Social assistance Work first

It is evident that since the WWB Act of 2004 the number of people on welfare has dropped, despite an unfavourable labour market situation. By the end of 2005 the total of people on welfare amounted to 328,000, 11.000 less than the year before. In almost half of the municipalities the volume dropped by 7.6%.97 In a survey municipalities ascribe this success to their Work First policies, including their enforcement. Currently no less than 85% of the municipalities use a Work First approach. Workfare in the format of Work First jobs is regarded by Dutch municipalities as their most successful instalment in getting welfare numbers down (Divosa 2007). Comparing the results of regular activating paths with Work First indeed shows much better micro effects for Work First (see Table 18). As for macro effects, there are no data available at present. 

However, the major part of the evaluation studies conducted in the Netherlands do not satisfy these control criteria and thereby are not regarded as fit to decide on the effectiveness of the instmments used (De Beer 2001). Most of the studies rely on the reach of an instalment. For example, the effectiveness of trajectories is measured by the extent to which they contribute to diminishing the amount of people on benefit. However, this can lead to serious confusion. One approach can be effective for a certain group under certain circumstances, but lose its effect in a larger group or in a different context. 

In general, one has to conclude that at least the results of the research on the effectiveness lead to confusion. Despite the large amount of studies in this area there are still many questions. A major weakness in these studies is that the context which can work in favour or against an instrument or certain policy is not taken in consideration. 

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When looking at national activation policies, we can see a clear tendency to widen the range of target groups and benefit schemes to be activated, but also a certain extent of convergence towards work first policies with less emphasis on human capital formation - even in the Scandinavian countries. Hence, looking only at unemployment insurance or social assistance would not provide a complete and comparable picture of current activation practices. 

The employment crisis of the 1990s, the first experienced in post-war Switzerland, turned out to be the catalyst of a major reorientation of the Swiss welfare state. While in the past its main aim was to guarantee a reasonable income to those who for various reasons were unable to work, today social policy increasingly aims at putting people (back) into the labour market. First in unemployment insurance, then in invalidity insurance and in social assistance, we have seen a clear development incentives are being redrawn and new tools are being adopted with the overall aim of promoting labour market participation. 

Number of Social Assistance claimants who withdrew their benefit claim after being directed to a mandatory Work First programme as a percentage of the total Social Assistance claimants who were eligible for a mandatory Work First programme p < 0.10, p < 0.05... 

One of the first attempts at clustering national models of activation was put forward by Lodemel and Trickey in their seminal volume on the development of the balance of rights and duties in social assistance dating back to 2000. They saw two types of policy at work when trying to bring recipients of income support schemes back to work An approach emphasising labour market attachment to be achieved (a) via a work first policy and (b) a human resource development approach. These two types of policies basically reflect the emphasis put on work first or workfare policies relative to training and skill formation. 

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