring them under workfare. While work enforcement may seem punitive, the poor must become workers before they can stake larger claims to equality.'
ETHICS, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED
134 Mead, Lawrence M. (1990), 'Should workfare be mandatory? What research says', Journal ofPolicy Analysis and Management, 9(3), Summer, 400-4; rejoinder by Laurence E. Lynn Jr, 405-8.
The article is a comment or answer to a symposium edited by Lynn (1989, q.v.). It argues that in that symposium there was insufficient attention paid to actual results from workfare programs. These results show that the 'key success criteria - the evaluators' measures, the participation rate, the share of clients entering and retaining jobs, the feelings of clients and voters - are well established and only slightly in conflict'.
AITITUDES, EFFICIENCY, EVALUATIONS
135 Mead, Lawrence M. (1992), The New Politics ofPoverty: the Nonworking Poor in America, Basic Books, New York, 356pp.
'This book is about the momentous political change that has resulted from entrenched poverty in the United States.' The chapters include discussion of reform, costs of nonwork, low wages, job availability, barriers to employment, human nature, policy, dependency and prospects for the future. The author argues that while antipoverty policies aimed at barriers to employment or at the self interest of the poor have failed to raise work levels, linking work requirements to welfare may succeed.
POLICY
136 Mead, Lawrence M. (1996), Are Welfare Employment Programs Effective, Discussion Paper No. 1096-96, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 46pp. 'Employment programs meant to place welfare adults in work or training became an important part of Aid to Families with Dependent Children starting in the 1980s. These programs are effective if one means that they have positive impacts in evaluations, less so if one expects them to make a large and visible change in 65 the welfare problem. In programs evaluated by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, impacts on employment, earnings, and dependency are small in absolute terms but somewhat larger as a percentage of the control group mean. Impacts are understated in some studies because randomization occurred only after enrollment in the work program or because control group members had access to equivalent services. Results are also depressed by the failure of many experimentals to participate in the tested program. Programs raise the activity of experimentals in work-related activities much more than they raise earnings or employment. Effects on dependency are understated because evaluations do not capture deterrence effects. The sharp decline in AFDC in Wisconsin in recent years suggests the power of work requirements to drive the rolls down.'
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
137 Mead, Lawrence, M. (1996), Welfare Policy: The Administrative Frontier, Discussion Paper No. 1093-96, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWinconsin-Madison, 23pp.
'The process ofnational welfare reform has been overtaken by local reform [in the United States] as states implement experimental programs under federal waivers. Most of these initiatives attempt to enforce work or otherwise control the lives of the dependent in return for support.' This paper discusses research issues related to the changes. The author argues that while traditional research can track implementation and outcomes, policy research must also take place, focusing more on administration and less on the economics of welfare. The effects of the new programs should be evaluated not only by the effects on the clients, but on the effects on the larger society.
EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
138 Mead, Lawrence M. (1997), From Welfare to Work: Lessons from America, Choice in Welfare No. 39, A. Deacon, ed., Institute of Economic Affairs (lEA) Health and Welfare Unit, London, 155pp.
This book includes a paper from Lawrence Mead (g.v.). The series editor, Alan Deacon, argues that Mead has been an important influence on New Labour's New Deal polices. As well as Mead's own paper and Deacon's introduction, the book includes several commentaries.
Re-inventing welfare: a response to Lawrence Mead Frank Field (q.v.) Lessons from America: workfare and Labour's New Deal John Philpott (q.v.) 66
Workfare - a pull, a push or a shove? Balancing constraint, opportunity, compulsion and autonomy in individual experience Eithne McLaughlin (q.v.) Would workfare work: an alternative approach for theUK Alistair Grimes From welfare to work - and back again DeeCook Workfare for lone mothers: a solution to the wrong problem? Melanie Phillips (q.v.)
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
139 Mead, Lawrence M. (1997), 'Raising work levels among the poor', Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, 1-28.
This paper describes the problem of low work levels among people who are poor, assesses the usual explanations for the situation and suggests the best approach to solving the problem. The author argues that this lies in work requirements within the welfare system. His analysis concentrates mainly on long-term poor adults 'because they are the hardest to help and the most important politically'. Although they make up only about five per cent of the population, they are 'at the core of the social problem'. The author further argues that while 'work enforcement' sounds extreme, it is more practical than standard welfare proposals. 'Abolishing or time-limiting welfare threatens the principle of aiding those who are needy, whereas merely increasing transfers does nothing about the abuses. Work requirements within welfare, although difficult to implement, have the hope of doing both - of helping the vulnerable and moving the employable toward work.'
POLICY, SANCTIONS, UNEMPLOYED
140 Mead, Lawrence M. (1997), 'From welfare to work: lessons from America', in L. M. Mead, From Welfare to Work: Lessons from America, Choice in Welfare No. 39, A. Deacon, ed., Institute ofEconomic Affairs (lEA) Health and Welfare Unit, London, 1-55 and 'Rejoinder', 127-33.
'This essay attempts, with a broad brush, to describe the problems of low work levels among poor adults, assess the usual explanations for it, and suggest the best approach to solving it, which I believe is work requirements within the welfare system.' Sections of the paper discuss barriers to work for the poor and how to make work pay. Mead argues that the reasons the jobless do not work stem largely not from outside causes such as low wages, lack of child care, disability, disincentives set up within the benefit system, or even a lack of jobs but from 'a culture of poverty', weak families and poor parenting. Parents must be required to work and obey the law in order to command respect from their children. 'The way 67 forward is no longer liberation but obligation.' The author canvasses solutions suggested from the left and right of politics, then puts the case for work requirements, discusses the future of work enforcement, makes an assessment of enforcement and then looks at the political dimensions of workfare. Several commentaries on his paper are included in the book. These argue that workfare ignores the structural roots of poverty and inequality; that it 'blames the victims'; that it aims only at cutting welfare rolls; that enforcement is not necessary for the success of workfare; that workfare undercuts voluntary programs; and that it ignores the 'lone-parent problem'. In his rejoinder to these comments, the author discusses the differences between the UK and the US with particular reference to the availability of work.
ETHICS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
141 Mead, Lawrence M., 00. (1997), The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 355pp. 'American social policy is becoming more paternalistic.' In this book Lawrence Mead and ten co-authors examine this trend. They look at mandatory welfare work programs, focusing on their economic effects, but they also consider programs in other policy areas.
The rise ofpaternalism LawrenceM.Mead Welfare employment Lawrence M. Mead (q.v.) Paternalism, teenage pregnancy prevention, and teenage parent services Rebecca A Maynard Paternalism, child support enforcement, and Ronald B. Mincy and fragile families Hillard Pouncy Homeless men in New York city: toward paternalism through privatization Thomas J. Main Coerced abstinence: a neopaternalist drug policy initiative Mark AR. Kleiman Paternalism goes to school Chester E. Finn Jr Implementing a paternalist welfare-to-work program Eugene Bardach (q.v.) Poverty and paternalism: a psychiatric viewpoint George E. Vaillant Psychological factors in poverty Miles F. Shore Paternalism, democracy and bureaucracy James Q. Wilson (q.v.) The first chapter defines paternalism, and includes a discussion of the emphasis on obligations of welfare clients rather than on their rights or needs.
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY 68
142 Mead, Lawrence M. (1997), 'Welfare employment', in L. M. Mead, ed., The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 38-88.
This chapter in a book which looks at the rise of 'paternalism' in a range of areas, discusses welfare employment programs, 'the policy area in which paternalism is most advanced'. It discusses the trend followed in many US states towards requiring or enforcing adults drawing welfare to work or prepare for work in order to receive income support. Evaluations of programs in place are summarised. The paternalist methods used in the programs are examined; the pros and cons of paternalism are assessed along with 'the potential that approach might have if well implemented. The author's conclusion is favourable but guarded: mandatory work programs have considerable power to tame dependency, but they cannot overcome it entirely, they involve some risk to clients, and they make great demands on political and administrative institutions.'
EVALUATION, POLICY
143 Mead, Lawrence, M. (1998), The Decline of Welfare in Wisconsin, Discussion Paper No. 1164-98, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 53pp. 'The recent decline in the national welfare rolls suggests that mandatory work programs can reduce dependency by more than evaluations suggest. The nonexperimentalliterature does not test that possibility well. This study uses field interviewing and program data more fully than previously to portray the forces shaping caseload decline. It focuses on Wisconsin, the state with the most dramatic caseload fall. A time series analysis of the state caseload trend over 1986-94 casts doubt on the view that good economic conditions and benefit cuts alone account for the caseload decline. Cross-sectional analyses comparing countries find strong evidence that both a good economy and demanding work requirements helped drive the caseload down. However, the consequences for recipients are unclear, and to reduce dependency this way makes heavy political and administrative demands on government.'
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION
144 Mead, Lawrence M. (1999), 'Welfare reform and the family', Family Matters, 54, Spring/Summer, Special Issue on Families, Welfare and Social Policy, 12-17.
'If there is any way for government to strengthen the family in America, it will probably emerge from current efforts to enforce work among welfare recipients, and also to improve the payment of child support.' The author discusses the 69
'logic behind American work requirements in welfare'. Many long-term welfare claimants lack the capacity to take advantage of employment opportunities even when they arise. Training and education may help people get better jobs later, but 'it is best in the short run if the nonworkers simply accumulate a work history in jobs they can already get ... Mandatory programs outperform voluntary ones chiefly because they cause more recipients to go to work, as against merely raising the earnings of those already working.' The author concludes: 'The moral is that welfare, and the welfare state, cannot only be about right and claims. Those who claim rights must also have obligations. Those who would be free must first be bound ... the way forward is no longer liberation but obligation.'
FAMILIES, POLICY, TRAINING, UNEMPLOYED
145 Meadows, Geoff (1993), 'Using the work/welfare nexus to advance social policy: operation of the CDEP scheme on Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities between 1980 and 1990', in P. Saunders and S. Shaver, eds, Theory and Practice in Australian Social Policy: Rethinking the Fundamentals, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Sydney, July, Volume 3, Contributed Papers, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 113, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 89-94. The Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) scheme was an idea developed by Aboriginal people in response to the harmful consequences of the receipt of unemployment benefits. With little prospect of work most recipients of benefits on remote communities described the dole as 'sit-down money'. In negotiations with the Commonwealth Government, selected communities were offered CDEP schemes whereby unemployment benefits were paid in bulk to the community council, together with a support grant. The council then offered individuals work on community projects. Certain rules applied about award rates of pay, the number of days per week that work was offered, and guarantees of some days work each week. This paper demonstrates how the CDEP scheme was used in Queensland and how its operation changed the direction of social policy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in that State.
ABORIGINES, ETHICS, POLICY
146 Michalopoulos, Charles and Irwin Garfinkel (1989), Reducing the Welfare Dependence and Poverty of Single Mothers by Means of Earnings and Child Support: Wishful Thinking and Realistic Possibility, IRP Discussion Paper No. 882-89, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 47pp. The goal of recent US welfare legislation has been to reduce the poverty of families on welfare by requiring the mothers of children receiving public 70 assistance to work and the fathers of these children to pay child support. This paper examines the earnings capacity of the single mothers concerned as well as the capacity of fathers to pay child support. Where the mothers work full time for the whole year and the fathers comply completely with child support orders and where there is only limited need to pay for child care, then five-sixths of the mothers would have income in excess of their AFDC grants plus food stamps. However, if all three conditions are not met, then work and child support together are insufficient to raise the income level ofnearly two in three families above their welfare payments.
EFFICIENCY, SOLE PARENTS
147 Michel, Sonya (1997), 'Response to lane Lewis', Social Politics, 4(2), Summer, 203-7. The article is part of a debate about gender and welfare regimes. Single mothers who previously were 'supported by the state in exchange for caring for their children' will now 'be compelled to seek paid employment within two years of applying for assistance and will be limited to a lifetime maximum of five years of assistance'. The history of welfare-to-work programs in the US is outlined. The author argues that these were undermined by both a male breadwinner ideology and a policy which defunded training and child care programs, weakening poor women's efforts to fmd decently paid employment. The new provisions thus fall short of providing the needed funds to allow most poor women to move from welfare to economic self-sufficiency.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, SOLE PARENTS
148 Michel, Sonya (1998), 'Childcare and welfare (in)justice', Feminist Studies, 24(1), Spring, 44-54.
The paper traces the history of income support provision for mothers. It argues that the current welfare reform, mandating participation in job training or work programs for mothers, moves away 'from the long-held principle that mothers - at least some mothers - belonged at home taking care of their children and, in the absence of a male breadwinner, the government should support them.' However, the reforms have been put in place at the same time as child care funding has been reduced. The implications for poor mothers are discussed from the perspective of feminist scholars.
ETHICS, POLICY, WOMEN 71
149 Miller, Gale and James A. Holstein (1995), 'Dispute domains: organizational contexts and dispute processing', Sociological Quarterly, 36(1), Winter, 37-59.
The article describes the emergence of organisational disputes in organisational settings. Examples ofdisputes and dispute resolution between staff and clients are described in the setting ofwelfare-to-work programs.
MANAGEMENT ISSUES
150 Miller, Pavia (1999), 'Welfare's end and new racism in the United States', Just Policy, 16, September, 21-30.
'In 1996, the US Congress passed a Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRA). In line with President Clinton's campaign promise ''to end welfare as well know it", the legislation abolished the sixty-year old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFCD) program. In its place were put a number of measures which limited parents' lifetime eligibility for assistance, linked any aid received to participation in work or training, and devolved important powers aimed at reducing the numbers of people receiving aid to the states.' The article discusses some outcomes of this legislation with particular reference to poor women and women ofcolour who have traditionally had to work for starvation wages.
