From the Scientific Perspective:

From the Scientific Perspective:

Welfare systems in Europe and

their way of integrating disabled people

Lecture

given on 14th September 2006

Specialist conference to mark the occasion of the 90th anniversary

of the German Institute for the Blind

(Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt)

and the

German Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted

Students and Professionals (DVBS)

in Marburg an der Lahn/Germany

by

Dr. H. W. Bach

Dear colleagues, friends,

Ladies and gentlemen,

In modern democratic societies, freedom and progress together with security and justice are being regarded as important targets in terms of social policy.

The former two targets, freedom and progress, are economic targets. They can be assigned to the subsystem of economic policy. Their central purpose is, for example the creation and use of Gross National Product. In contrast, the latter targets, security and justice, are social targets. They can be assigned to the subsystem of social policy and deal with questions such as, how to distribute and/or redistribute the Gross National Product using socio-political means.

The traditional answer has always been: The best social policy is the one with the highest public expenditure. However, the question of whether social policy is effective or efficient is neglected, as are questions of distribution amongst others.

In 1990, Gosta Esping-Andersen, a well-known Danish political scientist who now teaches in Barcelona, presented a new typology of modern welfare states. He calls them “The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism”. This typology describes the direct effects of a welfare state, the actual welfare situation and the development of the various citizens, levels of society or target groups. In various theoretical and empirical studies, he demonstrated that three types of modern welfare states can be distinguished.

Fig. 1: Welfare states according to Esping-Andersen

Type of policy

Conservative

social democratic

liberal

Principle

Paternalism

Principle of solidarity

self-responsibility

Target

Preservation of status

Equality

residuale

Versorgung

Measures

Social Security

Social Assistance

Welfare

Controle

Self-administration

State

Market (Self-help)

Effects

Segmentation

Inclusion

Exclusion

Type of Regulation

Employment/

unemployment

Labour market

Deregulation

Policy

Compensation

Intervention

Llaissez-faire

Example:

Germany

Sweden

Britain

According to: Gosta Esping-Andersen: The three worlds of welfare capitalism, Cambridge 1990

This is the way he characterizes a liberal or anglo-saxon regime, which, in Europe, would be Britain or Ireland. In the 2005 German Parliament election campaign, Guido Westerwelle, (leader of the German Liberal Party FDP) had a slogan which describes it quite rightly: ”If everyone cares for themselves, everybody is cared for. “ Here, priority is given to market orientation, self-responsibility and self-help, with a minimum amount of social benefits. This results in poor re-appropriation of budgetary funds, low decomodification (turning away from the laws of the market as far as social security is concerned) and little influence on stratification (the creation of social classes).

The second social state regime defined by Esping-Andersen is conservative or continental. Examples are France, Italy and Germany. Social security is in the foreground – one could characterise it as a do-ut-des-system (“I give that you may give”). It is often regarded as a paternalistic, status maintaining system that is based on social security and self-administration. The result is stratification: there is a male breadwinner with uninterrupted occupation. It hardly results in decommodification as most social benefits are based on previous payments in return for them (social security). It does, however, encourage better re-appropriation.

The third social state regime characterized by Esping-Andersen is defined as social democratic. It is mainly found in Scandinavia. It can be characterised by the slogan “Middle-class for everyone”. This system has the most extensive re-appropriation by government. Decommodification is put into practice by means of social benefits according to a solidaristic principle. The fact that everybody is included, especially by remunerated occupation, results, moreover, in a model of social classes without poverty. Here, the policy of full employment is pursued most sustainably and most credibly.

In order to make this clear, it has to be emphasized that all social political instruments exist in all social regimes. The difference between the systems lies in which type of instrument is the most important one for social security. Among the social political instruments, the following types can be distinguished: Consultation and financial support. The latter can be divided into Social Security, Social Assistance and Welfare Benefit.

Social Assistances are, for example, the benefits paid to war victims or also the child benefit in Germany. In Germany, Social Security benefits are the five columns of the social security system. Benefits as defined by the German Second and 12th Book of the Social Code (SGB II or SGB XII) are called Welfare Benefits.

The social regimes defined by Esping-Andersen were of considerable importance in the course of talks about the labour market and occupation policies as well as the avoidance of mass unemployment.

