Social benefit rate

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The benefit rate (in Austria: Social ratio ) is an economic indicator that indicates what proportion of the gross domestic product in a (GDP) state legally regulated benefits is output.

Calculation of the social quota

The social benefits quota is determined by comparing social benefits with GDP.

Social benefits are

  • Services that are "used by public and non-public bodies for marriage and family, health, employment, old age and survivors, the consequences of political events, housing, savings and as general life support."

The social benefits are calculated from the following expenditure by the state, public and semi-public institutions:

Which benefits should be classified as social benefits is assessed differently and has also changed over time. Since 2009 z. For example, basic private health insurance benefits are also listed as social benefits, but tax exemptions are no longer recorded as social benefits. Real transfers with a distributive character are also not part of social spending.

The social quota is therefore statistically influenced by:

  • the number of people in need (e.g. number of sick, unemployed, etc.)
  • the amount of social security (e.g. amount of social benefits and the extent to which medical services are covered)
  • the efficiency of the social system (e.g. level of administrative costs and drug prices )
  • and in the denominator of the size of the gross domestic product (if the GDP growth is higher than the growth in social expenditure, the social ratio falls and vice versa)

Importance of the social benefit quota

In (different countries) comparative welfare state research, the social performance quota is the most frequently used comparative indicator for assessing the performance of welfare states . This is because the social benefit ratio shows, but in a very general and imprecise form, how much a country uses for social purposes compared to its economic power. While the figures on expenditure alone are not meaningful for comparisons, the relationship between social benefits and GDP allows conclusions to be drawn about the level of social benefits.

A high social benefit quota indicates a welfare state , a low one a capitalist- oriented state. The quota is only suitable to a limited extent as the sole indicator of the extent of government redistribution , as it reacts very sensitively to changes in GDP, among other things. Social benefits are expenditures that hardly react to economic developments (such as pensions ) or that are anti-cyclical ( unemployment benefits ). A recession can therefore lead to an increase in the percentage of social benefits in GDP. The conclusions from this vary. For example, it is believed that higher social benefits can result in higher government debt in the event of a recession, because falling GDP generates less tax revenue. On the other hand, it is pointed out that the social benefit ratio is not just a burden / expenditure. Social benefits mean, through the possibility of using social services and facilities as well as the inflow of income for the recipients, also economic advantages. It is therefore not easy to balance the costs and benefits of social benefits (and thus the social benefit quota). Among other things, it has to be assessed which social functions the social benefits fulfill and which burdens arise. It should also be noted that the social quota only represents the financial commitment, but not necessarily the effectiveness and quality of social policy.

Social performance quota in Germany

In 1913 the social benefit quota in Germany was 3.1%, in 1938 it was 6.0%; The state spent little on social issues compared to today's industrialized countries.

In 1950, the social benefit quota in the Federal Republic of Germany was 19%. While social benefits accounted for only 18.3% of GDP in 1960, social benefits already amounted to 30.7% of GDP in 1975 and had thus reached their highest level for a long time. In 1990 , due to the enormous increase in GDP by 9.1%, they were at 24.1%, only slightly above the level of the 1970s, only to increase continuously. In 1997 they were back at 29.1%, only to climb to an all-time high of 29.8% in 2003. This peak is not explained by increasing social spending, but by the fact that the reference value - i.e. GDP - has fallen sharply as a result of the economic and financial crisis. If GDP falls, the social benefit ratio rises despite nominally constant expenditure. Social cuts, labor market reforms and the economic upturn ensured that in 2008 the social benefit ratio was around 27% of GDP. In 2009 (during the financial crisis) the value of the social benefit ratio rose to 30.5%, but the value was also influenced by statistical changes. In 2013 the rate was 29.1%.

The old federal states have a significantly lower social benefit ratio than the new federal states. In 2003, the old federal states, at 30.3 percent, are roughly at the level of the years before reunification (see above). The new federal states were at 48.7 percent in 2002. Their social benefit quota was 49 percent in 1991, first rose to 55.5 percent in 1992, fell to 46 percent by 1997 and rose again to 49.4 percent by 2003. While the national German average the rate of recipients of minimum social security was 9% of the total population in 2012, Berlin took the top spot with 19.5%.

EU comparison

Social protection benefits in Europe 2009

The European Commission calculates social spending according to its own criteria, which is why there may be deviations from the individual national calculations. In an EU comparison, the 2014 figures show comparatively high social benefit ratios in Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, among others, and comparatively low social benefit ratios in Latvia and Poland, among others. Comparing the social benefit quota in different countries is only possible to a limited extent in view of the different social and societal systems. Among other things, social benefits are subject to different taxation in different countries. While unemployment benefits are paid tax-free in Germany, the corresponding benefits are subject to normal taxation in the Scandinavian countries or the Netherlands. This results in significant differences in the gross and net social ratio. What the different countries spend their benefits on varies considerably depending on the country, but the financially highest benefits in all EU countries are for old-age pensions and health care.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Detlev Zöllner, Social Security, 1997, p. 4.
  2. a b c d e f Social performance rate 1960 - 2015 , Institute for Work and Qualification of the University of Duisburg-Essen, accessed: July 18, 2017
  3. Hans Wilhelm Hetzler, Verena Müller, Gerd Schienstock, Helmut Winterstein: Rising social contributions - an inevitable development ?, 1980, p. 10.
  4. a b Carsten G. Ullrich, Sociology of the Welfare State , 2005, p. 90
  5. Christian Pfarr, Income, Mobility and Individual Preferences for Redistribution , 2013, p. 19
  6. Harold L. Wilensky, The Welfare State and Equality, Structural and Ideological Roots of Public Expenditure , 1975, pp. 30 f.
  7. a b c Social performance quotas in selected EU countries 2004 and 2014 , Institute for Work and Qualification at the University of Duisburg-Essen, accessed: July 18, 2017
  8. ^ Karl Teppe, On social policy of the Third Reich using the example of social insurance , in: Archive for Social History 17 (1977), p. 195
  9. ^ A b University of Duisburg Essen, Current Social Policy , Development of Social Benefit Systems 1960-2012
  10. Development of the social benefits quota in Germany from 1975 - 2003 ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 134 kB) according to figures from the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sozialpolitik-aktuell.de
  11. to the transfer payments of minimum social security schemes of government include the unemployment benefits , the social allowance that help living outside institutions, the basic security in old age and disability , usually benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act and current benefits of war victims by the Federal Supply Act
  12. Baden-Württemberg State Statistical Office, rate of recipients of minimum social security benefits 2012 ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.statistik-bw.de
  13. ^ Andreas Kemmerling: The measurement of the welfare state. Differences in employment policy between gross and net social performance ratio (PDF; 621 kB), discussion paper March 2001 (accessed on July 14, 2013)

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