EFFICIENCY, POLICY, WOMEN
151 Milne, William J. (1995), 'Revising income assistance programs in New Brunswick: a look at the demonstration projects', in Helping the Poor: A Qualified Case for 'Workfare', The Social Challenge 5, C.D. Howe Institute, Toronto, 121-50. This paper examines three experiments in welfare reform in the Canadian state of New Brunswick. All three are based on the assumption that there should be a more substantial obligation on the part of welfare recipients to participate in training or work. The author points to the need for revision of the existing programs in order to enhance and maintain the benefits.
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS
152 Moffitt, Robert (1992), 'Incentive effects of the U.S. welfare system: a review', Journal ofEconomic Literature, 30(1), March, 1-61. This extensive literature review surveys the results of research on the effects of the welfare system on work incentives, welfare dependency, family structure, 72 migration and intergenerational transIIllSSlon of dependency. The review is organised around three sets of questions. The first set concerns the background to the problem; and the second set is concerned with the effects of existing programs on work effort and other factors related to welcome. The third set of questions concerns the expected impact of suggested policy measures. 'Would lowering the benefit reduction rate - for example, with a negative income tax - help solve the work incentive problem, as most economists propose? Would training programs for welfare recipients increase their human capital and permit them to leave the welfare rolls? Should we simply impose work requirements on all recipients, as now appears popular in some quarters? The effects of work and training programs on welfare recipients are tabulated by study results. The table indicates that benefit payments were generally reduced and government transfer-payment costs fell. 'However, because there were costs to implementing the program as well, the net cost to the government is not clear.' Also, although earnings for participants rise, they do not always rise sufficiently to raise participants above the poverty line. The effects on families and AFDC recipients is discussed in detail.
EFFICIENCY, POLICY, TAXATION
153 Nedde, Ellen (1995), Welfare Reform in the United States, Working Paper of the International Monetary Fund, WP/95/124, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF, 15pp.
This paper reviews the structure and trends of the US welfare system. It shows that welfare expenditure is quite small (one per cent of federal budget and two per cent of state budgets) and growing at only a moderate rate. 'An increase in the number of recipients was in line with growth in the general population and was offset by a decline in real benefits'. The paper also found that most recipients only use welfare temporarily and not as a permanent alternative to work. However, it 'sets up strong financial disincentives to paid employment and saving at the sarne time that its low level of benefits fails to lift low-income children and their families out of poverty'. The paper concludes that the proposals to reform the system address some of the problems raised in the discussion. It describes the central features of these proposals including the mandatory work requirements; it points out that the demonstration programs in this regard (California's GAIN Independence program and Florida's Project Independence) failed to reduce significantly welfare rolls.
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY 73
154 Newman, Jocelyn (1998), 'The Coalition as a reforming government', Sydney Papers, 10(3), Winter, 114-23.
The author, a Senator in the Coalition Government, describes elements of the government's reform agenda, including the overhaul of the social security system. Brief comments are made about economic reform, industrial relations and taxation reform. 'The government's welfare strategy is twofold. We are committed to providing a broadly based safety net for those in need. At the same time, we have introduced positive measures which encourage people's economic and personal independence. Where possible, we ask people to give something back to the community for the support they get. In return for support, we also expect people to tell the government the truth about their situation. This way, they will only get what they are entitled to. I have a personal commitment to maintaining the welfare safety net for the genuinely needy. But I don't support the "hammock" mentality where some people have come to expect the government will provide first, last and always.' Some details of the simplified social security system are described. These include features of the concept of 'mutual obligation': the requirement that in return for income support, unemployed people who can, should actively look for work; the provision for further education, training or voluntary work to improve employment chances; the tightening of the activity test; and trialing of a 'mentoring' system with an individual approach for young people.
ACTIVITY TESTS, CASE MANAGEMENT, POLICY, YOUTH
155 Newman, Jocelyn (1999), The Challenge ofWelfare Dependency in the 21st Century, Discussion Paper, Department of Family and Community Services, Canberra, 23pp; www.dfcs.gov.auin welfare reform section.
The paper presents the rationale for the appointment of a Reference Group to provide advice to the Government on possible initiatives to prevent and reduce welfare dependency among people of work force age. The Reference Group will be chaired by Patrick McClure with representatives from the community sector, business, academia and government. A number of issues are identified for further consideration. The terms of reference for the enquiry are set out. In providing advice to government, the Reference Group is asked to give particular consideration to a number of issues including the broader application of 'Mutual Obligation'. [An interim report is annotated in this bibliography (see Reference Group on Welfare Reform, 2000). A response to the paper by Deborah Brennan is also annotated in this bibliography.]
CONCEPTS, POLICY 74
156 Newman, Jocelyn (2000), 'The Government's program for welfare reform', Ethnic Spotlight, 49, March, 5-6.
The article sets out the main principles underpinning the Government's welfare reform and the ways in which they will improve the system. 'The modern welfare system needs to be reformed to ensure that it prevents and addresses welfare dependency.' One ofthe principles on which this kind of reform can take place is 'expecting people on income support to help themselves and contribute to society through increased social and economic participation in a framework of Mutual Obligation'. The Government has set up a Reference Group to advise on ways to develop a comprehensive paper on reform. The article sets out the terms of reference.
POLICY
157 Nightingale, Demetra Smith and Lynn C. Burbridge (1987), The Status of State Work-Welfare Programs in 1986: Implications for Welfare Reform, The Urban Institute, Washington, 126+pp.; contributing authors: Neal Jeffries, Sue E. Poppink, Renee Newman Smith.
This report is based on an examination of employment-related programs available for welfare recipients in the states of America in 1986. While funding is largely from the federal government, the individual states have flexibility in administration and record-keeping. The issues raised in debates about federal work policies for welfare recipients are canvassed. These include: the balance between training programs and job placement programs; the balance between enforcing mandatory work requirements and providing real training and jobs; concerns about the multiple and often competing objectives of work-welfare programs; bureaucratic controversy over the administration of the programs; and federal funding.
MANAGEMENT ISSUES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, TRAINING
158 Nixon, Alan (1994), 'Facilitation of sole parents into paid work', Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 2, July, 63-73. The paper is concerned with government policy for social welfare services, which are to ensure that they 'contribute to a fair and just society and promote self sufficiency and responsibility of individuals and their families/whanau; and that income maintenance policies and practices do not contribute to continuing dependency of those who are capable of becoming self-sufficient'. In particular it deals with the COMPASS program which is designed to help existing sole parent beneficiaries to become self-sufficient. It describes the largest group, explores the barriers these parents find when trying to enter the work force, particularly those 75 discovered in studies carried out in 1980 and 1993. Initiatives arising from these studies are described; COMPASS is seen in relation to the Australian JET (Jobs, Education, Training) scheme. The results of the pilot scheme will be evaluated. The author concludes that 'breaking the dependency cycle can be a slow and gradual process; but that success must not be measured in terms of savings in benefit expenditure but 'in terms of whether sufficient numbers of sole parents have expressed interest in the scheme and have started on the, perhaps, long road towards self-sufficiency'.
EFFICIENCY, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS, TRAINING
159 Nolan, Rob (1997), 'Prevention of incorrect payments in the Newstart program', Social Security Journal, September, 73-90. This paper is concerned with administrative methods to ensure compliance with all the conditions of eligibility for benefits and allowances, particularly for recipients of Newstart Allowance. The risk areas are identified. They include avoidance ofthe activity test by pleading unfitness for work; and insufficient work effort. 'In 1945, when unemployment benefits were first introduced at the federal level in Australia, their payment was contingent on client compliance with some form of work test or activity test. The prevailing rationale at the time was to lend legitimacy to government-provided income support ... the activity test has evolved into an instrument to improve someone's labour-market potential by offering training and education opportunities as well as job search.' Some details of its operations are described and changes introduced in the 1996 Budget are set out. The paper argues that 'the Activity Test can also be used as a powerful instrument in maintaining compliance and reinforcing the concept of mutual obligation'.
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS
160 Nolan, Rob (1997), 'Compliance and control in the Newstart Program', in J. Tomlinson, W. Patton, P. Creed and R. Hicks, eds, Unemployment: Policy and Practice, Australian Academic Press, Brisbane, 185-201. This chapter provides an analysis of the compliance initiatives put in place by the Department of Social Security with regard to its Newstart Program. The paper focuses on the Department's compliance and control activities, and related issues such as the results of review activity in the program, the application of risk management, the administration of the activity test and the government's labour market policy initiatives.
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS 76
161 Ogburn, Keith (1986), Workfare in America: An Initial Guide to the Debate, BackgroundlDiscussion Paper No. 6, Social Security Review, Department of Social Security, ACT, 27pp.
The fust part of this paper explains 'workfare' in the US, while the second part looks at arguments about workfare which have taken place in Australia. While working for benefit is only one option in workfare programs, and by no means the most favoured, it is this aspect which has aroused most interest in Australia and it is this, rather than the training or job search elements, which is the focus of the paper. The third part of the paper examines the implications for Australia. The paper shows that workfare itself or, even more specifically, work-for-benefit, can be organised in very different ways to get quite different results.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
162 O'Neill, Dave M. and June Elenoff O'Neill (1997), Lessons for Welfare Reform: An Analysis of the AFDC Caseload and Past Welfare-to-Work Programs, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 131pp. One of the concerns about the growth of the US welfare system is that welfare receipt can turn into long-term welfare dependency. The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program has functioned for six decades~ a significant minority ofthe families, mainly women who bore their first child while unmarried teenagers, have remained on the program for years. In 1996, AFDC as replaced by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The new law draws on many reform innovations that had been initiated at the state level under waivers from the federal government. The primary goal of the state initiatives was to reduce dependency. 'The new welfare legislation shifts considerable authority and power over welfare spending to the states. Under the old AFDC program all eligible adults were guaranteed benefits ... This arrangement entitled the states to receive automatic and unlimited reimbursements from the federal government based on a formula ... that matched federal dollars to state spending on eligible AFDC recipients'. Under the new legislation, the federal government will provide the state with lump-sum payments: block grants for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). In addition to AFDC cash benefits, TANF funds would replace other welfare programs: Emergency Assistance, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS) and child care funding for AFDC recipients and certain other low-income families. Eligibility for TANF grants is stricter; there is a lifetime limit of 60 months; adult recipients will be required to fulfil a work requirement after a maximum of two years ofbenefit; participants must spend a certain number of hours in an approved work activity~ unwed mothers under 18 must live under the supervision of an 77 adult. 'This study examines information that is relevant for implementing and assessing the possible impact of the new legislation.' It looks at the extent to which recipients respond to changes in incentives and at the effectiveness of employment and training programs.
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
163 O'Neill, June (1993), 'Can work and training programs reform welfare', Journal ofLabor Research, 14(3), Summer, 265-81.
This paper reviews the development of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children(AFDC) program, outlines the problems associated with welfare dependence and the disincentives embedded in AFDC. It examines the effects of past efforts to induce people from welfare to work and evaluates the current approach. This includes the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) projects under the Work Incentive (WIN) program. The author comments: 'The new glow of approval accorded welfare-to-work programs, however, may have more to do with the success of the evaluation process and the dissemination of the results, rather than to the actual effects of these programs on earnings and welfare receipt.' She argues that there are two kinds of strategies needed to reverse the welfare explosion. One is to build the skills of young people before fertility, work and welfare paths are chosen. The second is to reduce incentives to participate in welfare, for example, by providing a time limit on the programs while at the same time ensuring that children in welfare families not suffer. 'One solution is a time-limit of 18 months (or until the youngest child is four) followed by mandatory ''workfare'' - work at ajob requiring little skill for 20 to 30 hours a week which would enable the parent to earn her benefit.'
FAMILIES, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
164 Oppenheim, Carey (1999), 'Welfare reform and the labour market: a "third way"?', Benefits, 25, AprilfMay, 1-6.
'The welfare debate has had a dramatic opening in the UK. The new government staked out the high ground on coming to office - committing itself to root and branch reform of welfare. Major programmes of reform , notably the active labour market measures - the New Deal - and the setting up of a Social Exclusion Unit at the centre of government are in train. Both embody an approach which places employment as the key route out of poverty ands social exclusion. This article explores how the "third way" has been articulated in relation to the UK agenda on welfare reform with a focus on the interface between social security 78 and the labour market; second, it describes the main strengths and weaknesses of the welfare to work strategy.'
POLICY
165 Oppenheim, Carey, with Holly Sutherland (1998), 'Welfare to work: taxes and benefits', in J. McCormick and C. Oppenheim, eds, Welfare in Working Order, Institute for Public Policy Research, London, 19-83.
'Welfare to work lies at the heart of the government's strategy for reforming welfare. It encompasses a wide range of policy areas: social security, taxes, education, training, wage levels and job creation.' This chapter assesses the extent of the problem the government is addressing in Britain: the length of time people are reliant on income support and the reasons they come off benefit. It looks at the goals of welfare to work programs which should be to help people move further than to 'in-work poverty' and should focus on prevention as well as cure. Four key barriers to moving into work are identified and discussed: financial disincentives; care responsibilities; transitional difficulties; and attitudes towards work. Some reforms are described along with their outcomes. The role of an active benefits system is explored. The concept of compulsory participation in an active system is discussed. The author emphasises the need for a broad evaluation of the new system which should not be solely premised on job entry, but 'ensure that welfare to work has a broad remit to encourage social inclusion'.