Today, we will apply this researche to the situation faced by disabled people, their place in society and their participation in various dimensions of life in the community. Specifically, we will focus on the visually impaired, i.e. the blind and partially sighted, for today we celebrate the anniversary of Deutsche Blindenstudienanstalt (German Association of Blind Academics) and DVBS (German Associaltion of Blind and Partially Sighted Students and Employees). We will then examine the social regimes of Britain, Germany and Sweden as examples for the three types of social regimes. We will concentrate on three issues, namely:

1. A general overview of rehabilitation measures and social benefits provided by the state in general

2. Rehabilitation and integration into working life, i.e. partially sighted people’s participation in working life

3. Compensation of disadvantages (pensions for the blind, compensations for the disabled, etc)

The results of this study are summarized as follows.

1. Social political regimes with regard to people with considerable visual disability:

1.a) Basic rehabilitation and social political benefits are extensive and comparable, regardless of the various social regimes. However, when it comes to the detail they are quite different.

It is worth mentioning that compared to other countries, Germany and Austria have the most inflexible definition and distinction of blindness and considerable visual impairment. This impacts on the size the group of people eligible for social benefits. It follows that if Germany were to adopt the WHO’s definition of blindness, then the number of blind people in Germany would rise by 23%.

This question is also relevant when defining which partially sighted people are entitled to receive state benefits. In this context, I may refer you to my explanation of the Swedish model further below.

1. b) Each of the three countries shows benefits of particularly high quality. I must point out that the following illustration does not claim to be complete.

In Britain, for example, amongst these benefits is the subsidization of costs of special health aids. Furthermore, as part of the National Health Service (NHS), freely accessible high quality benefits are also available in Optometric outpatient clinics.

In Sweden, together with the high level of financial aid and advice, their system of low vision programmes has been expanding for more than thirty years.

In Germany, people who lead a working life are supported by special Offices for Integration (“Integrationsamt”). Moreover, they have the choice of whether they want their partially sighted children to attend a normal school together with children without disabilities or to attend a special needs school. In general, there is a high level of support in the field of rehabilitation. However, it has to be mentioned that these achievements have been in considerable danger as a result of the social reforms in Germany in the past two years.

1.c) There are weak spots in every country too:

In Germany it is regretable that, despite considerable efforts, the last phase of rehabilitation has not yet gained full acceptance. In addition to that, training in daily-living-skills has not yet been recognized as a benefit of medical rehabilitation and therefore there is no cost bearer apart from social security benefits. This results in considerable disadvantages for people who go blind in advanced age. After all, there has been the clear tendency to lower the level of supports.

In Sweden, in order to save money, it is becoming more common for low-vision-training for elderly people to be combined with physiotherapy and occupation therapy, simply by training these therapists in low-vision-training. As a consequence, the quality of rehabilitation of elderly people with low vision is rather poor, even though these people form the major part of the partially sighted . Furthermore, - and this is a serious development – blind people and people with severely impaired vision are no longer the focus of the rehabilitation system. In Sweden, children are always integrated in normal schools and rehabilitation is only possible as an out-patient. Low-vision-training often consists of only one to three meetings. „It’s hard to learn braille nowadays“ an expert informed me.

In Britain, rehabilitation benefits are subdivided in various institutions, a fact that is criticized by the people. On one hand, there are high-quality benefits in the field of low vision freely accessible by the NHS, but, on the other hand, there are fewer benefits in the field of daily living skills which are paid by the social administration, and these are restricted in access. Furthermore, there is considerable inefficency and difficulties in coordination amongst paying institutions and care facilities.

Again, also the content of this paragraph does not claim to be complete.

2. Regarding job rehabilitation and participation in working life, the following can be said:

2.a) the situation of job opportunities for the partially sighted has changed for the better. In the past thirty years the range of jobs in the examined countries has widened remarkably and there is a tendency for people to have higher qualifications.

Typical jobs for the blind, e.g. telephonist or typist, skilled trades for the blind or industrial worker, in Sweden even those of sound technician, have lost their importance. This development partially results from the fact that interesting alternatives for those facing the problem have become accessible to these people due to their higher qualifications. Moreover, these typical, traditional jobs for the blind are dying out.

By establishing modern service centers in German employment offices, for example, more than 80 jobs for blind telephonists were cut. Blind people’s competences, knowing several hundred phone numbers by heart or knowing who is best to contact, became worthless. These institutions have made every effort to retrain their telephonists to be advisors in these new service centers and to be employed as close to their homes as possible. However from the blind person’s perspective that have to expose themselves to considerable burden as they have to acquire new competences taking training measures far away from where they live in an unknown environment. The employment offices grant them various kinds of support.

