Activation Policies for the Poor in OIC Member States
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Disabilities and health conditions: The OECD has identified a combination of ‘push’ and ‘pull’
factors that contribute to increases in the number of people claiming disability and health-related
benefits in countries with stricter jobseeker activation regimes.
‘Push factors’ include the relative laxity of medical and eligibility tests, the strictness of the activation
regime for the unemployed, and at certain points ‘cost shunting’ as employers, the PES and other
agencies encourage groups such as older unemployed unskilled manual workers to claim disability
benefits. ‘Pull factors’ include the relative generosity of invalidity and disability benefits compared
with those paid to the unemployed. Other factors have also come into play, especially the increase in
the number of people reporting qualifying mental health conditions and new patterns and types of
work incapacity associated with changes in employment.
Older workers: The importance of the design and implementation of activation policies is also
evident in the deterioration and subsequent improvement in the employment rates for older
workers. In several countries, there has been a sharp movement away from policies that sought to
reduce unemployment by encouraging and facilitating early retirement. Subsequent findings show
that increases in the employment rates of 60-64 year-old males correspond closely to restrictions on
benefits for this age group, including, for example, the abolition of early retirement benefits, the
removal of extensions of unemployment benefit durations for older workers, and the reintroduction
of job search obligations for older workers on unemployment benefits.
Lone parents: The employment position of lone parents can be shaped by their treatment within
the benefit system. For example, where lone parents are expected to care for their children full time
and are not required to seek employment until their youngest child leaves school or full time
education, the employment rates can be exceptionally low in comparative terms. These low
employment rates are associated with entitlement to income-replacement benefits that do not
impose a related ‘work test’.
This unconditional benefit entitlement is further compounded by benefit disincentives, the high cost
and restricted availability of childcare services, and poor maternal and parental leave provision.
1.4 Delivering activation: institutions and employment services
Institutional context and the design and organisation of employment service delivery systems are
important factors in determining the relative effectiveness of activation strategies. One of the central
themes of major reform efforts has been how to reduce institutional fragmentation and draw
together delivery agencies so that they cooperate and work to common objectives. In some
countries, service delivery reforms have been designed to facilitate such an objective through the
introduction of what have variously been described as ‘one stop’, ‘one counter’ or ‘single gateways’
to benefits and employment services.
Another theme concerns performance management and improving the organisational efficiency and
effectiveness of the PES, as well as the delivery and content of the programmes to which it may refer
clients.
There have been many alterations to service delivery models reflecting the need for the PES to adapt
to changes in employment opportunities and unemployment rates, in ICT and the internet, and in
how people get and change jobs. These developments have been paralleled by changes made in PES
management and incentive systems. There are four regularly monitored primary indicators of PES
performance:
1 Speed of reintegration of the unemployed into the labour market, as measured by the average
duration of unemployment benefit entitlement per unemployed
2 Prevention of long-term unemployment as measured by the share of those remaining
unemployed among those who were registered as unemployment benefit recipients 13 months
previously