POLICY, TAXATION
166 Orchard, Lionel (1999), 'Third Way: which way', AQ, 71(3), May-June, 18-24. The article is an overview of the policies of the 'third way' and its proponents, in particular: Anthony Giddens, Mark Latham and Lindsay Tanner. One of Giddens' principles is "'no rights without responsibilities" particularly in the welfare state.' Orchard reports that Giddens' views on welfare and equality see the traditional protective approach to these issues as negative and preventative, undemocratic and paternalistic. The purpose of the welfare state should be to develop a society of 'responsible risk takers', with an emphasis on education for the cultivation of human potential. Welfare benefits, where they remain, should be localised and integrated with programs for 'active development of civil society'. Latham's views are similar; he argues for dispensing with passive welfare which emphasised transfer payments and a move towards an 'active' welfare system with stress on education, lifelong learning and skill improvement. 'People would have the right to welfare support if they responsibly engage in longer term career planning and skill improvement that give them the best hope of finding employment in the future.' While Tanner's views vary from the others in some 79 ways, he invokes the new central emphasis on bringing together rights and responsibilities and he also espouses the view that education is important to social participation and economic development. Orchard then reports on some critiques of the third way proponents, arguing that: 'The third way approach to welfare policy with its emphasis on risk and greater individual responsibility might find it difficult to distance itself from accusations of a new meanness in society, especially if it is not well integrated with education, employment and other programs.' Orchard concludes that 'it might be prudent to travel on some other ways too'.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, CONCEPTS, POLICY
167 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1999), The Local Dimension of Welfare to Work: An International Survey, OECD, Paris, 345pp. This publication provides a synthesis of the discussion that took place at a conference held in England in 1998. It also presents the main papers. In brief, the book argues that combating long-term unemployment and welfare dependency is a key policy challenge and there is a need to adjust welfare systems to new labour market conditions. Active labour market policies and incentive changes will help this process. There are differences between the measures introduced in OECD countries but also common features in policy development. In the United Kingdom a comprehensive program has been put in place involving investment in education and skills, reform of the tax and benefit system, a national minimum wage and active labour market initiatives. It is faced with challenges related to labour mobility, matching vacancies to job seekers and using Internet access for the benefit of target groups. In the US, reforms have been introduced at federal and state levels including limits on the receipt of welfare payments and a shift towards a philosophy of 'work first'. There have been falls in the welfare rolls but there are concerns about the quality and durability of the jobs found. There are challenges to be met in supporting recipients to find permanent well-paid jobs, encouraging skills development, evaluation and access to support services as well as some cost issues. In Australia changes have involved contracting out of previously publicly developed programs and employment policy has introduced the concept of 'mutual obligation' along with more rigorous work and job search requirements. In France the emphasis is on the creation of employment opportunities and less on compulsion to work. The local dimension is considered essential to the effective delivery of welfare-to-work policies and some strategies are outlined in the central section of the book. A number of papers are included: a comparison of approaches in the US, the UK and the Netherlands by Dan Finn; a discussion of some US issues by Robert Straits; a description of some UK partnerships by Mike Campbell, Simon Foy and Jo Hutchinson; a description of 80
US experiences with the business sector by Lyn Hogan; an account of some Italian programs by Carlo Borzago; and of approaches to income support in Canada by Alica Nakamura, Ging Wong and W. Erwin Diewert.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, BRITISH PROGRAMS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SANCTIONS, TRAINING
168 Pavetti, LaDonna, Krista Olson, Demetra Nightingale, Amy-Ellen Duke and Julie Isaacs (1995), Welfare-to-Work Options for Families Facing Personal and Family Challenges: Rationale and Program Strategies, Urban Institute, http://www.urban.org/welfare, 36pp.
The paper discusses the reasons that special program strategies for families experiencing personal and family challenges are needed in terms of: programs that emphasise quick job entry; penalties for non-compliance with work mandates; time limits on benefits; enhanced earned income disregards; and combined approaches. The following section is concerned with ways to expand program strategies for these families. It looks at families with extremely low basic skills and limited work experience; treatment for substance abuse; counselling and mental health treatment services; and job retention strategies. The paper then looks at ways of integrating strategies to help families cope with programs that stress job search, work mandates, sanctions and time limits. The authors conclude that: 'It is clear that welfare-to-work program activities that go beyond job search, work incentives, time limits and penalties for non-compliance will be needed for at least some portion ofthe welfare caseload.'
FAMILIES, POLICY, SANCTIONS
169 Pearson, Noel (1999), From Campbelltown to Cape York - Rebuilding Community, paper presented to Brisbane Institute seminar, http://www.prisinst.org.aulpapers/noel_pearson_rebuilding/print-index.html The paper discusses the negative effects of welfare dependency in Aboriginal communities and the policies required to overcome them. At the core of these policies is the need for reciprocity and the involvement of the communities in the design of programs: there must be 'commitment by the State and Commonwealth to the common cause of enabling the people of Cape York to take charge of their own communities and their own problems ... The private sector will need to be the third party in this enterprise .. , Of course, the critical ingredient will be the provision of resources by the State. When we say that negative welfare is destructive, we mean that it needs to be changed, not that the resources should be denied or diminished.'
ABORIGINES, POLICY 81
170 Pech, Jocelyn (1997), Voice, Choice and Contract: Customer Focus in Programs for Unemployed People, Policy Discussion Paper No. 9, Department ofSocial Security, Canberra, 42pp. The author argues that recipients of government benefits and services can be treated as 'customers' by allowing them to voice their needs and express their opinions about the services and products they receive; by giving them choice of a range of options and the capacity to choose; and by defining clearly 'the contract between the customer and the community that determines the terms under which help in given'. The issue of activity testing, compliance and sanctions is dealt with in some detail.
'If unemployed people are active in looking for work and/or doing other things to improve their employability, they will increase their prospects of returning to work. To qualify for unemployment payments, people must show that they are looking actively for work or undertaking other approved activities (the activity test). This is a concrete expression of the social contract between the community and the unemployed person.' The prevailing view of the test is that it is 'a tool of compliance and control'. However it can also be regarded as a way to help unemployed people back to work by providing a guide to activities seen as useful for achieving this goal. 'Voluntary compliance is preferable to enforced compliance. The key intention should be that people comply with the activity test willingly because they understand the benefits of doing so. Although some people comply for fear of detection, perceptions of fairness are also important. Activity requirements are likely to be seen as fair if they take account of the individual's circumstances. The threat of sanctions might help to motivate compliance but, if sanctions are too severe, income support staff might be reluctant to impose them and the community might perceive them as punitive. A more customer-focused approach to activity requirements should lessen the need for sanctions by improving voluntary compliance. Customers with a personal stake in the terms of the income support contract (having negotiated them in the first place) can be expected to take greater responsibility for adhering to them.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, SANCTIONS
171 Pech, Jocelyn and Helen Innes (1998), 'Women in the Australian labour market 1966-96: the impact of change on the social security system', Social Security Journal, 199812,3-30. 'The paper begins with a brief summary of changes in women's patterns of labour force participation over the last 30 years, in comparison with men's experience and between different groups of women. This is followed by an overview of women's present position in the social security system and an examination of some key issues arising from the changes in the labour market. The paper 82 concludes with a discussion of possible future directions for the social security system and how to ensure that these retain appropriate sensitivity to the multiple role of women.' A short section of the paper discusses the concept of mutual obligation with regard to women's employment.
POLICY, WOMEN
172 Peck, Jamie (1998), 'Workfare: a geopolitical etymology', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 16(2), April, 133-61.
'The author traces the origins, evolution and contested meanings of the "keyword" workfare (work and welfare) in the United States which, in the space of 30 years, has evolved from a technocratic term deployed in the process of intrawelfare reform, through to powerful signifier of a systemic, postwelfare "alternative". Discursive struggles around workfare are shown to have played a decisive role in reencoding the language of poverty politics, as "old" discourses of needs, decency, compassion, and entitlement have been discredited, while "new" (or more accurately reworded) discourses of work, responsibility, self-sufficiency, and empowerment have been forcefully advanced. This process is a geo political one in the sense that local models and stories of workfare have been absorbed - in a transformative way - into the new orthodoxies of policy discourse and practice. The ascendancy of local workfare (represented as the "solution" to the ''welfare mess") overfederal welfare (itself now a political attack term) has been associated not only with a rolling back of the language, routines, and systems of welfarism, but also with the rolling forward of radically new institutions and vocabularies of regulation. Although it continues to be contested, workfare is becoming the regulatory antonym of welfare: the programme is becoming programmatic. The paper presents a political - economic contextualization for workfare discourse.'
CONCEPTS, POLICY
173 Perry, Julia (1995), A Common Payment? Simplifying Income Support for People of Workforce Age, Policy Discussion Paper No. 7, Department of Social Security, AGPS, Canberra, 52pp; a short version appears as 'Twenty payments or one? Alternative structures for the Australian social security system', in P. Saunders and S. Shaver, eds, Social Policy and the Challenges of Social Change, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Volume 1, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 122, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 143-59. There are two groups of income support payments in Australia, one of which consists of activity-tested payments which are basically open to anyone who is able and willing to look for full-time work; the other group consists of non activity-tested payments for specified groups who are not expected to work. This 83 paper examines the rationale for this grouping and looks at possibilities for change by introducing a single payment system. One section examines activity testing and labour market assistance. The author argues that reciprocal obligations should be applied when they are within the power of those applying for payment. 'Examples might be looking for work, accessing potential sources of other income for repaying loans when income permits. Conditions that depend on a past event are unreasonable in a society in which members have a right to protection against poverty.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS
174 Petersen, Paul (1997), 'An authoritarian response to market failure', Ethnic Spotlight, 40, 6-7.
The article is a response to the work for the dole policy (outlined by David Kemp on the previous page in the journal). It argues that there is already substantial compulsion attached to the provision of unemployment allowances; and that the most common response to unemployment is to blame the victim, shifting responsibility from the state onto the unemployed person. The cost of welfare is briefly analysed, the author arguing that the policy can be viewed 'as an attempt to redefine what the state can afford; and an attempt to undermine the bargaining power of the employed working class'. The paper looks at the impact of compulsory work on migrants. The author concludes that the policy 'sends a signal to those in paid work that unemployment is not a palatable alternative to undesirable or poorly paid jobs'.
POLICY
175 Phillips, Melanie (1997), 'Workfare for lone mothers: a solution to the wrong problem?' in L.M. Mead, From Welfare to Work: Lessons from America, Choice in Welfare No. 39, A. Deacon, ed., Institute of Economic Affairs, Health and Welfare Unit, London, 120-5.
In this response to a paper by L.M. Mead, the author argues that while workfare may end welfare payments to lone mothers it is 'unlikely to reduce the incidence of lone motherhood or the problems of the children which it may even exacerbate'. Lone mothers 'are not poor because they don't work but because there is no man in the household to earn enough to support the family unit. '
ETHICS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS 84
176 Philpott, John (1997), 'Lessons from America: workfare and Labour's New Deal', in L.M. Mead, From Welfare to Work: Lessons from America, Choice in Welfare No. 39, A. Deacon, ed., Institute of Economic Affairs (lEA) Health and Welfare Unit, London, 65-78.
In this comment on Lawrence Mead's policy proposals and American programs to reform welfare, the author draws a parallel between the policy of Labour's New Deal policy on unemployed 18-24-year olds who have been on benefit for more than six months, and American workfare. He discusses the causes of unemployment in the light of Mead's explanations and asks whether these are applicable in Britain, where 'problems of joblessness and urban poverty are not confined almost exclusively to Britain's ethnic minority groups' as they are in the US. Work incentives and their place in the benefit system are discussed as is the case for work requirements; the author examines the reasons for the success of workfare and asks whether compulsion is justified. He argues that program design and implementation are important. In conclusion he points to differences between the two countries (barriers to employment in Britain and the orientation of the jobless in the US) and the objections which might be raised by the left and the right (the 'social authoritarian' aspects on the one hand and the creation of a 'potentially intrusive' large bureaucracy on the other). He recommends adoption of the central message, 'that work, not welfare, offers the best hope of improving life for the jobless poor'.
ETHICS, POLICY, YOUTH
177 Pixley, Jocelyn (1993), 'Dole-work and "acceptable levels" of unemployment: rights for citizens and duties for the rest', in 1. Pixley, ed., Citizenship and Employment: Investigating Post-industrial Options, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and Melbourne, 199-230. This chapter argues 'that if the state is to be effectively criticised for removing rights and for blaming the victims of unemployment, governments' ideological "success" with dole-work should be better understood in order to reassert the opposite, namely proper employment. Dole-work proposals were to impose a drastically restricted conception of "citizenship" on the excluded, which reduced rights as it imposed duties, such as "training" or "make-work". None of this, is, of course, exclusive to Australia. In general, a slippage between duties and obligations lies at the heart of state impositions from above, and this ambiguity is embedded in most state policies. A universal, inclusive conception of citizenship (as a defence from below) involves a close relation between rights and freely assumed obligations. The latter are not duties, for obligations involve choice. The expansion of rights to all is only possible when proper employment 85 opportunities are also available, to enable all to assume obligations as and when they choose. '
ETHICS
178 Pixley, Jocelyn (1994), 'Effective or pseudo-participation: opportumtIes, obligation or duty', in P. Smyth, ed., The Employment White Paper: A New Social Charter?, Discussion Papers No. 2, Uniya, Sydney, 77-87.
This paper is one of a series delivered at a seminar where speakers were invited to 'consider what might be the possibilities for a new social charter' emerging from the White Paper to be shortly released by the Government. The author considers the possibilities with stress on 'rights'. She reviews past developments affecting social security: 'the Hawke government radically transformed the welfare system, changing the course of entitlements, obligations and employment ... Unemployment benefits, instead of being a right owed by a society when it failed to provide sufficient employment at a minimum standard ... became contingent on numerous punitive requirements.' The author argues that the concept ofobligation in this context is not obligation but an imposed duty, and 'voluntary obligation' as a reciprocal and horizontal process would be a more appropriate response. These concepts are explored. The paper concludes that movement to a form of dole-work would be 'tragic', and policies should chart a course towards interdependence and shared responsibilities for all.
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
179 Pixley, Jocelyn (1995), 'Combining work and welfare: arguing against basic income', Just Policy, 4, September, 17-25. The paper discusses concerns with proposals for a basic income or a participation income. The author argues that it would foster a type of 'workfare' and increased labour market insecurity. She further argues for new ways to shape the economic system and the labour market to suit the needs of people. This should involve re fashioning the full employment principle, with 'environmental sustainability and renewable energy, shorter work hours for everyone, family-friendly workplaces and increased social and government obligations for children'. 'The fabled "choice" of work and welfare is not so good if one ends up working for the dole'. The author concludes: 'Needs for ethical employment and for social recognition are destroyed when labour market programs and the new workfare state simply leave the unemployed competing with the underemployed for jobs from "lazy capitalists". Social policy can do better than this.'