2 b) Regarding the labour market, the following can be said:

The three social regimes present considerable differences in their success on the general labour market.

In 2004 the unemployment rate in Sweden amounted to about 6 % as an annual average. In Britain, it was below 5 %. By contrast, in Germany, unemployment was 9.5 % having had an upward trend for years. Austria had 4.5 % - see figure 1.

Diagram 1: Unemployment rates in Germany, Britain, Austria and Sweden 1993 – 2004

Source: European Commission:

Employment in Europe, Brussels 2005

Further considerable differences can be identified to what extent people are fit for gainful employment regarding their age, really work or intend to work. This results in the actual employment rate. In Sweden and Britain in 2004, 72 % and 73 % of the population aged 15 to 65 led a working life. In Germany, it was a mere 65 % and in Austria 69 % - see figure 2.

Both diagrams clearly show long term trends. I chose the year 2004 as the final year of my studies in order to exclude the special effects resulting from the labour market reforms in Germany beginning 1st January 2005.

Diagram 2: Employment rate in Germany, Britain, Austria and Sweden 1993 - 2004

Erwerbsquote (15-64)

63

65

67

69

71

73

75

199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

in % der Bevölkerung

Deutschland

Großbritannien

Österreich

Schweden

Employment rate (15 – 64)

in % of population

Germany

Britain

Austria

Sweden

Source: European Commission:

Employment in Europe, Brussels 2005

As a conclusion, nations from the various social regimes show consideralbe differences with regard to occupation and unemployment. Let us now have a look at the situation of partially sighted people in the labour markets. What is their current situation and development?

Fig. 2:

Partially sighted people in Germany 31st December 2005

:

Total

18 – 59 years

ratio

0

1

2

3

1

Blind people

79,506

18,857

23.7 %

2

people with severely impaired vision

50,104

7,645

15.3 %

3

= 1 + 2

129,610

26,402

20.4 %

4

other people with impaired vision

216,130

50,339

23.3 %

5

= 3 + 4

345,740

76,741

22.2 %

Source: German Federal Statistical Office and my own calculations

In all the nations that were examined, the ratio of partially sighted people to gainfully employed people amounts to merely half or one third of the general population.

Since the introduction of the ninth Book of the Social Code, there are detailed and steadily updated statistics available regarding the structure of age of partially sighted people in Germany. At the end of 2005, 23.7 % of the total of almost 80,000 blind people was of employable age. However, the proportion of people with severely impaired vision was only 15.3 % of a good 50,000. The proportion of other partially sighted people was 23.3 % of 216,000. Thus, we note that blindness and (severe) sight impairement is primarily a phenomenon befalling people advanced in age. This trend is reinforced by the progress in ophthalmology which nowadays helps avoid blindness and (severe) sight impairement in early life.

Despite accurate official statistics it can be presumed that the number of blind people in Germany is actually higher.

If the results of the study “Blind people in the Rhine area”, carried out in 1997 by the Infas Institute in Bonn/Germany (see below), were projected onto the entire Federal Republic of Germany, the number of blind people would be 133.000. This is significantly above the statistics of the severely sight impaired. It is, however, 23 % lower than the statistics of the World Health Organization.

According to the 2002 WHO report, 164,000 blind people (Blindness WHO grade 3, 4 or 5) and 1,066,000 partially sighted people (Low Vision WHO grade 1 or 2) live in Germany. The difference lies in the definition of the term “blind”.

The German Association of the Blind and Visually Disabled (DBSV) estimates the number of blind people at 150,000 and the number of people with severely impaired sight at approximately 500,000.

Unfortunately, I do not have as much detailed information regarding Sweden and Britain, but we can take it as read that they are about the same as in Germany.

However valuable the statistics about people with severe disabilities are, the findings regarding employment and unemployment of partially sighted people are still unsatisfactory.

Fig. 3:

Survey „Blind people in the Rhine Area“ carried out by Infas

Participating in gainful employment

Age

Blind

Total population

20 – 59

20 – 29

30 – 39

40 – 49

50 – 59

33 %

34 %

47 %

42 %

23 %

75 %

Age

Employment rate

20 – 59

Blind

27 %

Total population

68 %

Age

Not participating in gainful employment

20 – 59

Blind

67 %

Total population

25 %

of these

11 % houseperson / (child) carer

8 % training, further education, retraining

7 % unemployed (Unemployed/population20 – 65)

6 % long term sickness

35 % not known

Age

Unemployment rate (1993)

Blind

Total population

20 – 59

18 %

9.3 %

Source: MittAB 2/97

The latest survey “Blind people in the Rhine Area” was carried out in 1997 by the Infas Institute Bonn/Germany.

