Robert Locklear: Generous welfare benefits make people more likely to want to work, not less

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Generous welfare benefits make people more likely to want to work, not less

Generous welfare benefit levels make people who are not in employment more likely to want to work rather than less, new research suggests. “Many scholars and commentators fear that generous social benefits threaten the sustainability of the welfare state due to work norm erosion, disincentives to work and dependency cultures,” the researchers say. “This article concludes that there are few signs that groups with traditionally weaker bonds to the labor market are less motivated to work if they live in generous and activating welfare states.”