Introduction

Work creation schemes have a long tradition in Germany, and are an essential element of the German welfare system. The Bismarckian welfare state included a discretionary workfare component, which functioned primarily as a test of recipients’ willingness to work. Discretionary workfare became part of the legal basis for social assistance in 1961 – when the Federal Social Assistance Act (SAA) was passed in the West German Federal Republic (Schulte, 1988) – so that the Federal social assistance law has always required recipients to work for their social assistance where an offer of work is made. Since implementation of the SAA, local administrations, who themselves fund social assistance, have been able to create new jobs for recipients. However, because the recipient population had, until recently, consisted largely of people who were considered unable to work, the workfare condition remained dormant. As unemployment has risen and the proportion of social assistance recipients who are unemployed has grown, local authorities have sought ways to reduce expenditure and to test recipients’ willingness to work. As a result, local authorities have ‘remembered’ this area of law and use of the workfare measure has been rekindled.

The German designation for these job creation schemes is Hilfe zur Arbeit, which can be translated as ‘Help Towards Work’ (HTW). Two forms of HTW are used by local authorities: first, work which comes with an employment contract subject to social insurance and standard wages; and second, a more casual kind of work without these conditions. In addition, HTW may constitute vocational training. Over time, contracttype work has come to make up an increasing proportion of HTW places, and training has become more important. However, a patchwork of policies prevails. Help Towards Work schemes are implemented differently from location to location and important differences in practice exist between the new and old Länder (former East and West Germany).

Some local authorities monitor the results of their HTW projects, but most do not. Data about the extent of HTW, let alone effect, are minimal. The studies that have been carried out indicate that HTW is effective at reducing local authority social assistance expenditure, but that, currently, this is achieved by ‘creaming off ‘ the most work-able recipients and inserting them into the federally funded insurance-based system. Nationally, concern about the level of unemployment remains, and the process of reintegrating social assistance recipients is considered a high priority by policy makers.