While 75 % of the total population aged twenty to sixty lead a working life, the percentage among the blind is only 33 %. The percentage rises the younger the people are. It is even 47 % of the people aged thirty to 39. However it falls to 23 % amongst the above fifty year-olds. This group of people, however, has the biggest proportion of partially sighted people as the problem rises the older people are.

As a matter of fact, 68 % of the total population but only 27% of blind people have a job. 25 % of the total population aged twenty to sixty did not participate in gainful employment at all. The proportion of blind people was 67 %. The main reasons for not participating in gainful employment were that these people were either a houseperson, carer for children or elder members of the family (11 %), participated in training, further education or retraining (8 %), were unemployed (7 %) or suffered from long-term sickness. (6 %). For the remaining 35 %, the reasons why they were not economically active is not known.

Fig. 4

State of employment of blind people

at an employable age (15 to 60 years)

in 2004 in Germany

9 %training

28 %working

8 %unemployed

36 %pensioners

7 %ill

12 %houseperson

Ref: http:/www.dbsv.org/infothek/Statistik.html#Anzahl (3rd March 2005)

Statistics from the German Association of the Blind and Visually Disabled (DBSV) for the year 2004, which are available on their website, show similar results: 28 % of the blind are employed, 8 % are unemployed and 9 % are trained. Unfortunately, the Association does not mention the source of their information.

About 140,000 blind and severely sight impaired people aged 18 to 64 live in Britain. It is, however, difficult to compare Germany with Britain for the employable age is defined differently. 35,000 – 38,000 of these people are employed which is equivalent to 25 – 27 %. 75% of the total population participates in gainful employment. Two to three percent i.e. 3,000 to 4,000 people are unemployed. This figure corresponds to the official unemployment rate of partially sighted people of about 9 % which is double the general unemployment rate. Some 100,000 people of employable age are currently economically inactive. About one third of them are regarded as basically able to work. This is an important fact for Britain as the country is facing an enormous lack of labour. At the moment fewer than 1,000 blind people work in sheltered or disabled workshops. Fifteen years ago, this figure exceeded 10,000.

A total of more than 100,000 partially sighted people live in Sweden. In Sweden, as in Britain, the definition of blindness is broader than in Germany which makes it difficult to compare them to each other. About 15,000 people are of employable age. 40 % to 50 % of these were said to be employed in 2005. The Swedish Association of the Visually Disabled claims that in the year 2000, too, 46 % of the blind and 51 % of the partially sighted led a working life. However, fulltime jobs were only occupied by 13 % of the partially sighted. Due to the fact that these figures derive from a poll among the members of the Association and neither from official statistics nor from a general survey, this positive data must be regarded with care. From a German point of view the Swedish figures seem like a dream. Some 1,200 partially sighted Swedish were unemployed which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 15 %.

The so called Activity Guarantee is a special quality in Sweden. It means that every Swede who has been unemployed for two years has the legal right to a six-month employment mostly with local authorities or a non-profit establishment.

2.c) Let us now talk about the quality of the integration of partially sighted people into the labour market

In the last paragraph, we have discussed participation in work life, employment and unemployment of partially sighted people in the three countries. Gathering further information from the three countries, we will now focus on quality.

- Being integrated into the first labour market is very difficult for partially sighted people in all three countries that were studied. The so called job wonders in Britain and Sweden change this fact only slightly.

- Qualifications and soft skills of partially sighted people significantly influence their job opportunities in the general labour market.

- In contrast, additional disabilities or health problems complicate their integration into working life.

- As a result of globalization and intensified competition job migration empties the labour markets that are relevant to partially sighted people usually “from the bottom”, that means simple and less sophisticated work fields first.

- During the five years of lasting economic stagnation that we faced in Germany, the number of jobs subject to social insurance decreased by 27,000 every month on average, which is about 330,000 every year and a total of some 1.65 million. The chances for partially sighted people finding a job were therefore devastating on all levels. The 2005 labour market reforms in Germany have not improved the situation of partially sighted people. Neither has the new economic upturn with its general slight rise in employment to date.

