The Duration and Termination of Periods on Subsistence Benefit: Municipal Differences

This study develops new indicators that can be used as a starting point for assessing the efforts of local authorities to put social assistance benefits recipients in employment or in a course of education. Every person who received social assistance benefits between the years 1995 to 1999 is included in the study. The indicators correct for the fact that job options, attachment to the labour market and scope of social problems vary greatly among recipients of social assistance benefits in different local authorities. The findings show that there are considerable differences among local authorities in how long it takes recipients of social assistance benefits to find employment or begin a course of education, even when the aspects mentioned above are taken into account. Several different indicators are compared and tabulated for every local authority in Denmark, and comparisons are made within each county and for local authorities of different sizes.