Robert Nielsen, 45, said proudly last year that he had basically been on welfare since 2001.
By Suzanne Daley
COPENHAGEN — It began as a stunt intended to prove that hardship and
poverty still existed in this small, wealthy country, but it backfired
badly. Visit a single mother of two on welfare, a liberal member of
Parliament goaded a skeptical political opponent, see for yourself how
hard it is.
It turned out, however, that life on welfare was not so hard. The
36-year-old single mother, given the pseudonym “Carina” in the news
media, had more money to spend than many of the country’s full-time
workers. All told, she was getting about $2,700 a month, and she had
been on welfare since she was 16.
In past years, Danes might have shrugged off the case, finding Carina
more pitiable than anything else. But even before her story was in the
headlines 16 months ago, they were deeply engaged in a debate about
whether their beloved welfare state, perhaps Europe’s most generous, had
become too rich, undermining the country’s work ethic. Carina helped
tip the scales.
With little fuss or political protest — or notice abroad — Denmark
has been at work overhauling entitlements, trying to prod Danes into
working more or longer or both. While much of southern Europe has been
racked by strikes and protests as its creditors force austerity
measures, Denmark still has a coveted AAA bond rating.
But Denmark’s long-term outlook is troubling. The population is aging,
and in many regions of the country people without jobs now outnumber
those with them.
Some of that is a result of a depressed economy. But many experts say a
more basic problem is the proportion of Danes who are not participating
in the work force at all — be they dawdling university students, young
pensioners or welfare recipients like Carina who lean on hefty
government support.
“Before the crisis there was a sense that there was always going to be
more and more,” Bjarke Moller, the editor in chief of publications for Mandag Morgen,
a research group in Copenhagen. “But that is not true anymore. There
are a lot of pressures on us right now. We need to be an agile society
to survive.”
The Danish model of government is close to a religion here, and it has produced a population that regularly claims to be among the happiest in the world. Even the country’s conservative politicians are not suggesting getting rid of it.
Denmark has among the highest marginal income-tax rates in the world,
with the top bracket of 56.5 percent kicking in on incomes of more than
about $80,000. But in exchange, the Danes get a cradle-to-grave safety
net that includes free health care, a free university education and
hefty payouts to even the richest citizens.
Parents in all income brackets, for instance, get quarterly checks from
the government to help defray child-care costs. The elderly get free
maid service if they need it, even if they are wealthy.
But few experts here believe that Denmark can long afford the current
perks. So Denmark is retooling itself, tinkering with corporate tax
rates, considering new public sector investments and, for the long term,
trying to wean more people — the young and the old — off government
benefits.
“In the past, people never asked for help unless they needed it,” said
Karen Haekkerup, the minister of social affairs and integration, who has
been outspoken on the subject. “My grandmother was offered a pension
and she was offended. She did not need it.
“But now people do not have that mentality. They think of these benefits
as their rights. The rights have just expanded and expanded. And it has
brought us a good quality of life. But now we need to go back to the
rights and the duties. We all have to contribute.”
In 2012, a little over 2.6 million people between the ages of 15 and 64
were working in Denmark, 47 percent of the total population and 73
percent of the 15- to 64-year-olds.
While only about 65 percent of working age adults are employed in the
United States, comparisons are misleading, since many Danes work short
hours and all enjoy perks like long vacations and lengthy paid maternity
leaves, not to speak of a de facto minimum wage approaching $20 an
hour. Danes would rank much lower in terms of hours worked per year.
In addition, the work force has far more older people to support. About
18 percent of Denmark’s population is over 65, compared with 13 percent
in the United States.
One study, by the municipal policy research group Kora,
recently found that only 3 of Denmark’s 98 municipalities will have a
majority of residents working in 2013. This is a significant reduction
from 2009, when 59 municipalities could boast that a majority of
residents had jobs. (Everyone, including children, was counted in the
comparison.)
Joachim B. Olsen, the skeptical politician from the Liberal Alliance
party who visited Carina 16 months ago in her pleasant Copenhagen
apartment, is particularly alarmed. He says Sweden, which is already
considered generous, has far fewer citizens living on government
benefits. If Denmark followed Sweden’s example, it would have about
250,000 fewer people living on benefits of various sorts.
“The welfare state here has spiraled out of control,” Mr. Olsen said.
“It has done a lot of good, but we have been unwilling to talk about the
negative side. For a very long time it has been taboo to talk about the
Carinas.”
Already the government has reduced various early-retirement plans. The
unemployed used to be able to collect benefits for up to four years. Now
it is two.
Students are next up for cutbacks, most intended to get them in the work
force faster. Currently, students are entitled to six years of
stipends, about $990 a month, to complete a five-year degree which, of
course, is free. Many of them take even longer to finish, taking breaks
to travel and for internships before and during their studies.
In trying to reduce the welfare rolls, the government is concentrating
on making sure that people like Carina do not exist in the future. It is
proposing cuts to welfare grants for those under 30 and stricter
reviews to make sure that such recipients are steered into jobs or
educational programs before they get comfortable on government benefits.
Officials have also begun to question the large number of people who are
receiving lifetime disability checks. About 240,000 people — roughly 9
percent of the potential work force — have lifetime disability status;
about 33,500 of them are under 40. The government has proposed ending
that status for those under 40, unless they have a mental or physical
condition that is so severe that it keeps them from working.
Instead of offering disability, the government intends to assign
individuals to “rehabilitation teams” to come up with one- to five-year
plans that could include counseling, social-skills training and
education as well as a state-subsidized job, at least in the beginning.
The idea is to have them working at least part time, or studying.
It remains possible that the cost-cutting push will hurt the left-wing
coalition that leads the government. By and large, though, the changes
have passed easily in Parliament and been happily endorsed by
conservatives like Mr. Olsen, who does his best to keep his meeting with
Carina in the headlines.
Carina was not the only welfare recipient to fuel the sense that
Denmark’s system has somehow gotten out of kilter. Robert Nielsen, 45,
made headlines last September when he was interviewed on television,
admitting that he had basically been on welfare since 2001.
Mr. Nielsen said he was able-bodied but had no intention of taking a
demeaning job, like working at a fast-food restaurant. He made do quite
well on welfare, he said. He even owns his own co-op apartment.
Unlike Carina, who will no longer give interviews, Mr. Nielsen, called
“Lazy Robert” by the news media, seems to be enjoying the attention. He
says that he is greeted warmly on the street all the time. “Luckily, I
am born and live in Denmark, where the government is willing to support
my life,” he said.
Some Danes say the existence of people like Carina and Mr. Nielsen comes
as no surprise. Lene Malmberg, who lives in Odsherred and works part
time as a secretary despite a serious brain injury that has affected her
short-term memory, said the Carina story was not news to her. At one
point, she said, before her accident when she worked full time, her
sister was receiving benefits and getting more money than she was.
“The system is wrong somehow, I agree,” she said. “I wanted to work. But she was a little bit: ‘Why work?’ ”
No comments:
Post a Comment