OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers

ISSN :
1815-199X (en ligne)
DOI :
10.1787/1815199x
Cacher / Voir l'abstract
This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected labour market, social policy and migration studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language - English or French - with a summary in the other.
 

Eligibility Criteria for Unemployment Benefits

Quantitative Indicators for OECD and EU Countries You or your institution have access to this content

Auteur(s):
Danielle Venn1
Author Affiliations
  • 1: OCDE, France

Date de publication
09 jan 2012
Bibliographic information
N°:
131
Pages
63
DOI
10.1787/5k9h43kgkvr4-en

Cacher / Voir l'abstract

Eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits, which require recipients to actively look for work, take up suitable job offers or take part in active labour market programmes (ALMPs), or risk benefit sanctions, can play an important role in offsetting the negative impact of generous unemployment benefits on employment incentives. This paper presents information on the strictness of eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits for 36 OECD and/or EU member countries. It covers entitlement conditions (employment and/or contribution requirements to gain access to benefits and sanctions for voluntary unemployment), job-search requirements (availability requirements during ALMPs and suitable work criteria), monitoring of job-search effort and sanctions for refusing a job offer or ALMP placement. These qualitative data are then used to compile a composite indicator of the strictness of eligibility criteria and some comparisons are made with the results of a similar exercise for earlier periods. This indicator complements existing cross-country indicators relating to unemployment benefits, such as net replacement rate data from the OECD Tax and Benefits database and data on ALMP expenditure compiled annually by Eurostat and the OECD.