Work for Benefits?
Work for Benefits?

Summary/Abstract: Post-communist states are going through the same crisis of welfare provision as states in Western Europe. In Hungary, too, the institutions that provide the welfare net are being dismantled. Most recently, social support has been the target of the cutbacks, on the grounds that many beneficiaries would be able to support themselves and that putting people back into work would be an effective way of boosting a sluggish economy, which is growing by less than 1 per cent annually. However, despite a number of attempts and programmes designed to encourage job seekers, the Socialist government, in power for more than six years, has been unable to improve employment figures. Less than 57 per cent of Hungarians between the age of 15 and 74 are at work, which is one of the lowest percentages in the European Union.[...]

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