Impact of the new legislation of state social support on target groups and street-level bureaucrats

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F21%3A10441332" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/21:10441332 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.nispa.org/files/conferences/2021/e-proceedings/system_files/papers/Angelovska_Starova_State_social_support.pdf" target="_blank" >https://www.nispa.org/files/conferences/2021/e-proceedings/system_files/papers/Angelovska_Starova_State_social_support.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Impact of the new legislation of state social support on target groups and street-level bureaucrats

Original language description

The last amendment of the Act No. 117/1995 Coll., On state social support, in 2020 brought changes in the Czech system of benefits that are often referred to in society as &quot;family benefits&quot;, as most of them target social events of families with dependent children. The amendment changed mainly two out of five benefits, concretely parental and housing allowance. Our paper aims at the amendment effect on the work of street-level bureaucrats. The amendment led to the authoritative implementation of changes. Street-level bureaucrats could not interfere in it in any way at the level of direct contact with the clients of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic, and they faced increasing administrative burden and ambiguity of conditions. They had to also react to insufficient resources that the street-level bureaucrats mainly referred to as information and time. Furthermore, they couldn&apos;t face these new working conditions through so-called coping mechanisms, primarily routine activities. The second aspect that we touched in our paper is the different impacts on the target groups. The policy mirrored the framing of the groups in public and political discourse. While families drawing parental allowance are framed positively by media, politics, and street-level bureaucrats, the families drawing housing allowance are framed negatively by all groups. They are perceived as those who abuse the system. The implemented policy reflected such framing, and while parental allowance became more benevolent, the housing allowance became stricter and more subject to control. We based our research on a qualitative approach. We obtained data through document analysis (legislative documents, stenographic records, internal materials of Czech Labour Office), media analysis using Newton Media Search), and semi-structured interviews with street-level bureaucrats working at Labour Office.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50602 - Public administration

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Citizens&apos; Engagement and Empowerment - The Era of Collaborative Innovation in Governance

ISBN

978-80-999390-7-4

ISSN

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e-ISSN

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Number of pages

5

Pages from-to

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Publisher name

NISPAcee

Place of publication

Ljubjana

Event location

Ljubljana

Event date

Oct 21, 2021

Type of event by nationality

EUR - Evropská akce

UT code for WoS article

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