ETHICS 86
180 Pixley, Jocelyn (1997), 'The meanings of dole and dolework', Arena Magazine, 30, August-September, 27-9.
The article discusses government proposals to require people to work for the dole, popular reactions to them, and the conditions under which the new scheme will operate. 'Dole work, whether unemployment is held to be voluntary or not, appeases the conservative dislike of idleness and widespread resentment against the unemployed "gaining something for nothing". It does not meet any welfare objectives, for it forces some into pointless and humiliating tasks to "justify" their allowance and entails no prospect whatever offuture employment.'
ETHICS, POLICY
181 Popenoe, David (1996), 'Family caps', Society, 33(5), July-August, 25-7.
Government support of children in single parent homes is taking over the role of the father. The author argues that the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program 'rewards' women on welfare who make a decision to have another child, a decision that reduces their chances of getting off welfare. The 'family caps' policy means that the program will not provide additional funds to an unmarried mother if she has more children while still on welfare. The paper outlines the disadvantages attached to single parenthood; it suggests that putting a family cap on AFDC benefits is merely a call for a more mutual obligation between state and citizen.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, SANCTIONS, SOLE PARENTS
182 Powlay, John and Kate Rodgers (1995), 'What's happened to the work test?', in R. Hicks, P. Creed, W. Patton and J. Tomlinson, eds, Unemployment: Developments and Transitions, School of Social Science, QUT, Queensland, 342-52. 'Since their Federal introduction in 1945, the payment of unemployment benefits in Australia has been contingent on client compliance with some form of activity test, notwithstanding the fact that both the nature and mechanics of the activity test have evolved somewhat since that date.' This paper discusses the evolution of the work test, first introduced to lend legitimacy to government-provided income support to the unemployed, into an activity test which is seen as a vehicle to improve the labour market potential of unemployed people by offering them a range of training and other options as an alternative or complement to job search.
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, TRAINING 87
183 Preston, David A. (1996), 'Reducing benefit dependence', Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 6, July, 69-91.
'Benefit dependence amongst working age adults is a serious problem in most developed countries.' The growth in beneficiary numbers and the reasons for the rise in New Zealand are explored. The response in terms of active labour market policies is discussed. Some solutions to the problem are canvassed. They include a restructure of the fiscal incentives in the income support and related tax systems, focusing on making work pay more than passive benefit dependence; conditionality which could include workfare, more obligations for some groups and a more rigorous scrutiny of health status claims; benefit administration changes with counselling and case management; better support systems for beneficiaries; a Child Support Scheme to enhance family responsibility; and community consciousness raising to both the problem and possible solutions.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, POLICY
184 Preston, David A. (1997), 'Welfare benefit reform', Social Policy Journal ofNew Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, 29-36.
The focus of the paper is on the reform of the social security benefit system particularly with regard to the working-age population. It examines the system from three points of view: the nature of entitlement, sources of funding and the structure of the institutions involved in the delivery of benefits, all of which vary between countries. The author then looks at various policies and programs which could reduce dependency and outlines the views of both the 'poverty lobby', radical opponents of social security and institutional conservatives. Some elements of an acceptable reform philosophy are emerging and these are also outlined: a philosophy of reciprocal obligations; benefit reform to support work incentives; and case management. The implementation ofreform is not easy. The author concludes that benefit reform is part of a wider agenda of social and economic reform, which includes the need for a labour market to provide job opportunities. Attitudinal and institutional barriers include legal issues and the strongly held view held by some that social security is a unilateral right and not part of a complex of reciprocal obligations. Differences of political ideology and significant practical difficulties exist 'for the social security institutions in shifting from a passive payment to an active assistance framework' .
ACTIVE SOCIETY, CONCEPTS, POLICY 88
185 Probert, Belinda (1995), 'Basic income and socially useful work', Just Policy, 4, September, 3-8.
The article is a general discussion about the concept of 'basic income'; arguments supporting it are advanced. In the Australian situation there is an increasing emphasis on the attitudes of the unemployed, that is, their acceptance of the moral obligation to maintain themselves in a state of 'work readiness' in determining individual eligibility for benefits. Working Nation incorporated this idea: 'Income support is to be increasingly conditional around a set of "reciprocal obligations" which clearly involve the unemployed in proving themselves worthy of support and "work ready", despite the continuing desperate shortage of jobs.' This concept of reciprocity assumes an attitude of 'society' which argues that those in work are unwilling to pay taxes to provide an income for someone who is doing nothing. A basic income, paid to all, could lead to a 'better society' in the long run, where entitlement would hinge not on an obligation to participate in work, but on participation in 'useful activities', including activities performed outside the labour market.
ETHICS, POLICY
186 Raper, Michael (1997), 'Getting tough on welfare: the US and Australia compared', Impact, May, 8-9.
The article argues that the work-for-the-dole scheme will do nothing to relate 'real' jobs, provide training or lift the self-esteem of unemployed people. Similar schemes are in place in the US. The author describes them and some ofthe debate about them, but argues that the Australian situation with regard to unemployment and social problems is quite different from that in the US. The Australian social security system 'not only caters specifically for unemployed people but it has long acknowledged their reciprocal obligation to both look for and accept work, or training or case management as required in return for social security payments ... Any attempts to import other US solutions or to justify similar "get tough" moves in Australia wold be both unnecessary and unwise'. However, the author foresees their introduction.
POLICY
187 Raper, Michael (1999), 'Work, wages, welfare: where is Australia heading?',ACROD Newsletter, August, 8-13; also http://www.acoss.org.au/medial1999/rrn990719.htm This address to the National Industry Association for Disability Services (ACROD) Employment Forum by the President of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) discusses the links between welfare and work in the light of the focus on concerns about welfare dependency and the Government's mutual 89 obligation policies and programs. 'The welfare dependency debate is the "dole bludger" debate of the 1970s revisited ... It is remarkable that after all these years, and with more than 670 000 people still unemployed, there is still a perception that jobs are there for the taking and the problem is one of motivation, not lack of opportunity. It is also remarkable that after two decades of even tighter targeting of social security payments and tighter rules and tougher penalties, some ... still believe that Australia offers its unemployed people ''unconditional welfare". In fact, Australia has one of the toughest welfare regimes in the world when it comes to ensuring that unemployed people are kept active and required to make every effort to secure a job.' The author argues that ACOSS would support a properly crafted policy of mutual obligation. He suggests the conditions this policy should include but argues that the Government 'appears to be putting penalties before opportunities'. The article discusses the importance of employment, the state of the labour market, the issue of welfare dependency and the concept of mutual obligation, concluding: 'Looking at the options for assistance available to seriously disadvantaged jobseekers it is hard to see how the Government is upholding its end ofthe mutual obligation bargain.'
DISABLED, ETHICS, POLICY
188 Ravallion, Martin (1999), 'Appraising workfare', World Bank Research Observer, 14(1), February, 31-48.
'Workfare programs aim to reduce poverty by providing low-wage work to those who need it. They are often turned to in a crisis. Some simple analytical tools that can be used to rapidly appraise the cost-effectiveness of an existing workfare operation are offered as a basis for deciding whether the program should be expanded. For pedagogic purposes, two stylized versions of a range of programs found in practice are analyzed: one for a middle-income country, the other for a low-income country. The cost of a given gain to the poor is about the same for both countries, although the components of that cost are very different, with implications for the timing of benefits. Program design changes that could enhance the impact on poverty are suggested.'
EFFICIENCY, POLICY
189 Rector, Robert (1993), 'Welfare reform, dependency reduction, and labour market entry', Journal ofLabour Research, 14(3), Summer, 283-97. 'Dependency reduction requires altering the welfare incentive structures: reducing the rewards for nonwork and increasing the rewards for work. Requiring welfare recipients to work in exchange for welfare benefits reduces the attractiveness of welfare and is crucial to dependency reduction. However, most current workfare programs impose minimal requirements on welfare recipients 90 and are ineffectual. This paper proposes methods for improving workfare as well as other reforms.'
POLICY
190 Reed, Betsy (1994), 'Welfare: programs that work and those that win', Dollars and Sense, 196, NovemberlDecember, 12-15,37.
The author points out that most women on welfare want to work in spite of insurmountable obstacles. She also argues that there are a few good welfare-to work programs that have proven modestly effective at reducing poverty. Yet 'workfare', the program that requires welfare recipients to work off their checks through community service is the policy that is being implemented in the US. The paper describes some successful workable programs that could help stem teen mothers' descent into poverty. Workfare, however, may prevail because, while it is not a 'promising path out of poverty, it is a path out of a political quandary'.
POLICY, WOMEN
191 Reference Group on Welfare Reform (2000), Participation Support for a More Equitable Society, Interim Report, Reference Group on Welfare Reform, Canberra, 71pp.
The Reference Group was appointed in 1999 to give the Government advice on welfare reform (see Newman, 1999). This interim report outlines a new framework for a fundamental re-orientation of Australia's social welfare system. It focuses on people of work force age, broadly defined as those between 16 and pension age. The group was guided by the terms of reference, briefly expressed as: maintaining equity, simplicity, transparency and sustainability; establishing incentives for work, education and training; creating opportunities for increasing self-reliance and capacity building; expecting people on income support to help themselves and contribute to society through increased social and economic participation in a framework of mutual obligation; providing choices with tailored assistance focusing on prevention and early intervention; and maintaining the Government's approach to fiscal policy. Some of the features of the proposed system are: individualised service delivery; a simpler income support structure, responsive to individual needs; incentives and targeted assistance to enable and encourage participation; social partnerships between governments, businesses and communities; and mutual obligation. Income support recipients would be expected to make the most of opportunities provided by Government, business and community, consistent with community values and their own capacity.
POLICY 91
192 Riccio, James and Yeheskel Hasenfe1d (1996), 'Enforcing a participation mandate in a welfare-to-work program', Social Service Review, 70(4), December, 516-42. 'In this article, we use data from a six-county evaluation of California's welfare to-work program for recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) [the Greater Avenue to Independence or GAIN program] to examine the consequences of emphasizing either personalized attention or formal penalties to achieve compliance with the program's participation mandate. Among the outcomes measured were the degree of recipients' participation in program activities, recipients' perceptions of the program and their case managers, and the program's effects on recipients' earnings and use of welfare. The results suggest that, overall, emphasizing personalized attention may be moderately more effective in attaining high levels of participation. At the same time, emphasizing penalties does not preclude high participation, nor does it prevent a majority of recipients from developing positive views of the program or case managers. This approach may generally help a program achieve welfare savings, but it might not help improve recipients' earnings unless it is combined with certain other program practices.'
CASE MANAGEMENT, EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, SANCTIONS
193 Richards, John and Aidan Vining (1995), 'Welfare reform: what can we learn from the Americans', in Helping the Poor: A Qualified Case for 'Workfare', The Social Policy Challenge 5, C.D. Howe Institute, Toronto, 1-36. The paper provides a comparative perspective of welfare reform in Canada by reviewing the welfare debate in the United States. The ideology behind the 1988 Family Support Act is discussed. The authors of that Act appreciated the importance of empirical research and provided the legislative basis for experiments in alternative policies which linked benefits to participation in training and work in a more aggressive way. The paper also reviews some of these empirical studies. Briefly, the paper shows that the incentive effects of welfare systems have a significant effect on labour supply and long-term welfare dependency while evidence from negative income tax experiments is 'not optimistic'. The authors also reviewed 19 cost-benefit studies of large-scale workfare experiments in which selected participants were required to undertake training and accept aid in job search or have their benefits reduced. Of the 19, ten generated modest increases in average incomes for participants and nine produced decreases; the overall average was positive.
EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, TAXATION 92
194 Riches, Graham and Lorelee Manning (1989), Welfare Reform and the Canada Assistance Plan: The Breakdown of Public Welfare in Saskatchewan 1981-1989, Working Paper No. 4, Social Administration Research Unit, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, 39pp.
'This study was proposed as a result of continuing research conducted since 1985 into the implementation and consequences of the introduction of welfare reform by the Saskatchewan government in March 1984 ... The report explores the relationship between welfare reform in Saskatchewan and the Canada Assistance Plan in terms of the legislated mandate of federal-provincial cost-sharing of provincial social assistance programmes. It considers the claim that workfare has resulted in the reduction of welfare dependency. It documents the erosion of adequacy of social assistance benefits and the impact which overpayment deductions have on the net basic allowances. It points to the increase of food bank usage while social assistance cases show a decline. It illustrates the way in which the application of mandatory eligibility tests results in claimants being denied basic needs and addresses the issue of people being without assistance when appealing welfare decisions. Its main conclusions are that welfare reform violates cost-sharing conditions in a number of ways and has led to the breakdown of the public welfare system in Saskatchewan.'
ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SANCTIONS
195 Robertson, Alex, ed. (1997), Unemployment, Social Security and the Social Division ofWelfare: A Festshrift in Honour ofAdrian Sinfield, Department of Social Policy, University ofEdinburgh, 69pp.
The six papers in this volume are organised around the themes of unemployment, social security and the social division of welfare. Some of the papers have an historical perspective on these issues as well as looking to the future.
The social division of welfare revisited Alan Walker Social divisions of welfare: tax and social security fraud Dee Cook Reducing unemployment: what role for 'welfare to work'schemes? Alan Deacon (q.v.) Unemployment, health and social disadvantage Mel Bartley The past and future of social security in the United Kingdom Tony Atkinson Redefining social security: the ultimate challenge for Sinfield in his ultimate field of study Jos Berghman
ETHICS, POLICY 93
196 Rodgers, Kate and John Powlay (1995), 'What's happened to the work test?', Social Security Journal, December, 67-77; also appears in P. Saunders and S. Shaver, eds, Social Policy and the Challenges to Social Change, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Volume 1, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 122, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 161-72.
