Zoekresultaten
Volg ons op
Volg ons op
This article analyzis two Dutch experiments in which the government guarantees a job to tackle long-term unemployment. The experiment with the Melkert jobs was carried out in the 1990s. Recently the municipality of Groningen implemented a project in which long-term unemployed people are offered a so-called basic job. The research results of this project demonstrate that the target group can do productive work on a regular basis and that basic jobs have a net positive social added value based on a Social Cost Benefit Analysis (SCBA).
In this article we also pay attention to the recent academic debate between
an unconditional basic income (BIG) and a job guarantee (JG).
DOCUMENT
This small exploratory study aims to reveal the perceptions of female participants in mandatory volunteering programmes and to formulate directions for further research. We analyse how in Rotterdam the transition from labour market re-integration policies to a mandatory reciprocity approach is viewed by long-term unemployed women who were already volunteering. Modern welfare policies are increasingly based on notions of reciprocity. Citizens on welfare benefits have to do something in return, e.g. volunteer work. Notwithstanding general public support, social philosophers have been critical on ‘mandatory’ activities in community programmes. So far, the participants themselves have scarcely been asked about the (un)fairness of ‘mandatory volunteering’. Surprisingly, the participants in this study claim that the new approach better recognises their contribution to ‘society’. They also view the policy as necessary and fair to other benefit claimants who are perceived to lack any motivation to give something back to society. An agenda for further research is presented.
DOCUMENT
The paper offers an understanding of a new instrument that leads to fundamental changes in the way social issues are tackled. In relation to positive management, social impact bonds call upon the corporate social responsibility of private parties to invest in social interventions.
LINK
Prolonged unemployment can lead to depression and a loss of selfesteem. Gamification is a strategy that engages and motivates groups of people by implementing game mechanics and dynamics in an existing non-gaming system. This paper studies the possibility of using gamification to motivate job seekers. To test the effectiveness of the ideas proposed in this paper, a betweensubjects study was executed. Those results, although preliminary, do suggest the potential of including gamification features in job seeking systems.
DOCUMENT
Prolonged unemployment can lead to depression and a loss of selfesteem. Gamification is a strategy that engages and motivates groups of people by implementing game mechanics and dynamics in an existing non-gaming system. This paper studies the possibility of using gamification to motivate job seekers. To test the effectiveness of the ideas proposed in this paper, a betweensubjects study was executed. Those results, although preliminary, do suggest the potential of including gamification features in job seeking systems.
LINK
Debates about the new welfare, and the new social policies that go (or should go) with it, share an emphasis on risk-prevention strategies and pluralistic risk management. Focusing specifically on the risk of unemployment, this article discusses the case for so-called preventive worker-directed active labour market policies as part of the new welfare architecture. These policies are aimed at preventing unemployment and promoting labour-market transitions and employability. They involve responsibilities on the part of the state, social partners and employers. First, the case for these policies is elaborated by analysing the social investment, flexicurity and transitional labour-market literature. In this context, several issues related to the feasibility of the pluralistic management of preventing unemployment, as well as the possible impact of pluralistic risk management on dualisation, are discussed. Secondly, recent policy initiatives in the Netherlands are presented as an illustration of the incremental emergence of preventive worker-directed active labour-market policies. It is argued that although these policy initiatives were initially introduced as responses to the crisis, they may eventually turn out to reflect a more fundamental reorientation in managing and dealing with the risks of unemployment. The conclusion critically reflects and argues that pluralistic risk management may exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the insecurities of flexible and non-standard workers.