- In general one can say that, in all the nations studied, people who went blind at an early age are more often than not registered as either employed or unemployed, while people who faced a severe sight loss during their working life are usually given early retirement. In Britain, up until a few years ago, it used to be enough for a GP to certify somebody’s condition in order to apply for incapacity benefit. In Sweden, too, people who go blind during their working life are usually granted incapacity benefit. However, people face extreme difficulties if they wish to re-start working at a later point in time. In Germany, people who go blind are likewise entitled to incapacity benefit. This implies the withdrawal from working life. However „Rehabilitation is better than retirement“ is a matter of principle.

- In all countries that were examined, employers are unwilling to employ partially sighted people which implies high barriers to jobs in the first labour market. Ninety out of a hundred British employers consider the idea of employing a partially sighted person to be impossible or at least very difficult.

In Sweden, the general idea is similar to Britain: Employers believe that people with severely impaired vision are unable to do a good job.

In addition, it is well-known in Britain and Sweden, that one quickly loses any social support when receiving money for work, even if it is only part-time work. Moreover, earned income for unsophisticated work is often below the level of social benefits. The result is that there is no economic incentive to take up such a job.

Fig. 5:

Arbeitslosenquote

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

in %

Deutschland

Großbritannien

Österreich

Schweden

Job opportunities for disabled people

Do job opportunities for theses groups of disabled people basically exist?

People with internal illnesses, organ malfunctions (e.g. resulting from cancer cardiovascular illness, HIV, diabetes and others)

People with physical disabilities

People with linguistic disabilities

People with hearing difficulties, deafness

People with learning difficulties

Epileptics

Partially sighted, blind

Psychological difficulties

Yes without restrictions

Yes under certain conditions

Company employs disabled people

Company does not employ disabled people

A written poll among 815 companies and administrations, carried out in 2004 by the Infas Institute Bonn, revealed a sober picture concerning job opportunities for partially sighted people. Two out of one hundred companies with no disabled employees said that they were unequivocally prepared to employ partially sighted or blind people. Another nine could imagine such an employment under certain conditions. Four out of one hundred companies that have already employed disabled people declared that they were prepared to employ a partially sighted or blind person without reservations. Another 19 said the same but with certain conditions. This result does not only bring us back to reality, it, moreover, makes us worry that, apart from mentally disabled people, no group of disabled is granted such a small chance of professional integration as the partially sighted are according to the questioned employers. However, Reiner Schwarzbach, director of the Bonn centre for job agencies for disabled managerial staff and severely disabled university graduates, qualifies this result by speaking about his long experience as a job agent for blind and partially sighted university graduates.

I would like to mention some of the tools and programmes in Germany that help improve the chance of professional integration of partially sighted people and safeguards existing employments. The system “Accompanying help in working life” of the so called German Integration Offices has existed for years. It finds and safeguards employments by advising and supporting disabled employees.

Moreover, the so called Specialized Integration Service (Integrationsfachdienst IFD) was created when the Ninth Book of the Social Code was introduced. This Service specializes in improving the job opportunities available to disabled people.

Lately, they have been focusing on integration projects according to the Ninth Book of the Social Code. These are business ideas employing a large number of disabled people.

In addition, the Second and Third Book of the Social Code set out general regulations as tools for work promotion.

- Due to current economic stagnation i.e. low economic growth and few vacancies, job opportunities for partially sighted people in Germany have dramatically worsened. The idea has already been discussed to revive disabled workshops as some sort of a third labour market for less qualified people with restricted vision. In contrast to the second labour market, the so called Third Labour Market describes the permanently state-promoted occupation of people who can not gain a foothold in the first labour market or are no longer able to do so. The number of partially sighted people who do not have any additional disability and start work in sheltered workshops for mentally disabled people has lately increased, even though any other opportunity of professional integration would be better. Working in such a workshop seems to be the most inefficient and most costly solution by far, not to speak of the question of human dignity. Sheltered workshops have been crated for disabled people and not for labour market reasons.

The intention to create a Third Labour Market was not to help the disabled but to find a general solution to long-term unemployment. Both the Federal Ministry for Work and Social Affairs and the Federal Work Office are discussing the possibilities of the Third Labour Market for people whose supply of labour does not satisfy the demand on the first labour market.

