The bigger the worse? A comparative study of the welfare state and employment commitment

Wel, Kjetil A. van der; Halvorsen, Knut

doi:10.1177/0950017014542499

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Secondly, the positive effects of regular voluntary work on mental health and well-being can be maximized with generous unemployment benefits. Concerns that regular volunteering and generous unemployment benefits may result in the so-called 'lock-in effect' (Røed and Raaum, 2006), by discouraging the unemployed from searching for paid work in the labour market, may be unfounded given that Van der Wel and Halvorsen (2015) found that welfare generosity is not detrimental to employment commitment and motivation to work. Furthermore, if voluntary work does improve mental health, then it has the potential to increase the capability of someone who is unemployed to find a paid job.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rewarding Work: Cross-National Differences in Benefits, Volunteering During Unemployment, Well-Being and Mental Health

Kamerāde

Bennett

2017

Work, Employment and Society

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Owing to increasing labour market flexibilization, a growing number of people are likely to experience unemployment and, as a consequence, lower mental health and well-being. This article examines cross-national differences in well-being and mental health between unemployed people who engage in voluntary work and those who do not, using multilevel data from the European Quality of Life Survey on unemployed individuals in 29 European countries and other external sources. This article finds that, regardless of their voluntary activity, unemployed people have higher levels of well-being and mental health in countries with more generous unemployment benefits. Unexpectedly, the results also suggest that regular volunteering can actually be detrimental for mental health in countries with less generous unemployment benefits. This article concludes that individual agency exercised through voluntary work can partially improve well-being but the generosity of unemployment benefits is vital for alleviating the negative mental health effects of unemployment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rewarding Work: Cross-National Differences in Benefits, Volunteering During Unemployment, Well-Being and Mental Health

Kamerāde

Bennett

2017

Work, Employment and Society

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“…Unlike sanctions, none of the aforementioned studies has considered the impact on job quality. The overall positive impact on employment is confirmed by the comparative analysis provided by Van der Wel and Halvorsen (2015) who reveal a positive relation between employment engagement and activation-oriented social spending.…”

Section: Empirical Literature On Activation Programmesmentioning

confidence: 62%

Healing or Deepening the Scars of Unemployment? The Impact of Activation Policies on Unemployed Workers

Fervers

2019

Work, Employment and Society

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Unemployment has severe consequences that persist over the life course, including higher risk of future unemployment and worse employment conditions. While the existence of scarring effects has become conventional wisdom, labour market sociologists have pointed out that their magnitude differs between institutional contexts. Recently, the focus of the discussion has shifted towards the role of activation policies, which are suspected to speed up labour market integration but worsen reemployment quality, hereby deepening the scarring effects of unemployment. To contribute to this discussion, this article provides an analysis of the impact of a large-scale counselling and monitoring scheme on unemployed workers by means of matching/weighting analyses. In contrast to sanctions, the counselling and monitoring programme fosters labour market integration without impairing job quality. Apparently, activation programmes pose a danger of impairing job quality, but this negative effect can be avoided for programmes based on more emphatic governance principles.

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“…Norway is a generous and comprehensive welfare state and has an active labour market policy. Welfare states with a resource perspective like this, might affect norms and values [30]. The latent functions of work like having colleagues, social support, the achievements of personal goals, time structure and quality of life might be considered as potentially more important motivators for whether people want a job or not.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are “place and train” principles suited to support people with severe mental illness into work? A questionnaire-based survey in a public employment service

Brinchmann

Rinaldi

Sandtorv

et al. 2021

Preprint

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BackgroundIndividual Placement and Support (IPS) has repeatedly been reported to increase employment rates in patients with severe mental illness. Despite this, IPS is only available to a small minority. Translation from evidence to practice is often slow and hindered by a variety of barriers. Barriers include organizational, contextual and attitudinal factors. Despite evidence, many believe that people with severe mental illness are generally dangerous, in need of rest and at risk of harm from work-related stress. Such stigma fosters negative attitudes that may constitute significant barriers to employment for people with mental illness. Employees in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration hold important gatekeeping positions in relation to the employment schemes that people with mental illness are offered. The aim of this study was to measure the attitudes of these employees towards the core principles of IPS. Secondly, we examine whether attitudes change for Labour and Welfare Administration employees exposed to IPS practice.MethodsA case vignette describing a person with severe mental illness and statements referring to this vignette was developed. The survey was administered to a sample of employees at two different timepoints four years apart. The respondents were asked to indicate their attitudes on a six-point Likert scale between statements in accordance to IPS and statements in accordance with treatment as usual. Independent two tailed samples t-tests were used to analyse differences between responses between employees in municipalities with IPS experience, compared to municipalities without. Multiple linear regressions with attitudes as dependent variable, were used to test if attitudes changed over time, dependent on exposure to IPS.ResultsAttitudes were in general more aligned with IPS than current practice. The region with exposure to IPS was associated with more favorable attitudes (p < .01). The development in attitudes to IPS were minimal over time and did not differ between IPS regions and regions without.ConclusionsAttitudes of statutory Labour and Welfare employees will not be a substantial barrier for implementation of IPS. This is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for IPS implementation.The regional ethics committee approved the study (2012/2239).

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The bigger the worse? A comparative study of the welfare state and employment commitment

Cited by 25 publications

References 34 publications

Rewarding Work: Cross-National Differences in Benefits, Volunteering During Unemployment, Well-Being and Mental Health

Rewarding Work: Cross-National Differences in Benefits, Volunteering During Unemployment, Well-Being and Mental Health

Healing or Deepening the Scars of Unemployment? The Impact of Activation Policies on Unemployed Workers

Are “place and train” principles suited to support people with severe mental illness into work? A questionnaire-based survey in a public employment service

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