Since the introduction of unemployment benefits in Australia, payment has been contingent on compliance with a requirement for the claimant to demonstrate efforts to find full-time work. The original work test to ensure that compliance has evolved into a broader, more flexible activity test. This is seen in a positive light, 'as a vehicle which can improve unemployed people's labour market potential by offering them a range oftraining and other options as an alternative or complement to job search'. The article presents a brief history of the system, describes the activity test in theory and in practice, its administration and the system of case management which is part ofits operation. It looks at the changing labour market, and the development of different working arrangements. In particular, it describes the job compact which was instituted in July 1994, and which involves the guarantee of an offer of subsidised employment for six to 12 months to those who have been in receipt of unemployment payments for 18 months or more. The authors conclude that 'While the primary objective of income support for the unemployed is to ensure that unemployed people who are actively searching for work or participating in other labour market related activities receive adequate levels of income, the overall aim is to encourage unemployed people to achieve the transition to income self-sufficiency.' In examining the system, the authors found that the gap between theory and practice points to need for change in the operation of the activity test, and to the need to examine closely the nexus between social security and labour market policy.
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, CASE MANAGEMENT, POLICY
197 Rodgers, Kate and Karen Wilson (1998), Rights and Obligations of Families in the Social Security System, paper presented at 6th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, Changing Families, Challenging Futures, Melbourne, http://www.aifs.org.au/institute/afrc6papers/rodgers.html 'Mutual obligation has become a significant element in discussions of social welfare policy in Australia. The major part of such discussion, and policy making, in Australia has been to do with increasing the work and community obligations expected of unemployed young people in relation to their receipt of income support. Although mutual obligations to date have been concerned mostly with the idea of ''welfare-to-work'', there is an emerging trend in international social security policy to apply mutual obligation as a means of influencing the attitudes and behaviour of a broader range of people receiving government assistance. The 94
United States and New Zealand in particular are developing personal and parenting responsibilities as an integral part of the "social contract" between government and families who receive state aid. The emphasis by New Zealand and the US on personal and parental responsibilities reflects prominent social concerns such as relatively high teen and unwed pregnancy rates in the US and a high incidence of child neglect in New Zealand. This paper examines aspects of this trend which extend the principle of mutual obligation to cover non-labour force related expectation of families in return for government assistance. The discussion looks at the rationale behind these developments and considers their relevance to Australian families. '
CONCEPTS, FAMILIES, POLICY, YOUTH
198 Rogers, Jean (1997), 'Designing work-focused welfare replacement programmes', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 8, March, 67-77. The paper describes the program designed in the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to reform its public aid programs to help families become economically self-sufficient. The program 'offers participants four levels of employment along with essential support services such as childcare, health care, transportation and work-focused training'. The ten axioms underlying the program are outlined. ('The sixth axiom is to abolish the separation between eligibility determination and work programmes. This is a key organisational issue that cements the connections between pay and work in the client's mind.') The paper then puts forward three possible 'action plans', ordered by simplicity and cost, to assist states or countries to put these axioms into operation. It concludes by discussing the benefits derived from replacing welfare. The greatest benefit is 'that the stigma of welfare will be removed', beyond even reducing caseloads or resulting in fmancial savings. 'No longer will there be welfare recipients. Instead there will be job seekers. No longer will there be a welfare cheque. Instead there will be a bona fide pay cheque. No longer will people go to the welfare office to get benefits. Instead they will go to the Job Center to get a job.'
CONCEPTS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
199 Rogers-Dillon, Robin H. (1999), 'Federal constraints and state innovation: lessons from florida's Family Transition Program', Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 18(2),327-32. 'Prevailing wisdom holds that limiting the federal role in welfare will free the states to be more innovative in welfare-to-work programs. Findings from Florida's Family Transition Program (FTP), a pilot welfare reform initiative, however, suggest that the relationship between federal "strings" and state 95 innovation is more complex. A central feature of the welfare-to-work program in the FfP was the direct result of federal requirements imposed by the Department of Health and Human Services during waiver negotiations. Federal regulation, in this case, promoted innovation. Outcome-orientation and political attention, and fiscal structure are argued to be potentially important factors structuring the impact offederal regulation on state innovation.'
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
200 Samuel, Peter (1983), 'Workfare', Institute of Public Affairs/IPA Review, 37(3), Spring, 146-50.
"'Workfare" and more stringent eligibility criteria for welfare benefits are two initiatives in the welfare area introduced by the Reagan Administration. Both appear to be gaining acceptance as well as helping curb the previous alarming growth of dependency and the burden on the budget.' The article describes the new entitlement conditions for welfare payments, based on the work ethic.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
201 Sanders, Will (1988), 'The CDEP scheme: bureaucratic politics, remote community politics and the development of an Aboriginal "workfare" program in times ofrising unemployment', Politics, 23(1), May, 32-47.
This paper analyses the development of an Aboriginal 'workfare' program which operates in remote communities, the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, from its conception in the mid-1970s. It identifies a number of distinct periods in the development of the program: a period of debate surrounding its conception; an initial pilot period of operation beginning in 1977 in which the scheme endured both significant criticism and severe budgetary and administrative problems; a period of review from 1980 to 1983 and a period of expansion and success from 1984. These changing fortunes of the CDEP scheme are explained through reference to three forces which have contributed to the development of the program over the years: bureaucratic politics and Aboriginal community politics in remote areas. The author concludes that it was fortunate that the development of the scheme coincided with a growing popularity for both job creation schemes and 'work for unemployment benefit' ideas at a time of rising unemployment in the Australian community more generally.
ABORIGINES, POLICY 96
202 Sanders, Will (1997), 'Opportunities and problems astride the welfare/work divide: the CDEP scheme in Australian social policy', in P. Saunders and T. Eardley, eds, States, Markets, Communities: Remapping the Boundaries, Proceedings No. 136, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 153-63; a version appears as CAEPR Discussion Paper No. 141, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra, 11pp.
The paper discusses issues related to the Community Development Projects (CDEP) scheme run by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission since 1977. The scheme 'has survived and flourished, within Australian social policy, despite sitting astride a major institutional and program divide between income derived from welfare and income derived from work. This position astride the welfare/work divide has presented the CDEP with both opportunities and problems. While the opportunities appear, in many ways, to have predominated, the programs and criticisms refuse to go away. This can be related to the position of the scheme astride the welfare/work divide. Similar, though slightly different ongoing problems and criticisms await the Howard government's work-for-the dole initiative.'
ABORIGINES, POLICY
203 Sanders, W. (1999), Unemployment Payments, the Activity Test and Indigenous Australians: Understanding Breach Rates, Research Monograph No. 15, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra, 140pp.
There is a difference in breach rates at the national level between indigenous identifiers and non-identifiers within the unemployment administrative database. The research reported on here looked at these differences. The nature of the breaches, and the exemption rates were explored. Regional statistical analysis was conducted at 50 Centrelink offices with high numbers of identifiers in the Northern Territory and other states. The differences in statistics related to unemployment payments are discussed, though the author argues that they are not surprising, that some differences will prove difficult to change given the nature of the circumstances. These circumstances include literacy, mobility, confidence in government bureaucracies and CDEP administrative arrangements. 'Some ideas for further action within income support administration are offered which may help to better manage indigenous people's relations with unemployment payments and reduce statistical differences, while building on existing adaptations. These ideas include greater recognition of the diversity of the unemployed and the tailoring of activity test requirements accordingly, a No Correspondence Client facility, more of a case officer approach to unemployment payments administration...' 97
A brief description of the monograph is presented by John Ferguson (1999), 'Unemployment payments and indigenous needs', Impact, October, 10-11.
ABORIGINES, ACTIVITY TESTS, CASE MANAGEMENT
204 Saunders, Peter (1995), 'Improving work incentives in a means-tested welfare system: the 1994 Australian social security reforms', Fiscal Studies, 1(2), 45-70; also appears as Discussion Paper No. 56, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 31pp.
'The dramatic rise in unemployment after 1990, particularly long-term unemployment, prompted the Australian Government to establish an expert committee to advise it on how best to respond to these developments. The release in 1994 of a White Paper on Employment and Growth foreshadowed a range of reforms in a number of areas. The expansion of labour market programs for the long-term unemployed was a central feature of the overall package, but so too were a number of significant reforms of the social security system. A major goal of these reforms is to provide a social security system more consistent with current labour market trends, and one which, whilst still heavily targeted, is designed to provide increased work incentives. This paper explains the nature of the social security reforms and analyses their impact, focusing on their consequences for incentives to increase participation in paid work.' The author argues that 'the activity test reforms may not go far enough in encouraging benefit recipients to engage in the range of employment opportunities emerging in the labour market'.
ACTIVITY TESTS, AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
205 Scott, Graeme (1995), 'Active labour market policies: let's be careful out there', Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Te Puna Whakaaro, 5, December, 43-52. The paper presents a 'critical review of experiences with active labour market policies (ALMPs) concentrating in particular on reliable findings about real achievements.' The current theory of why such programs are a 'good thing' is compared with outcomes as reported by statistical and experimental studies. 'This study does not fmd that ALMPs are either universally worthwhile or worthless. The key finding is contained in the title of this article; We should be careful out there.' The paper looks at welfare to work programs, and argues that there is no evidence that they reduce the fiscal cost of welfare when all inflows and outflows are taken into account.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, EFFICIENCY, EVALUATION 98
206 Shaver, Sheila, Anthony King, Marilyn McHugh and Toni Payne (1994), At the End of Eligibility: Female Sole Parents Whose Youngest Child Turns 16, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 117, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 119pp. Changes were made to income support provisions for sole parent families in 1987 so that the period for which they were eligible for support was curtailed: before that date, support continued until the youngest child in the family finished their full-time education or turned 25. From 1987, sole parents were no longer eligible for Sole Parent pension from the time their youngest child turned 16. This study 'is concerned with the point at which facilitative measures for the transition from the pension to employment give way to the more coercive effects of pension formation.' The majority of sole parents must at this stage enter the labour market or claim a benefit as an unemployed person. This study was conducted over a period of 18 months with women in this situation and shows the importance of previous work experience.
AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SOLE PARENTS
207 Sheen, Veronica (1987), Community Work for Unemployed Young People: A Discussion Paper on the Implication of the 'Work for the Dole' Policy Initiative, Policy in Practice No. 1, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne, 26pp.
"'Work for the dole" is the vernacular for a range of programs in which unemployed people do some form of work in return for unemployment benefit. It is a landmark social policy initiative because it challenges the notion of unemployment benefit as compensation from the state to the individual for inefficiencies in the labour market or as a necessary income support while she/he is looking for work'. "Work for the dole" institutes a different rationale for the payment of unemployment benefit. It asserts that there is a debt to the state on the part of the individual for income received during spells of unemployment. The unemployment benefit is thus regarded as an income that must be earned and could be considered a gratuity.' This paper focuses on voluntary community work for the young unemployed, but is relevant to other unemployed people and program options. Voluntary community work is discussed in terms of the social justice and equity context, the labour market context and implementation issues.
ETHICS, POLICY, YOUTH
208 Siemon, Don (1997), 'Penalties for failing to look for work', Brotherhood Comment, March, 4-6. The article briefly describes the shift in social security policy for unemployed people. In the mid-1980s there was a move from a simple 'safety net' approach to 99
'active labour market policies', made more explicit in 1994 with the introduction of the Jobs Compact - 'A phrase encapsulating the notion of reciprocal obligations'. Along with employment assistance programs came increased penalties for failing to undertake prescribed activities. In the 1996 budget, funding for employment programs was roughly halved, the activity test was strengthened and penalties toughened. This article discusses the penalties imposed, the logic behind them, their effectiveness or usefulness. Some alternative administrative procedures are suggested, especially for people who breach more than once.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, ACTIVITY TESTS, SANCTIONS
209 Smith, Barry (1993), 'Unemployment, income support, the "Active Society" and AEDP', Family Matters, 35, August, 22-4.
Following the introduction of programs based on the concept of the 'Active Society' (such as Jobs, Employment and Training, JET, and Job Search Allowance, JSA), the author argues that 'it would be safe to conclude that the "income equity" of Aboriginal Australians would be fulfilled through the achievement of the "employment equity" objective'. However, Aboriginal Australians are not being employed in conventional labour markets: they are under-represented in almost all industries. They do have access to employment under the Aboriginal Employment Development Policy (AEDP) in Community Development Projects (CDEP) which has 'moved some remote Aboriginal people from "passive welfare dependency" to an employment "activity" oriented program'. However, CDEP should be use as a starting program only, and participants should be offered conventional labour market training and program places, providing options to move into the conventional labour market.
ABORIGINES, ACTIVE SOCIETY
210 Smith, Diane (1995), "'Culture work" or "welfare work": urban Aboriginal CDEP schemes', in P. Saunders and S. Shaver, eds, Social Policy and the Challenges of Social Change, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 122, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 195-207. The paper is concerned with the operation of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) Scheme within urban Aboriginal communities. This scheme is sometimes referred to as a 'work for the dole' scheme. It is run by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; its national goals are to provide employment, reduce welfare dependence and improve those aspects of social, cultural and economic life that enhance indigenous self-management and economic self-sufficiency. Participants are able to determine the type and 100 conditions of work undertaken. This paper considers the tension between the cultural, income and employment objectives of the scheme. It examines the question of whether it is creating an urban underclass amongst an already disadvantaged population because participation generally has meant part-time, low-skilled employment for wages equivalent to welfare transfers.