3. Now let us focus on the third and final question of this study: The special compensation of disadvantage due to disability and/or blindness, Welfare Benefit, Social Security and Social Assistance. Now, let us focus on the third and final question of this study: the special compensation of disadvantage due to disability and/or blindness, Welfare Benefit, Social Security and Social Assistance.

3.a) In Britain, income-related social benefit is increased for disabled people. In addition, there is a pension for disabled people which is not affected by one’s income or savings. It is financed by the central budget and amounts to the same sum all over Britain depending on the applicants’ age.

The DLA (Disabled Living Allowance) was introduced in 1992 and has been granted to applicants younger than 65 years of age. However, it has to be emphasized that the DLA is not a pension for blind people in particular, but for disabled people in general.

Claimants have to complete a questionnaire from which the need for financial support is determined.

Disability Living Allowance has two parts called “components” a combination of which is paid to claimants. A care allowance of £16.50 a week is granted to people who are in need of one daily service, for example dressing, reading, shopping. If two or more services per day are needed, £41.65 a week is granted. People who need day-and-night-assistance receive £62.25.

The second component of DLA is called mobility allowance and is divided into two rates, namely £16.50 or £42.45. Blind people can only apply for the lower rate.

Fig.6:

DLA in Britain

Allowances

Amount (£ / week)

CareLower rate

Middle rate

Higher rate

16,50

41,65

62,25

MobilityLower rate

Higher rate

16,50

43,45

Reference: Dep. of Work and Pensions

www.dwp.gov.uk

Example: A blind person receives the lower rate of the mobility allowance (£16.50) plus the middle rate of the care allowance (£41.65). This totals £58.15 per week which makes £251.80 per month or roughly 375 € (exchange rate: £1 = 1.50 €).

Attendance Allowance (AA) has existed since 1971 and, since the introduction of DLA, has been granted to applicants from the age of 65. Attendance Allowance is either the middle rate of the care allowance (when blind, for example) or the higher rate for round-the-clock care granting the above-mentioned sums. As a conclusion, it can be said that old people are considerably discriminated against in comparison to younger ones in so far as the amount of money is concerned that is available to compensate a visual disability. This discrimination has existed since 1992. Before DLA was introduced, there was no restriction of benefits for older people. Again, I would like to emphasize that this pension is not a special one for blind people but for disabled in general. It is not necessary to have paid contributions in advance in order to be entitled to these benefits later. This means that according to the system of social policy it is called Social Assistance.

3.b) Apart from the generally good social benefits and consulting services, Sweden possesses a legislation of benefits for disabled people that grants a balance of disadvantage according to number, type and intensity of the disabilities which is not linked to income or savings.

Partially sighted people aged 16 to 65, i.e. people with a visus of less than 0.1, claiming it, are entitled to the highest level of benefits, namely 2,283 Swedish Crowns per month at current rates, which equals to about 244 € or £163. As soon as they are entitled to an old age pension, their benefit is halved. People in Sweden claiming the benefit at the age of 65 or above, are not entitled to any further benefits to compensate their disability. Thus, the discrimination of age is even more obious in Sweden than in Britain.

Financial compensation for blindness in Sweden is not a particular benefit either but a part of a compensation for disabled people without requiring previous contributions or information regarding one’s income or savings. It is therefore also known as Social Assistance. The same regulations apply all over the country.

3.c) Finally, let us have a closer look a the financial compensation for people with impaired vision in Germany:

In Germany, apart from the benefits that are granted according to the Second and the 12th Book of the Social Code, we have had financial assistance for the blind since 1961 which is independent from income and savings (BSHG, Federal Legislation for the Disabled). This Welfare Benefit varies in each Federal State and is either paid from the budgets of the Federal State and/or the towns and/or parafisci e.g. the so called “Landeswohlfhrtsverbände” (Welfare Associations of the Federal States). In 1969 the term ”blindness“ was re-defined which lead to the fact that there were fewer people entitled to claim whereas the benefits rose considerably.

In addition, in the 1970s, the States of the Federal Republic of Germany introduced a special benefit for blind people (“Blindengeld”) which was independent from income and capital. Both the amount and conditions as well as the financing varied with each Federal State.

After the German reunification, in 1992, the social benefits that were granted by the former German Democratic Republic were transformed into invalidity pensions for those no longer fit for gainful employment and provision for disability for working people with impaired sight.

The Federal States of the East of Germany soon introduced the ”Blindengeld“ which is independent from income and capital according to the system in the West.

