Pat McQuillan, Dan Gooris, Steve Drucker, Nick Schuster

Book Group: Activating the Unemployed

New Zealand 

- Welfare-to-work program
- Subsidizing of job-related costs (child care)
- Time limit on benefits
- Must take any suitable job offers
- All of the these acts gave benefits
-         Old Age Pensions Act 1898
-    Widows 1911
-     Disabled miners 1915
-     Blind 1924
- Unemployment Act 1930
- Social Security Act 1938

 Norway

- Welfare is universal
- Benefits are generous
- Benefits and services provided by public agencies
- Publicly funded welfare depends heavily on high level of taxation and high able-bodied employment
- Labour Market Training program
-             Wage compensation for employers
-             Competence, training for work and job creation for unemployed people
-             Mentor assisted practice place
- Social Securities Act 1991
-             Made people have to work to receive benefits
- Unemployment Benefits entitlement is determined by taking earnings from year before unemployment and 62.4% of that is compensated
- Can only receive benefits for 3 years at a time, 5.5 if lone parent and studying 

Sweden

- Welfare benefits for working population and those unable to support themselves
- In first half of 1990s a number of cheap programs were instituted, these programs upgraded labor
skill and increase competence building
- People 55 and older offered early retirement benefits
- Created new programs for young and unskilled
- To receive benefits have to participate in discussions with social welfare offices and follow other rules

 Switzerland

-Unemployment Insurance introduced1947
-Adopted 1951
-Federal Law on Compulsory Unemployment Insurance enacted 1982
-Unemployed people can get certain percent of salary for certain amount of days
-Temporary job programs
-Training programs
-Unemployed must take active measures to receive unemployment benefits
-Unemployed for more than 2 years can rely on social assistance programs

 United Kingdom

 -Welfare-to-work; 3 Main Goals
                1.      Increase Job Opportunities
                2.      Change characteristics and motivations of long term welfare recipients
                3.      Reform structure of the tax and benefit system
-As of 1997 there were 42 different welfare to work schemes
-There was no national minimum wage in the country until 1999
- A working families tax credit system was implemented
- Families with at least one child and an adult working 16 or more hours per week whose income fell below a certain level were entitled to certain benefits
- New Labor Program:  welfare state should help and encourage people of working age to work

 Italy

- Unemployment rate in the country is one of the highest in Europe
            - Policies to help unemployment are outdated and ineffective
            - Fighting unemployment is a top priority of the government
            - Unemployment rate was 12% in 1995
            - Youth unemployment is a big concern, people under 25 don’t work, either because
there are no jobs or they do not want to
- Southern Italy is extremely poor; it is one of the poorest regions in all of Europe
-   Socially Useful Jobs Program was implemented in 1981

Netherlands

- Dutch policy used as guideline for many other countries
-   This approach is known as the “Polder” model
-     Ratio of benefit recipients to workers is one to one
-         Main points:
o       Long term wage restraint
o       Cuts in governmental expenditures, in exchange for employment commitment from
employment organizations
-         Dutch welfare is developed separately without design of the overall picture
-         Most of the unemployed Dutch are low-skilled and would be unable to get a job
anywhere
-         Public assistance program hinges upon the global economy
-         Future problem will be to avoid a poverty trap will still offering assistance

 France

 - Welfare to work
-         Social assistance based on philosophy and sociology, attaining solidarity
-         Social protection funded by payroll contributions of social security
-         Social security provides a quasi-universal coverage for recipient
-         75% of funding comes from payroll deductions
-         88% of social expenditures comes from social security
-    use public domain funded by the public to cover French citizens