ABORIGINES, EFFICIENCY, POLICY
211 Standing, Guy (1997), 'Globalization, labour flexibility and insecurity: the era of market regulation', European Journal ofIndustrial Relations, 3(1), 7 37. 'This article considers the international trends to more flexible relations in terms of the erosion of labour-related personal security and the evolving forms of labour market regulation.' It suggests that re-regulation rather than de-regulation is the term that should be applied to the changes and that the resulting labour fragmentation is creating new challenges for social and labour policy. The article sketches three routes of reform. The author suggests that 'the era of market regulation is threatened by its own contradictions ... because the options for individual and social development that it offers are so unattractive that its leading prophets are likely to end up whinnying in the dark.' He discusses the issue of workfare, which, he argues 'stems from the view that the "disadvantaged", or in our terms the unemployed and detached, need guidance away from "state dependency" ... The "deserving poor" must be served and the ''undeserving poor" must receive what they deserve. To address the perceived problem of dependency and shirking, the state should make state assistance conditional on tests of socially responsible behaviour, which should be added to leaner, more restrictive means tests.' The author argues that the notion of social entitlements in this view is being 'whittled away' being replaced by state paternalism. Workfare leads inexorably to direction and coercion. 'One predicts that the 1990s is the decade in which workfare has its long day in the sun, before the accumulated evidence induces enough of its adherents to consider options for a better route.'
ETHICS, POLICY
212 Stoesz, David (1997), 'Welfare behaviourism', Society, 34(3), 227, March!April, 68-77 . The paper is concerned with the end of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children and the devolution ofresponsibility to the individual states in the form of block grants under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. The author points out that the states do not have a good record in protection of children. He also argues that 'as an attempt to reprogram the behaviour of the poor, Republican-inspired welfare reform is unlikely to deliver 101 on its sponsors' promises.' Evidence already indicates that the imposition of conditions for receipt of welfare yields modest results at best. The paper traces changes in policy for welfare reform and discusses the process of attempting to increase earnings in order to make families independent of welfare while also reducing government welfare payments. Eligibility and disentitlement result in a process of 'purging and churning' the caseload, generating savings not necessarily for the reasons claimed by proponents of welfare reform. Issues surrounding training or 'learnfare', teen parenthood, paternity and time limits are discussed. The author argues that the consequences of welfare reform are not promising. 'We may have put an end to ''welfare as we know it", but the task of configuring a workable policy for poor families remains.'
ETHICS, FAMll.,IES, POLICY, TRAINING
213 Stoesz, David (1999), 'Unravelling welfare reform', Society, 36, 4(240), May-June, 53-61. The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was introduced into the US amid political disagreement. The provisions of PROWORA are outlined. It has led to decreasing caseloads for welfare and an increase in the number of welfare mothers in the formal labour market. States have increased their investment in welfare-to-work programs. However, protracted poverty remains; 'it appears that welfare reform has offered the welfare-poor little more than an opportunity to become working-poor.'
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, SOLE PARENTS
214 Stromback, Thorsten and A.M. Dockery (1998), 'The Job Compact Mark lIT, Economic Papers, 17(2), June, 24-34.
This paper traces the development of labour market assistance since the Labor Government's Green Paper of 1993 (with its base in the active society) through to 1997-98. It argues that the change in government in 1996 has made little difference. 'While the rhetoric surrounding Work for the Dole suggests a toughening stand, it is of minor significance in terms of overall assistance to unemployed and can be dismissed as political grandstanding. Essentially, the Coalition Government has "streamlined" the Labor Governments' Job Compact into a Mark 11 version. The tone may be different, but the reciprocal commitment, the assistance targeted towards the long term unemployed, a (by Australian standards) significant level of expenditure, and the opening of the market for the provision of employment assistance services to competition are all there.'
ACTIVE SOCIETY, POLICY 102
215 Tanner, Lindsay (1999), Open Australia, Pluto Press, Sydney, 248pp.
This is a book about 'Australia's future and the changing role of government in our society'. In a brief discussion of unemployment, the author comments that it is a different problem for different individuals. 'The introduction of the concepts of case management and mutual obligation has helped to customise the relationship between state and beneficiary.' However, in some cases the introduction of these concepts under the former Labor Government 'led to perverse outcomes, with some unemployed people forced to undertake inappropriate and even demoralising retraining'. He comments further that even this training did not lead to jobs.
CASE MANAGEMENT, EFFICIENCY, POLICY, TRAINING
216 Thompson, Terri S., Pamela A. Holcomb, Pamela Loprest and Kathleen Brennan (1998), State Welfare-to-Work Policies for People with Disabilities: Changes Since Welfare Reform, Urban Institute, Washington, 33pp + appendices. The focus of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) is on work with only temporary cash assistance. Before this Act, welfare recipients with disabilities and the people who care for them were generally exempt from requirements to participate in welfare-to-work programs and cash assistance was available for an unlimited period. This paper examines the extent to which states have used the flexibility provided under PRWORA to change their policies in this regard. States must consider the needs of individuals with disabilities while meeting work participation requirements under the Act and at the same time take into consideration the fact that the time limits imposed for cash assistance increases the immediacy of welfare recipients' need for help in overcoming their barriers to work.
DISABLED, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
217 Thornton, Patricia and Neil Lunt (1995), Employmentfor Disabled People: Social Obligation or Individual Responsibility, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, 57pp. This publication charts the shift from the principle of obligating employers to employ disabled people and examines the measures currently in place which are based on the efforts of the disabled people themselves. 'In short, responsibility for'achieving a fair share of employment for disabled people has passed from the state to the individual.' There are four strands to the argument. First is the erosion of the commitment to the principle of obligating employers to employ disabled people. Secondly, the authors examine the legislative individually based 103 anti-discrimination measures, then they trace the development of 'persuasion policies' directed at employers. Finally, they 'examine measures which attempt to make the individual more competitive in the market for employment.
BRITISH PROGRAMS, DISABLED, POLICY
218 Tonge, Jonathan (1999), 'New packaging, old deal? New Labour and employment policy innovation', Critical Social Policy, 59, 19(2), May, 27 32. 'This article examines the extent of employment policy continuity under the Labour government elected in May 1997. It explores four specific questions. First, to what extent has Labour accepted the training orthodoxy permeating employment policy? Second, is the Labour government able to reconcile an interventionist supply-side approach with an institutional framework favouring decentralized employer-led responses to unemployment? Third, to what extent has Labour adopted and advanced the coercive elements of Conservative employment policy. Finally, does Labour's support for employment subsidies represent a religitimation of state intervention in the arena ofjob creation?'
POLICY
219 Torjman, Sherri (1998), 'Welfare reform through tailor-made training', Caledon Commentary, Caledon Institute of Social Policy, September, 8pp. This paper argues that workfare, while it may reduce welfare rolls, does little or nothing to teach marketable skills. It outlines ways in which individual workers can be helped across barriers that prevent work force participation, then describes an approach to welfare reform which deals with an early intervention, that is, building individual skills. It presents some models ofthis type of intervention and discusses some potential problems. The author concludes that while tailor-made training is not a panacea for welfare reform, it may be a 'tailor-made model for the new economy'.
EFFICIENCY, POLICY, TRAINING
220 Tumbull, Nick and Toby Fattore (1999), 'Mutual obligation and social capital: towards a critique', in Sheila Shaver and Peter Saunders, eds, Social Policy for the 21st Century: Justice and Responsibility, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Volume 1, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 141, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 227-37. 'The idea of mutual obligation has been elevated to a principle by the Coalition Government. This principle diminishes citizenship rights to recipient obligations.
,""-"--"---~----- 104
In conjunction with New Right policies involving macro-welfare refonn, for instance cuts in public expenditure, the substantive terrain of policy has shifted to "micro-welfare". This is encapsulated in quid pro quo elements, as opposed to social democratic ideals of social rights. That is, it constitutes a further move towards instilling a "contractarian State" where the conditions of the contract are between autonomous individuals (''the libertarian self') and the State. However, oddly, the legitimation for mutual obligation policies is by reference to the "communitarian self'. Policy discourse is not termed as individual obligations to the state for receipt of "benefits", but rather the community's right to demand recompense from individuals. This shifts the burden of legitimation to a particular reified construction of "community" whilst at the same time allowing the State to claim such legitimation as enacting political will formation.
It is from this perspective that we can also understand the particular State community mix which "Social capital" and "Third Way" advocates propose. These views can provide a justification for diminishing the progressive deliberative capacities of the State. It does this by shifting such coordinating functions to the "community: as market actors and "community: as source of moral judgement (hence one of the connections between economic conservatism and moral conservatism). One element of this reform is the pathologisation of the individual to construct particular identities of the client. This also recasts the function of the non-Government sector. The paper attempts to go beyond the limitations of policy studies literature by examining the ways in which policy structures cultural understandings.'
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
221 van Doom, Andrew (1999), 'Welfare Reform Bill heralds radical change', Working Brief, 102, March, 10-12. The Welfare Reform and Pension Bill was introduced into the British Parliament in February 1999. This article examines the provisions in it aimed at benefits and the labour market. The Bill establishes the role of social security within the New Labour philosophy of rights and responsibilities: 'There is no unconditional right to benefit. People have the right to expect help to get work and security if they cannot. In turn they have a responsibility to take up that help.' The basic institution of the new Bill will be the Single Gateway which aims to provide a one-stop-shop for claimants; 'claimants where appropriate, will be required to participate in a work focused interview to discuss "steps they might take to move closer to the labour market".' The article describes other provisions of the Bill.
CONCEPTS, POLICY 105
222 Van Parijs, Philippe (1997), 'On the moral foundations of the welfare state: three research programmes', in P. Koslowski and A. F",llesdal, eds, Restructuring the Welfare State: Theory and Reform of Social Policy, Springer, Berlin, 383-92.
This is the concluding chapter of a book and draws examples from the preceding sections to illustrate its points. In discussing the moral requirements of the welfare state, the author points to 'honesty'. Welfare states generally require able-bodied claimants to actively look for work. However, growing numbers of adults have poor skills and low skill-acquiring capacities and realise that they have little or no chance of getting a job. They become increasingly resentful of a system which requires them to constantly look for work and have no compunction in 'cheating the system' by pretending to be job seekers. This, when it becomes known, feeds the resentment of those who work hard for their wages and whose taxes fund the benefits of the jobless. They, in turn, have no scruples in 'cheating the system' by evading taxation as much as they can. 'As a result of such processes, the working of the welfare state will be able to rely even less on widespread honesty. The resources at its disposal will shrink, and the cost of collecting and allocating them efficiently will swell.' Other moral arguments are canvassed and the chapter ends with discussion of 'the three big challenges': the ageing of the population, the dualisation of society (the exclusion of a growing part of the adult population from participation in paid work) and the globalisation ofthe economy.
ETHICS, POLICY
223 Vosko, Leah F. (1998), 'Workfare temporaries: workfare and the rise of the temporary employment relationship in Ontario', Canadian Review ofSocial Policy, 42, Winter, 55-79.
The article is concerned with changes in Canadian policies, that is, the gradual abandonment of welfare-oriented policy models associated with the welfare state, and their replacement by workfare-driven policies. This involves a labour market re-organisation strategy, privatisation of the administration and delivery of employment training and placement and marketising welfare policy. These changes are accompanied by changes in the labour market involving a rise in non standard forms of employment. The article analyses the Workfirst program as an example of the new strategies, discussing its coercive/restrictive characteristics. The author argues that Workfirst is 'perpetuating growing dualism in the labour market as a whole while simultaneously exacerbating precariousness at its margins'.
ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY 106
224 Walker, Robert (1991), Thinking About Workfare: Evidence from the USA, HMSO for the Social Policy Research Unit, London, 7Opp.
'Workfare, requiring claimants to work in return for their benefits, has never been tried as a policy in Britain. Nevertheless the idea is much discussed.' This book sketches the political and administrative background necessary to understand the role ofworkfare in the United States and describes the development of the various workfare schemes operating there. It further surveys the nature and extent of workfare and related programs as they existed in the late 1980s. Some results are reported of studies which have been evaluated. 'Finally ... some general conclusions are reached about the American experience and an attempt is made to distil lessons applicable to the rather different political and economic circumstances that characterise Britain in the early 1990s.'
EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
225 Walker, Robert (1998), 'The Americanization of British welfare: a case study of policy transfer', Focus, 19(3), Summer-Fall, 32-40.
The article outlines New Labour's political perspectives drawing attention to the similarities and differences between policies in Britain and the US. The main reforms in Britain and 'the political failings that may have short-circuited them' are described. The article explains how policies affecting young people aged 18 24 closely mirror the US experience, following insights gained from US programs such as those in Wisconsin and California, showing that the best return comes from getting people into jobs rather than in investing in human capital resources. If lobseekers Allowance is still being claimed after a specified period of unemployment, young people must choose from a set of options ranging from education to subsidised private-sector employment, under threat of benefit sanctions. Older people (and the wives of the unemployed) are also subject to a degree of compulsion when they have been unemployed for more than two years. It has been argued that 'compulsion is only fair if the quality of the options on offer can be guaranteed' and that compulsion itself reduces their quality.
BRITISH PROGRAMS, ETHICS, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED,YOUTH
226 Walker, Robert (1999), 'Review article - "Welfare to work" versus poverty and family change: policy lessons from the USA', Work, Employment and Society, 13(3) September, 539-53.
The article reviews a number of books which have mounted critiques of welfare to-work programs. It is concerned with the way in which Britain and the New Labour Government have taken over US policies. A table presents details of these 107 new programs introduced into Britain in terms of their target groups, the funding of the programs and some other details. It discusses the 'mythological basis of the "New Orthodoxy''', the ideology behind the policies and some US welfare myths, then presents the counter-evidence, mainly the shortage of jobs. It also analyses the myths surrounding welfare families especially teenage pregnancy. The effectiveness of new welfare programs is canvassed and some alternatives are suggested. The final section of the paper is headed with a question: 'Towards a bleak tomorrow?'