The “Blindengeld“ has varied more and more among the Federal States regarding its preconditions and amount. Almost all States have decreased it, some of them considerably. Several States even thought of abolishing it completely and leaving the blind people with “Blindenhilfe” which, in contrast, depends on income and capital. Two initiatives from the State of Bremen in 2001 and 2003 were averted with the very efficient support of self-help associations working together with other establishments and the media. In this context, we experienced the first national demonstration of blind people in Germany since the Second World with more than 4,000 sight-impaired participants.

Despite considerable protests and a big demonstration in Hanover, the abolishment of the “Blindengeld” was imposed in the Federal State of Lower Saxony in 2004 for blind citizens aged 27 or older. In cases of hardship, money from an especially created social budget was paid according to the State’s own estimation. Thus, Lower Saxony was the first Federal State to leave Social Assistance behind, which was intended to compensate disadvantage, and move over to liberal Welfare Benefit which is, moreover, distributed according to free estimation.

The continuing political resistance of self-help groups led, via a petition for a referendum, to new successful discussions with the Lower Saxony government and its new head of the Social Ministry. In 2007, the “Blindengeld”, independent from income and capital, was re-introduced, however on a clearly lower level.

(In this context, it seems to me worth mentioning that Mrs von der Leyen who used to be Social Minister of Lower Saxony very much supported the introduction of a liberal Welfare Benefit instead of a compensation of disadvantage. In contrast, she is now in favour of child allowance (“Kindergeld”) which is paid regardless of income and capital in Germany. Moreover, as Federal Minister of Family Affaires, she now creates the so-called “Elterngeld” (Parents allowance) to compensate income spent on child care. It amounts to 67% of the former salary. What a change of mind!)

Following Lower Saxony, the Federal State of Thüringen has recently abolished the “Blindengeld” for blind citizens aged 27 or older, too. Self-help groups have, however, already taken the initiative and first discussions of revision are about to take place.

Conclusion

Let us now summarize the main results of the research into our three nations representing the social state regimes according to Esping-Andersen. Let us focus on the way they influence the lives of people with low vision.

The „basic benefits“ are comparable although they are not the same. There are strengths and weaknesses in each of the three countries.

Germany currently lies behind Britain and Sweden as far as the labour market and occupation of not exclusively partially sighted people are concerned. This result corresponds to the situation in the labour markets in general in countries with a conservative social state regime. Neither in Britain nor in Sweden can a “miracle of occupation” for sight-impaired people be noticed which forms a contrast to the situation in the general labour market. One is inclined to think that people with disabilities, whose situations in the labour market are generally regarded as difficult, are among the last ones to benefit from an increase in occupation unless their competition is not promoted considerably by labour market policies. Promoting the integration of people with disabilities into the labour market is important both from an ethical point of view and regarding the fact that everybody should take part in politics. Furthermore, it is the most profitable solution for the social system at medium-term notice.

As far as the compensation of disadvantage is concerned, Britain has moved considerably from the liberal to a social democratic regime. Sweden also provides a State Benefit for people with disabilities that amounts to the same level all over the country. In contrast to Germany, both countries, however, discriminate against the biggest group of people with low vision, namely the elderly.

In Germany, there is a high level of Social Assistances which, however, vary considerably among the Federal States. Since the year 2000, as a result of general financial problems in the public budgets, the Federal States have been inclined to reduce or abolish the blind allowance and go over to a liberal social state regime, i.e. to Welfare Benefits.

As a conclusion of this study, and the explanations of Mr. Krispl before this lecture, Austria should be assigned to Scandinavia although it is located in central Europe. It represents a social democratic social state regime as far as people with disabilities are concerned.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It was difficult to gather all the information for this study. I would like to thank many people from the three countries for their support and information. I would like to mention four of them that gave me access to most valuable information:

Mrs. Thorstensen,

Mr. Angermann,

Mr. Brass and

Mr. Kaltwasser.

I would also like to say thank you to you for your contributions to this discussion, for hints, ideas and criticism.

As you know, in science, especially in social science, we always work close to error (citing Karl Popper).

E-Mail: Bach@staff.uni-marburg.de

Heinz-Willi.Bach2@arbetisagentur.de

Translated from the German language by Simone Bohnert

Translation was sponsored by DVBS

(Deutscher Verein der Blinden und Sehbehinderten in Studium und Beruf e.V.)

PAGE

3