Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

THE POLITICS OF LABOUR MARKET ADJUST-
MENT IN POST-1989 POLAND
Table 3. Unemployment benefit coverage and replacement rate
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
Entitled to benefit
(% of the unemployed
registered)
79 79 52 48 50 59 52 30 23 24 20 20 17 15 14 14 14 14
Unemployment
benefit (% of Polish
average wage)
19.6 34.2 37.9 36 37 36.7 33.4 32 30.5 23.8 23.3 23.1 23.4 22.9 22 21.9 21.5 20
Source: Ministry of Economy and Labour (data end of year)
While 79% of the unemployed received
income support from the unemployment
insurance in 1990-1991, the proportion of
the unemployed covered by the benefit started
to decrease significantly from 1992 (table 3).
In 1999 there were 2.3 million unemployed,
out of which 554 000 (almost one in four)
received an unemployment benefit. In 2002 by
comparison, there were 3.2 million unemployed
(almost one million more) while the number
of recipients of the unemployment benefit
had slightly decreased, with only 539 000
being eligible. The proportion of unemployed
people entitled to the benefit sunk to 14%
in 2004 and has remained at that level since.
Such a drastic reduction of the eligibility
for unemployment benefits was triggered
by the combination of the limited duration
of the benefit and an increasing
unemployment duration. With many
page 132 unemployed remaining jobless for a
long time (more than half for longer
than a year from 2002), the number
of beneficiaries declined mechanically over
the years to become a marginal proportion of
the unemployed, falling below one in five in
2005. The people who stopped being eligible
for benefits over time are unlikely to receive
any other form of income replacement and
may only qualify for basic social assistance like
food aid. As Gardawski (2002c) noted, in 2000,
the average annual subsistence allowance paid
by the social services barely amounted to one
month of the average wage. Survey data on the
economic means of the unemployed confirms
that social assistance is not a source of income
for those left without benefit (ISSP 1997).
Meanwhile, the level of the unemployment
benefit, which is determined by the Ministry
of Labour and Social Policy, decreased in a
severe manner (table3). The replacement rate,
an indicator showing the level of the benefit
in relation to wages 10 , stood at 76% of the
minimum wage and 30.5% of the average
wage in 1998, whereas one decade later it
accounted for only 49% of the minimum wage
(2008) and 20% of the average wage (2007) 11 .
Both developments had an important social
impact: further impoverishment of those who
remained in unemployment for a long time.
In 1997, according to survey data, only 22% of