LINK
Background The work participation of young adults with chronic physical conditions lag behind compared to healthy age-mates. ‘At Work’ is a vocational rehabilitation intervention provided by occupational therapists, that supports them for entering the competitive labour market after graduating post-secondary education. Aim To evaluate the effects of ‘At Work’ on self-efficacy, work-ability and employment status as compared to usual care. Materials and methods In total, 88 young adults were included in a multicentre controlled trial; 49 entered ‘At Work’, 39 received usual care. GEE-analyses were applied. Results Scores on all outcome measures substantially improved over time in the intervention group, but no significant effects were found as compared to the control group. The effect on general self-efficacy showed a positive trend in favour of the intervention group. Conclusions and significance Unlike previous study results pointing to positive outcomes of At Work’, the current study did not support the effectiveness of this program on work-related self-efficacy, work-ability and paid employment, as compared to usual care. Yet, we did find an indication for positive intervention effect on general self-efficacy, which is known to be an important capacity to achieve social participation.
DOCUMENT
The number of applications for debt management services in the Netherlands shows a steady increase of about 10 percent each year, over the last few years. Municipalities, responsible for these services, at the same need to cut back on expenditures. Our research shows that the (social) return on debt management is on average twice as high as the costs. These benefits are mainly found in the areas of social welfare and housing. Since debts are a reason for employers not to hire or not to continue employment, debt management increases the chance of (continued) employment and therefore helps reduce costs of unemployment and welfare benefits. Since housing corporations spend large sums of money on evictions, the prevention of evictions through debt management also reduces costs in that area. The ratio between the costs and benefits is only partly influenced by the quality of execution. Social structure offers a better explanation, where a weaker social structure results in greater benefits. Our findings are based on extensive research of individual files combined with interviews with professionals. Only direct if-then relations were considered. This means that in reality the cost-benefit ratio may even be more favorable. Municipalities should therefore be careful in cutting back on debt management services. On the other hand, crosslinking debt management with welfare payments and co-operating with housing corporations could open up opportunities for co-financing debt management services.
DOCUMENT
This qualitative study aims to explore the valuable functionings—things that people consider to be important—of the
older long-term unemployed and their ability to achieve valued outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted
with 20 long-term unemployed people aged 45 and over. Participants were included through purposeful sampling. The
theoretical frameworks of the latent deprivation theory and the capability approach were used to develop an interpretive
analysis. Nine valuable functionings were identified: social contact, feeling appreciated, structure, feeling useful, meaningfulness,
autonomy, financial resources, paid work, and being active. These valuable functionings were partly accessible
through the activities that people performed, varying from physically active and physically passive activities to informal
work. The functionings of meaningfulness, autonomy, financial resources, and paid work seemed to be difficult to achieve. We identified three groups. The first consisted of people whose work status changed when they entered the benefit system; for them paid work was still a valuable functioning, and they experienced the most difficulties in achieving valued outcomes. The second group also experienced a change in work status once they started to receive benefits, but those people adapted to their new situation by attributing greater value to other functionings. The third group had no change in work status, e.g., housewives who had applied for a benefit because they were not able to make ends meet after a divorce. This group did not experience a loss of functionings due to unemployment, nor did they try to achieve other functionings. The results of this study indicate a need for a more personalized, tailor-made approach, with an emphasis on an individual’s valued outcomes instead of on rules and obligations.
DOCUMENT
Often, simplified cultural explanations of a nation‟s economy are common sense and taken for granted. Amidst the debate about the propensity of European countries to compete with other prosperous knowledge economies, some consultants in The Netherlands postulate that the Dutch will never be able to match the requirements of the new economy because of their „polder-model‟, a term used for the Dutch model of gaining consensus in which employers, syndicates and the government meet with each other to make agreements about labour. This postulation was made against the general opinion of some years ago, when this same polder-model was perceived as the main cause of the economic success of the Dutch in the 1990s: “Consensus lies at the heart of the Dutch success where unemployment has been cut to half (2% in 2000) of what it was in 1997. The government, with support of employers and unions, has cut public spending as a share of GDP from 60 to 50%. It is the combination of a quiet and flexible labour market with a solid monetary and fiscal policy and introducing more dynamic markets which is the core of the polder model.”
DOCUMENT