BRITISH PROGRAMS, CONCEPTS, EFFICIENCY, ETHICS, POLICY
227 Walters, William (1997), 'The "Active Society": new designs for social policy', Policy and Politics, 25(3),221-34.
'This paper interrogates the idea of the "active society", a design for social policy recently proposed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. First, it compares the active society with an earlier organising principle for public policy, the welfare society. Whereas the welfare society governed populations by dividing them into workers and various categories of non-worker, the active society makes participation in paid employment the norm for most social groups. Second, the paper can be read as a contribution to a genealogy of social policy. For the active society challenges the logic of social security: it stakes the welfare of individuals upon their ability to constantly work on themselves, through practices like lifelong learning, to become or remain employable'.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, ETHICS, POLICY
228 Watts, Rob (1988), 'The work test: some considerations', Equity, 2(4), March, 4. The author examines the proposals put forward in the Social Security Review (SSR) (Cass, 1988, q.v.) with particular regard to the work test. 'He analyses the arguments presented in the paper, sets them into broader social context and finds its proposals intellectually, morally and practically, indefensible.' He concludes: 'The SSR rightly applauds the principle of mutuality of citizen rights and responsibilities; its affirmation of a punitive and exclusionary device like the work test threatens to dissolve the very bonds of social mutuality it seeks to repair.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS 108
229 Watts, Rob (1999), 'Australia's welfare policy and Latham's Third way: a critical commentary', Just Policy, 17, December, 21-31.
This is a critical commentary on Civilising Global Capital (Latham, 1998, q.v.) and on a speech delivered by Latham in 1999, in which he claimed that 'unconditional welfare is a crime against the poor'. Latham is advocating a 'Third Way' which the author of this paper argues is a 'misleading' idea. Included in the article is a more detailed critique of Latham's views on the welfare state, the active society model and notions of mutual obligation.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, ETHICS, POLICY
230 Weatherley, Richard (1991), Doing the Right Thing: How Social Security Clients View Compliance, Working Paper No. 3, Administration, Compliance and Governability Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, 25pp.; a version appears (1993), Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 29(1), 21-39. The paper reports on a survey of clients of the Australian Department of Social Security. 'There was considerable acceptance of eligibility review procedures which, for some, served to assuage feelings of shame at being "on the dole" ... The findings suggest that client perceptions of fairness as well as deterrence reinforce voluntary compliance.'
ACTIVITY TESTS, ATTITUDES
231 Weatherley, Richard (1992), From Entitlement to Contract: Reshaping the Welfare State in Australia, Working Paper No. 7, Administration, Compliance and Governability Programme, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, 29pp.; a version appears (1994), Journal ofSociology and Social Welfare, 21(3), 153-73. 'In keeping with the policy thrust among DECD countries, Australia has sought to contain social welfare expenditures through more stringent targeting of entitlement, increased scrutiny of applicants, and by requiring more vigorous job search and training activities. The changes implemented since Labor assumed office in 1983 represent the most sweeping restructuring of the welfare state in 50 years. They mark a shift from an individualistic, rights-based view of welfare state entitlements to one stressing reciprocal obligations. This paper examines the origin and rationale for the reshaping of Australia's welfare state programs, and the implications for applicants, beneficiaries and society at large.' The author argues that the contractual approach, where assistance is dependent on meeting various 'behavioural tests', represents a redefinition of citizenship. The 109 compulsory nature of the programs and the coercive aspects of the policy are discussed.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, POLICY
232 White, Coos (1991), 'The New Zealand contract', Youth Studies, 10(3), August, 27-9. Recent employment and welfare policy reforms in New Zealand affect single unemployed people aged 20 to 24 most severely. The changes are outlined. 'If a worker turns down a "suitable job offer" they are ineligible for unemployment benefits for six months'. Other elements of the program are described and their impact discussed.
POLICY, SANCTIONS, YOUTH
233 White, Rob (1996), 'The poverty of the welfare state', in P. James, ed., The State in Question, AlIen and Unwin, Sydney, 109-37.
'In the area of welfare support and social intervention a shift has occurred in Australia which suggests that the state has moved its emphasis from activities of social provision to those of social control.' The author argues that the changes have led to 'a shift from a social state to a repressive state'. Stringent hurdles in the way of claimants to state support 'constitute rules of inclusion and exclusion in relation to state welfare provision'. The compulsory aspects of the Newstart contract 'constitute ongoing harassment for many ofthe poor and unemployed'.
ETHICS, POLICY
234 Wildermuth, C. (1986), Unemployment and Access to Social Security, Part 1: 'Worlifare' in California, Current Issues Brief No. 5 1986-87, Legislative Research Service, Department of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of the Commonwealth ofAustralia, Canberra, 18pp.
'The term "workfare" is a recent addition to the Australian vocabulary. It has been borrowed from the United States and is used here, as it is there, to describe a variety of programs ranging from the strict "work with a public authority in return for continuation of income support payment" to the broader linking of the income security system with various job training, job creation and educational programs. Talk about "workfare" is a reflection both of the growing interest in a "work-for the-dole" scheme in Australia and of the degree to which Australia has turned to the United States for guidance in establishing such a program here.' This paper addresses the issue of unemployment and particularly the access of unemployed 110 people to the social security system. It describes the Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program recently started in California.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, UNEMPLOYED
235 Wilson, James Q. (1997), 'Paternalism, democracy and bureaucracy', in L.M. Mead, ed., The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 330-43.
This is the final chapter in a book dealing with paternalism in a range of policy areas. It places paternalism in the broad context of American politics. While the strategy may be effective it stirs ambivalence as it conflicts with democratic approaches to freedom. The author argues that democracy could be carried out 'under the view that every citizen has an obligation to participate in making society better'. He discusses character development and explores the question of whether policy can promote character. He argues that 'paternalism works when paternal commands cannot be ignored' and that without compulsion it is merely 'advice'. 'Programs that require people to achieve certain goals often alter the motivation ofthose who already want to achieve the goals by supplying them with a command that overcomes self-doubt. Many welfare recipients want to find work, but finding a job seems so difficult or risky that they often do not look very hard until they are told that they must do so.' In his final section, autonomy versus dependency, the author concludes that there 'will always be people who are among the undeserving poor. They will be outcasts, dependent on charity ... The work and behaviour we demand of those who seek our help is one rough way of measuring just how voluntary their poverty may be.'
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
236 Windschuttle, Keith (1986), 'Workfare and full employment', Australian Society, 5(12), 17-19. Workfare, voluntary or compulsory work or training as a pre-condition of welfare payment, became conspicuous on the political agenda during late 1970s and the 1980s. This article discusses its American origins. It presents a critique of the operation of the work test and of the policy of relying on income support as a principal policy measure to deal with unemployment. The author argues that there are positive aspects raised in the workfare debate which may prove useful in transforming inadequate residual welfare responses into an integrated approach to unemployment.
ACTIVITY TESTS, ETHICS, POLICY 111
237 Wiseman, John (2000), 'From work for all to work for the dole: the challenges of Australian income security policy', in W. Weeks and M. Quinn, eds, Issues Facing Australian Families: Human Services Respond, 3rd edn., Longman, Melbourne, 143-53.
'The aim of this chapter is to review the main philosophical debates which influence choices about income security policy, to provide an overview of the changing nature of income security policy in Australia and to identify the major implications for Australian families and individuals.' The effect of high unemployment rates on policy resulted in labour market programs stressing active involvement in employment rather than passive dependence on government income support. Under the Howard Coalition Government those 'who remain unemployed face increasingly tough requirements for retaining financial support'. Philosophical and political debates raise issues of: equality or liberty; merit, needs or rights; responsibility; coverage; adequacy; eligibility; incentive; funding; level of delivery; and individual or family eligibility. The chapter discusses taxation policy, employment and industrial relations and work for the dole. The latter policy was introduced in 1997, initially for young people who had been unemployed for more than six months but has been expanded to include all school leavers who had been unemployed for more than three months. The outcomes for families are discussed.
CONCEPTS, ETHICS, FAMILIES, POLICY, TAXATION, YOUTH
238 Wiseman, Michael (1987), How Workfare Really Works, Reprint Series No. 574, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, reprinted from The Public Interest, 89, Fall, 36-47. The author is concerned about the reporting in the American press, on workfare programs as 'the solution' to the welfare 'crisis'. 'These things distress me because my experience indicates that they are, more often than not, a new form of welfare fraud.' The paper then discusses the 'essence' of workfare, describing how some welfare recipients do benefit from some elements in the programs while for some they may prove counterproductive. Comparisons are made between old programs and new proposals. The author then asks 'Can the system deliver?' and poses a further set of questions related to evaluating the success of workfare. The paper finishes by outlining some of the other measures which must be in place to ensure that workfare programs can succeed.
ETHICS, EVALUATION, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY 112
239 Wiseman, Michael (1993), 'Welfare refonn in the state: the Bush legacy', Focus, 15(1), Spring, 18-36.
In 1992, President Bush encouraged states to continue a movement to 'replace the assumptions of the welfare state and help refonn the welfare system'. For states to introduce alteration to a number of welfare programs, including particularly the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), waivers are required from the federal government. This paper views the procedures whereby states gain federal approval to undertake initiatives, which in the past have provided impetus for program alterations eventually implemented nationwide. It then looks at the initiatives proposed in 1992 and summarises the lessons to be drawn from them. The proposals are tabulated, showing the major features. Most included the enhancement of work incentive and in some cases introduced stronger sanctions. Most states applying for waivers agree that: 'Any refonn must emphasize efforts at self-support as the obligation of recipients'. The author concludes by looking at the possibilities under the Clinton administration.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, SANCTIONS
240 Wiseman, Michael (1995), State Strategies for Welfare Reform: The Wisconsin Story, Discussion Paper No. 1066-95, Institute for Research on Poverty, University ofWisconsin-Madison, 50pp. The welfare refonn programs instituted in Wisconsin are commonly cited as evidence that individual US states have the capability to refonn welfare. The caseload in Wisconsin declined by 22.5 per cent between 1986 and 1994. 'This paper argues that the decline is primarily associated with restriction of eligibility and benefits, a strong state economy, and large expenditures on welfare-to-work programs encouraged by an exceptional fiscal bargain with the federal government. Continued reduction ofwelfare utilization is jeopardized by proposed changes in federal cost-sharing, a substantial state deficit, and the growing share of the caseload accounted for by residents of Milwaukee. The special circumstances enjoyed by Wisconsin are unlikely to be duplicated elsewhere. Other states and the federal government should not assume that expanded state discretion will produce comparable gains unless accompanied by major outlays for employment and training programs, reductions in benefits, and tightening of eligibility requirements. The first policy is expensive to taxpayers; the second and third harm recipients.'
EFFICIENCY, NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, TRAINING 113
241 Wiseman, Michael (1996), Welfare Reform in the United States: A Background Paper, Reprint Series No. 755, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, reprinted from Housing Policy Debate, 7(4),595-648.
The paper reviews changes in welfare provision in the United States implicit in the introduction of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). It begins by describing welfare programs in place before the new act, looking at the numbers of families involved and the costs incurred. This section concludes: 'Since 1980, American welfare costs have increased while cash benefits have declined, the poverty rate is substantially higher, and the cost of welfare to states continues to rise faster than personal income or other taxable resources.' The paper then examines the allegations about the operation of welfare programs which led to the changes. The problems related to the reform measures are discussed. The consensus about reform includes the concept of work as an obligation: a change from incentives to labour force participation to a requirement to work. The research and the state initiatives which preceded the reform are discussed, particularly the role of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (see works by Gueron in this bibliography). The changes introduced in legislation under Presidents Reagan and Clinton are described, the Republican alternatives are outlined. The PRWORA is analysed. The author argues that 'the likely outcome of the coming struggle over welfare reform is at least over the next few years, increased hardship for the poor ... [and] a larger federal role in welfare and more difficulty for governors than would have been the case given continuation ofthe programs ended by welfare reform'.
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY
242 Yeatman, Anna (1999), 'Mutual obligation: what kind of contract is this?', in S. Shaver and P. Saunders, eds, Social Policy for the 21st Century: Justice and Responsibility, Proceedings of the National Social Policy Conference, Volume 1, SPRC Reports and Proceedings No. 141, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 255-68. 'Mutual obligation has become a key word in contemporary social policy The obligation to make an active contribution to society is set against what is portrayed as passive welfare dependency. Obligation is seen to be a condition of citizen rights, and, thus, obligation is set against ideas of automatic entitlement.' This paper explores issues related to the social policy implications of mutual obligation. It fust specifies the distinct components of the associated value complex, then discusses the contractualist features of mutual obligation when it is translated into a service delivery relationship between publicly funded service providers and individual clients. Finally, it enquires into 'the distinctive kind of paternalism that is involved in this particular neo-Durkheimian version of 114
Rousseau's paradox: the necessity of forcing individuals to be free'. The author concludes that the policy is only defensible so long as 'the agent of government is both actually working with the deeper preferences of the client ... and actively engaging the client in the design and delivery of his/her program of activity ... and government commits sufficient policy effort and resources to enabling the programs concerned to be effective'.
ACTIVE SOCIETY, CONCEPTS, ETHICS, POLICY
243 Young, Alma H. and Kristine B. Miranne (1995), 'Women's need for child care: the stumbling block in the transition from welfare to work', in l.A. Garber and R.S. Turner, eds, Gender in Urban Research, Urban Mfairs Annual Review 42, Sage Publications, California, 201-18.
Changes to welfare for women with children under the Clinton administration are described: entitlement to cash income has been replaced by cash relief conditional on work effort. 'The issue not adequately addressed, however, is that lack of affordable child care is one of the major barriers to women's participation in the labor force' .
NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS, POLICY, WOMEN 115 Author Index (Numbers refer to entry numbers, not page numbers)
Alston, R. 1 Altman, J.C. 2 Anonymous Public Servant 3 Atkins, C.M. 85 Atkinson, T. 185 Australia, Prime Minister 4 Australian Council of Social Service 5,6,7,8
Bacon, R.c. 85 Bainbridge, B. 9 Baker, M. 10, 122 Baldwin, P. 113 Bane, M.J. 11, 12, 124 Baratz, M. 13 Bardach, E. 14, 141 Bartley, M. 195 Baugh, R. 15 Baulman, C. 16 Bauhn, P. 113 Beausejour, L. 70 Beck, U. 17 Bedggood, D. 18 Bennett, F. 19 Berghmann, J. 195 Besley, T. 20,21 Bessant, J. 22,23,24,25,26 Bivand, P. 27,28 Bj1i5mskau, T. 29, 122 Blank,R.M. 30 Borzago, C. 167 Bozic, S. 31,32 Brady, P. 33 Bray, M. 34 Brennan, D. 35 Brennan, K. 216 Brett, C. 36 Breuer, A. 31,37 Brock, T. 38 Brotherhood of St Laurence 39 116
Brown,D.M. 40 Buckingham, A 41 Burbridge, L.C. 157 Burghes, L. 42,43 Burtless, G. 73
Cairncross, F. 113 Campbell, M. 167 Casey, B. 44 Cass, B. 45 Cattacin, S. 46 Chapman,B. 47 Chitose, Y. 103 Clark, 1. 95 Coate, S. 20,21 Cochrane, A. 48 Committee on Employment Opportunities 49 Cook,D. 138,195 Corbett, T.J. 50,51 Costello, T. 52 Curwen, P. 113 Czeh, T. 113
Dabl, E. 29, 122 Davidson, P. 53 Dawkins, P. 117 Deacon, A 54, 195 Deacon, B. 55 Dean,M. 56,57,58 Deavers, K.L. 59 Diewert, W.E. 167 Dockery, AM. 214 Doring, D. 113 Duke, A-E. 168 Dwyer,P. 96
Eardley, T. 60,6162,63,64 Ellwood, D.T. 12 Evans, C. 64
Fattore, T. 220 Ferguson, J. 203 Field, F. 65,138 117
Finn, C.E. 141 Finn, D. 66,67,68,69,167 Fl£111esdal, A 113 Foreman, A 122 Fortin, B. 70 Foy,S. 167 Frame, L. 71 Freeland, J. 72 Friedlander, D. 73, 74 Fuery, M. 31 Fushimi, Y. 113
Gager, O. 75 Gardiner, K. 76, 77 Garfinkel,1. 146 Garner, L.H. 124 GingWong 167 Goldman,B. 74 Good,R. 78 Goodman,J. 79 Grant, G. 31 Green,D.G. 80,81 Greenberg, D. 82 Griffiths, D. 83 Grimes, A 138 Grl£1gaard, J.B. 29, 122 Grover, C. 84 Gueron, J. 74,85,86,87
Hamilton, C. 117 Handler, J.F. 88,89 Harknett, K. 38 Hasenfeld, Y. 89,90,91,192 Hattiangadi, AD. 59 Haveman, R.H. 92 Hawke, A 93,94 Hawtin, M. 122 Hein, J. 95 Heron, E. 96 Higgins, J. 97 Hirsch, D. 98 Hogan, L. 167 Hogan, W. 47 118
Holcomb, P.A. 99,216 Holstein, J.A. 149 Hourihan, T.J. 85 Hort, S.E.G. 113 Howard, J. 100 Hoy,S. 101 Hudgins, D.e. 85 Hulse, M. 55 Hutchinson, J. 167
Innes, H. 171 Isaacs, J. 168
Jayasuriya, K. 102 Jeffries, N. 157 Jensen, L. 103 Johannson, J. 104,122 Jones, Martin 105 Jones, Michae1 A. 106 Jordan, A. 107 Jordan, B. 108
Kalisch, D. 109 Kane, T. 12 Kemp,D. 174 Kerr, L. 110 Ki1dal, N. 111 King, A. 206 King, J. 112 Kleiman, M.A.R. 141 Kolm, S.-C. 113 Kos1owski, P. 113 Koslowski, S. 113 Kosterlitz, J. 114 Kraskinsky, M. 115
Latham, M. 116, 117, 118 Layard, R. 119 Leech, M. 120 Leigh, D. 121 Leira, A. 113 Leone, R.A. 124 Levine, M. 122 119
Lightman, E.S. 123 Lilja, E. 113 Long, D. 74 Loprest, P. 216 Lougy, C.M. 87 Lunt, N. 217 Lynn Jr, L.E. 124, 134
Macintryre, C. 125 MacKay, R 126 Main, T.J. 141 Manning, L. 194 Marsh, A. 122 Matheson, G. 63 Maynard, RA. 141 McClelland, A. 127 McConnick, J. 128 McHugh,M. 206 McKenzie, A. 122, 129 McLaughlin, E. 130,138 Mead, L. 122, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 141, 142, 143, 144 Meadows,G. 145 Michalopoulos, C. 146 Michel, S. 147, 148 Miller, G. 149 Miller, P. 150 Milne, WJ. 151 Mincy, RB. 141 Miranne, K.B. 243 Moffitt, R 152 Murphy, J. 122
Nakamura, A. 167 Nedde, E. 153 Newman,J. 154, 155, 156 Nightingale, D.S. 157, 168 Nixon, A. 158 Nolan, R 159, 160
Ogbum, K. 161 O'Hare, M. 124 120
Olson, K. 168 O'Neill, D.M. 162 O'Neill, J.B. 162, 163 Opielka, M. 113 Oppenheim, C. 164, 165 Orchard, L. 166 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 167
Patiiio, DX. 85 Pauly, E. 87 Pavetti, L. 99, 168 Payne, T. 206 Pearson, N. 169 Pech, J. 170, 171 Peck, J. 172 Perry, J. 173 Petersen, P. 174 Petit, M.R. 85 Phillips, M. 138,175 Philpott, J. 138,176 Pines, J.M. 15 Pixley, J. 177,178,179,180 Popenoe, D. 181 Poppink, S.E. 157 Pouncy, T.H. 141 Powlay, J. 182, 196 Preston, D.A. 122, 183, 184 Probert, B. 185
Raper,M. 186, 187 Ratcliffe, C. 99 Ravallion, M. 188 Rector, R. 189 Reed, B. 190 Reference Group on Welfare Reform 191 Riccio, J. 192 Richards, L. 193 Riches, G. 194 Riedinger, S. 99 Ritchie, P. 32 Robertson, A. 195 Rodgers, K. 182, 196, 197 121
Rogers, J. 122 Rogers, K. 198 Rogers-Dillon, RH. 199 Rosenthal, S.R 124 Rovers, M. 122
Samuel, P. 200 Sanders, W. 201,202,203 Saunders, P. 47,64,204 Savelsberg, H. 110 Scholtz, J.K. 92 Schuyt, K. 113 Scott, G. 205 Shaver, S. 206 Sheen, v. 207 Shore, M.P. 141 Siemon, D. 208 SkIar, M.H. 85 Smith, B. 209 Smith, D.E. 2,210 Smith, RN. 157 Standing, G. 211 Stewart, J. 84 StJohn, S. 122 Stoesz, D. 212,213 Straits, R. 167 Strang, J. 34 Stromback, T. 214 Stubbs, P. 55 Sutherland, H. 165 Swoap,D.B. 85
Tanner, L. 215 Tattini, V. 46 Thompson, T.S. 216 Thomton, P. 217 Tonge, J. 218 Torjman, S. 219 Truchon, M. 70 Tumbull, N. 220
Vaillant, G.E. 141 vanDoom,A. 221 122
Van Parijs, P. 113,222 Vining, A 193 von Doorne-Huiskes, A 113 Vosko, L.F. 223 Vroom, de, J. 122
Walker, A 195 Walker, R. 19,224,225,226 Walters, W. 227 Ward, K. 122 Watts, R. 228,229 Weatherley, R. 230,231 Weaver, D. 91 White, C. 232 White, R. 233 White, S.B. 13 Wilcox, L.A 85 Wi1dermuth, C. 234 Wilson, J.Q. 141,235 Wilson, K. 197 Windschuttle, K. 236 Wiseman,J. 237 Wiseman,M. 33,51,82,238,239, 240,241 Wyatt, C. 122
Yeatman. A 242 Young,AH. 243 123 Keyword Definitions and Index
ABORIGINES: works dealing with mutual obligation conditions as they affect Aborigine and Torres Strait Islanders 2,93,145,169,201,202,203,209,210 ACTIVE SOCIETY: works dealing with the Active Society concept as it applies to employment issues; works dealing with the concept of an active labour market 47, 49, 56, 57, 66, 68, 109, 166, 167, 183, 184, 205, 208, 209, 214, 227, 229,242
ACTIVITY TESTS: works dealing with work/activity testing and compliance with the tests 3,5,12,16,31,44,45,5363,64,66,67,78,79,83,89,106, 107, 110, 129, 131,154,159,160,170,173, 182, 196,203,204,208,228,230,231,236
ATTITUDES: works dealing with public attitudes to changes in income support conditions and/or 'work for the dole' 7,42,61,62,63,64,128,134,230 AUSTRALIAN PROGRAMS: works dealing with specific programs initiated in Australia; see also Aborigines 2,8,22,26,47,106,159,160,167,173,182,196,204,206 BRITISH PROGRAMS: works dealing with programs initiated in Britain 27,28,31,69,77,98,105,128,167,217,225,226
CASE MANAGEMENT: discussions of programs where case management or individually tailored assistance is a specific element 4,14,27,38,60,91,101,154,192,196,203,215 CONCEPTS: works dealing with ideas and the philosophy underlying the concept ofmutual or reciprocal obligation 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 32, 45, 48, 49, 51, 80, 81, 84, 89,96,97, 102, 104, 115, 117, 122, 130, 131, 138, 141, 155, 166, 172, 178, 184, 197, 198,220,221, 226,235,237,242 124
DISABLED: works dealing with mutual obligation conditions as they affect people with disabilities 29,64,122,187,216,217 EFFICIENCY: works concerned with the degree to which programs devised with mutual obligation conditions are efficient in reducing welfare recipient numbers and reducing poverty levels 20,21,30,31,33,38,40,44,70,73, 74, 77,85,86,87,88,93,95,97,103, 115, 120, 121, 123, 126, 128, 132, 134, 136, 143, 146, 150, 151, 152, 153, 158,162,188,192,193,205,210,213,215,219,226,240 ETHICS: works dealing with ethical and moral issues arising from policies concerned with eligibility for income support payments 3,5,6,7,9, 10, 14,22,23,24,26,27,32,35,39,41,42,43,44,45.50,52, 53,54,56,57,58,60,76, 79, 80, 83, 90, 96,97, 107, 108, 110, 120, 123, 124,125,127,128,130,133,138,140,141,145,148,175,176, 177, 178, 179,180,185,187,194,195,207,211,212,220,222,223, 225, 226, 227, 228,229,231,233,235,236,237,238,242 EVALUATION: works dealing with evaluations and results from evaluations of programs operating under mutual obligation conditions 7,8,28,3033, 38,47,69, 73, 74, 76, 77, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88, 106, 114, 134, 136,137,142,143,192,193,205,224,238 FAMILIES: works dealing with the effects on families of programs operating under mutual obligation conditions 13.31,71,121,144,163,168,197,212,237 MANAGEMENT ISSUES: works dealing with the management of programs based on mutual obligation conditions 3,12,14,51.59,75,78,79,87,91,99,124,128,149,157 NORTH AMERICAN PROGRAMS: works dealing with programs initiated in the US and/or Canada 11, 12 15,30,31,37,38,40,42,43, 50, 51, 59, 69, 71, 73, 74, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 95, 99, 103, 114, 121, 123, 132, 136, 137, 147, 151, 153, 157, 161, 162, 163, 167, 181, 192, 193, 194, 198, 199, 200, 213, 216, 223,224, 225,234,238,239,240,241,243 POLICY: works dealing with government policy or policy proposals which are concerned with eligibility conditions for income support payments 1, ~ 3,~ 5, ~ 9, 1~ 11, 1~ 13, 15, 18,21, 2~25,2~2~30,34, 35, 37, 39,41,45,47,49,50,53,54,55,57,58,60,62,65,66,67,68,69, 71,75, 125
78, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101,102,103,104,105,106,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,116,117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 144, 145, 148, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156,157, 158,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169, 171 172, 174, 175, 176, 178, 180, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199,200, 201, 202, 204, 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 216,217,218,219,220,221,222,223,224,225,226,227, 229, 231, 232, 233,234,235,236,237,238,239,240,241,242,243 SANCTIONS: works dealing with sanctions applied when there is non compliance with work or activity test requirements 4, 6, 14, 31, 37,42, 65, 67, 81,92, 99, 101, 111, 112, 114, 119, 126, 139, 167, 168, 170,181,192,194,208,232239 SOLE PARENTS: works dealing with mutual obligation conditions as they affect sole parents; see also Women 10,41,62,65,81 88, 122, 126, 138, 140, 146, 147, 158,163,175,181,206, 213 TAXATION: works dealing with taxation as it impinges on work incentives in the context of mutual obligation 21,36,70,92,115,152,165,193,237 TRAINING: works which discuss training as part of the requirements for fulfilling mutual obligation requirements 1, 4, 15, 24, 29, 30, 31, 32, 37, 45, 88, 104, 105, 106, 109, 114, 118, 128, 144,157,158,167,182,212,215,219,240 UNEMPLOYED: works dealing with mutual obligation conditions for unemployed people in general, or long-term unemployed people in particular 4,28,45,49,58,61,63,64,65,66,68,78,119,133 139, 144,225,234 WOMEN: works dealing with mutual obligation conditions as they affect women; see also Sole Parents 10,30,43,90,148,150,171,190,243 YOUTH: works dealing with mutual obligation conditions as they affect young people 6,23,24,25,26,27,28,64,66,71,100,126,154, 176, 197,207,225,232, 237