Perceptions of social assistance recipients and attitudes towards social assistance policy among

the population, frontline workers, administrative

managers and local politicians in Finland

Helena Blomberg, Johanna Kallio, Olli Kangas, Christian Kroll and Mikko Niemelä

Please, do not cite without the permission of authors

1–3 September 2016Rotterdam

Tackling Inequalitiesin Time of Austerity

How do local politicians, managers, frontline workers and citizens perceive social assistance recipients’ deservingness?

What explains variation in deservingness perceptions between and within these groups?

What are the interrelations between deservingness perceptions and the attitudes towards policy alternatives for developing social assistance in the various groups investigated?

Research questions

Social assistance last resort income transfer (selective) Implementation by social workers at a local level 2017, to Social Insurance Institution (Kela)

Deservingness perceptions at different levels From general public through street-level bureaucrats

paying out benefits and to local politicians involved in local decision-making

Deservingness of social assistance recipients

Control AttitudeReciprocityIdentityNeed

CARIN-model (van Oorschot 2000)

The less control over neediness…The more grateful, docile, and compliant…The higher previous or future payback…The higher degree of group belonging…The greater level of need…

…the higher degree of deservingness

Deservingness perceptions

Control: Most of those who receive social assistance are lazy and they lack the willpower to solve their problems

Attitude: Recipients of social assistance should be grateful to society for the social benefits they receive

Reciprocity: Most of those who receive social assistance have participated in, or will participate in financing the welfare state

Identity: The recipients of social assistance can be anyone of us whose economic situation has unexpectedly weakened

Need: Most of those who receive social assistance are really in need of it

CARIN CRIN

Variables

Population TNS Gallup’s telephone survey (N=1003)

Frontline workers Social security officials, online survey, N=887 Social workers, online survey, N=530

Administrative managers Heads of social services, postal survey, N=137 Heads of Kela’s local offices, postal survey, N=65

Local politicians Chairs of the boards of municipal social welfare, postal survey, N=130

Data

Support for policy measures

Statement 1: Level of social assistance should be improved

Statement 2: Preventive and supplementary social assistance should be applied more widely than currently

Variables

Deservingness perceptions% of those who agree or strongly agree with the statement

  Control Reciprocity Identity Need Mean value of deservingness

indexCitizens

Politicians

26

20

62

50

93

87

77

87

15.53 (0.11)

15.47 (0.26)

           Social services          Head of social services 13 58 88 92 16.17 (0.23)Social workers 7 62 94 96 16.96 (0.96)           Social insurance          Head of Kela’s offices 24 43 78 83 15.06 (0.36)Social security officials

29 46 89 86 15.03 (0.92)

           

Regression models applied among frontline workers and citizens

Gender Poor predictor of deservingness perceptions Male frontline workers endorse more likely

control than females Age

Frontline workers: the oldest age group (51 year +) perceive recipients of social assistance more deserving than younger professionals

Citizens: older citizens are more inclined to emphasise identity

Regression models applied among frontline workers and citizens

Education Poor predictor of deservingness perceptions Citizens: those with tertiary education are less

inclined to emphasise control

Political ideology Overall, both left-wing voters and voters of the

Greens perceive social assistance recipients more deserving than voters of the right-wing parties

Support for policy measures% of those who agree or strongly agree with the statement

  Increase the level of social assistance

Grant more preventive and supplementary social

assistance

Politicians 64 67     Social services    Head of social services 66 64Social workers 81 82     Social insurance    Head of Kela’s offices 59 56Social security officials 57 58

Regression models applied among frontline workers

    Increase level of social assistance

Grant more preventive and supplementary social assistance

       Deservingness index      Low   . .Medium   1.944*** 1.936***

    (0.320) (0.317)High   4.360*** 4.528***

    (0.795) (0.829)chi2   200.3 197.8Bic   1546.0 1527.4N   1304 1304

A clear majority of all groups studied perceive social assistance recipients as rather higly deserving group

However, recipients are not perceived as equally deserving on all dimensions measured

+ Need and control - Reciprocity

Perceptions are linked to: Socio-economic characteristics Political ideology

Discussion I

Those groups who are at present responsible for shaping, administrating and implementing social assistance (social workers and heads of social welfare offices) perceive social assistance recipients as deserving to the largest degree

Especially social workers: Exposure Highly professional education

Discussion II

It seems relevant to apply a deservingness perspective to the study of groups in the administration and implementation welfare services

Enhance our understanding about the formation of these groups’ perceptions of client groups

May contribute to the explanation of their attitudes towards different policy solutions

Since discretion, the knowledge of the factors affecting bureaucrats’ reasoning should be taken into consideration

Discussion III

Tackling Inequalitiesin Time of Austerity