Social work in the web of social protection: Contexts and alternatives

Introduction

The Portuguese State, particularly since 1986 once it had joined the European Economic Community (EEC), has been developing policies to respond to social problems under the influence of European Union (EU) socioeconomic strategies, within the framework of cooperation, integration and social cohesion directives that have a direct influence on the decision-making process of the governments of each Member State. ¹

The Maastricht Treaty (1992) is an important marker in EU social policy, and has been directly influencing Portuguese public and social policies by affirming the primacy of public spending and setting limitations to social policies. Since then, the EU has encouraged the implementation of minimum income policies. In 1996, Portugal created the Minimum Guaranteed Income (RMG) scheme, now known as Social Insertion Income (RSI), which met the recommendations made by the Commission in 1992 (Baptista and Cabrita, 2009).

The Lisbon Strategy (European Council, 2000) defined as a priority the implementation of long-term action plans and a new strategic objective: ‘to become the most dynamic and competitive economic area in the world based on open and sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’. In 2002, discussions continued with the strengthening of the issue of employment and encouragement of female labour participation in the job market in pursuit of the objective of fighting poverty. In 2005, the European Commission presented a new strategy to battle poverty and promote social inclusion through a community initiative focusing on minimum income schemes and the integration of people excluded from the labour market (European Commission, Social Agenda 2005–2010). In the same year, the revision of the Lisbon Strategy started to influence the definition of policies between Member States, which are subject to EU guidelines and the shared resources of the European Social Fund (ESF) for regional development. In the Portuguese case, according to data from the ESF, ² more than US$10.5bn ³ were spent between 2007 and 2013, of which US$4.7bn were earmarked for policies in the area of lifelong education and training for the labour market, among others.

In Portugal, with the enactment of Decree-Law 70/2010, which resulted in the Stability and Growth Programme 2010–2013, policies in the framework of family protection and solidarity subsystems were monitored by a set of regulations and procedures with the objective of standardising the rules for the assessment of family income and household composition (Portugal, Official Gazette of the Republic. Decree-Law 70/2010). The purpose of these policies was to validate resources and define the right to gain access to support, subsidies and social benefits. This redefined the conditions necessary to benefit from social policies, with the systematic introduction of procedures for reviewing family resources supported by principles of budgetary adjustment.

Even in the context of budgetary adjustments and the redefinition of criteria that results in restricted access, within the field of both public and social policies, social work has contributed to the interpretation of the social reality and has offered knowledge based on accumulated experience (the result of direct intervention with citizens and research), whose empirical results can theoretically and scientifically influence the design of social policies.

Different potentialities can be identified in the professional practice of social work within the scope of policies, taking into consideration three central dimensions: (a) social diagnosis, (b) working network and (c) assistance in the construction of the life project.

The welfare system – which, according to Titmuss (1974), aims to organise the apparatus of the state’s social responses to meet the needs of people and produce well-being by means of policies directed to this end – constitutes the greatest field of action of social workers in Portugal.

Still, in the theoretical field, Esping-Andersen’s (1990) proposal on the typology of welfare regimes has allowed the broadening of the understanding of the social policy developed by the different countries according to particular social-historical characteristics. In the case of Portugal, part of the social policies are developed based on the corporatist regime of welfare, with policies shaped by the church and the tradition of the family as ‘the principle of “subsidiarity” serves to emphasise that the state will only interfere when the family capacity to service its members is exhausted’ (Esping-Andersen, 1990: 27). Silva (2002) asserts that Portuguese social policies were developed following a specific model applied to the countries of southern Europe, due to the country’s particular characteristics; that is, the influence of the period of the extreme right wing dictatorial regime on social policies, a period during which the ideals of separation of the state and of the Church and the perspective of modernisation of the economy were weakened, and the dominance of Catholic social thought became even more evident (Silva, 2002). Another feature of Portuguese social policies is that as a south European country, it follows similar approaches to Latin America social policies, with the blending of social protection models with a Bismarkian and Beveridian basis (Boschetti, 2012; Silva, 2002).

In the context of redefinition of social policies, especially between the years 2010 and 2015, we will aim to identify the implications of the measures adopted in Portugal during the period of budgetary adjustment on the satisfaction of people’s overall personal well-being and the possibilities of social work intervention, considering the social and political relevance of Student Welfare Policy in Higher Education (ASES) and RSI, in order to exemplify these implications according to the specificities of the measures. Both measures are spaces of action of social work in which potentialities can be identified in the different subsystems of social protection in general, and of RSI and ASES in particular – especially in what concerns their common aspects that are central to the development of the daily work of searching for alternative answers to problems that austerity measures can inflict on citizens.

Methodology

The nature of the study is qualitative and quantitative, with a method of deductive scientific orientation taking into consideration the theoretical starting point and the empirical data.

RSI data were extracted from statistical sources of official agencies, such as the National Institute of Statistics of Portugal (INE), the Contemporary Portugal Database (Pordata) developed by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, and Social Security.

ASES data were extracted from a database that comprises the research conducted by Santos and Ferreira (2017). In this way, partial and preliminary results are presented in this study, thus requiring a greater analytical consideration and exploration of other data not shown in this article.

The sample consisted of 452 students who answered an online questionnaire survey between April and May 2016, involving four Portuguese state universities distributed between the north, centre and south-central regions of Portugal. All students participating in the research received or were recipients of scholarships from the General Directorate of Higher Education on the date of the response. The data processing involved the following steps:

Portuguese social protection measures in the context of austerity

The financial crisis reached Europe in 2008 bringing harmful impacts, especially to countries such as Portugal. Since then, the country has been forced to adopt a set of measures imposed by the international intervention of institutions such as the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Such measures resulted in the retraction of the welfare state and the reduction of social protection. Austerity, unemployment, indebtedness and falling household incomes, as well as rising poverty and social exclusion, increased.

Pereirinha (2003) interprets social policy as a strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion aimed at reinforcing its link with economic policy and employment policy: ‘fighting against social exclusion requires not only acting on the effects, but also, and especially, on the causes (preventive action) that prevent the realisation of social citizenship’ (p. 237–238).

ASES and RSI are within this context of production of the protection measures, two different areas of action for social workers even though not exclusive.

ASES is a subsystem that integrates education policies, more specifically those of higher education, regulated by Decree-Law 129/1993, which has acquired the status of social response to students (Portugal, Official Gazette of the Republic. Law n. 129 of April 1993). This subsystem has given the institutions the role of developing welfare policies. Considered as a relationship between the state and the students, it allows access to higher education and establishes positive discriminative actions favouring students with economic needs who achieve school success, thereby ensuring that students can remain at university despite their economic situation. Other legal texts incorporate a set of ASES standards dealing with different content and specific areas, such as Order 8442/2012 that regulates the award of grants to students who attend state and private higher education. The target group of ASES consists of young people who are newcomers to higher education or adults entering higher education, whose monthly income profile in a single-person family unit should be at most the equivalent of US$761 in 2016, or an annual family income of up to US$9141 per capita (Portugal, Official Gazette of the Republic. Dispatch n. 7031-B / 2015, of June 24). The policy has been influenced by the Bologna statement (1999) that changed the paradigm of European higher education, along with guidelines from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that has produced impacts by establishing directives to educational policies through regulatory measures (Pacheco, 2003). On the other hand, such policy caused an increase in the volume of resources of the State Budget allocated to the sector with the incorporation of resources from the ESF, mainly up to 2012.

Concerning the RSI, this measure is a

benefit included in the solidarity subsystem and in an integration programme, so as to give people and their families support in line with their personal situation, and contribute to the satisfaction of their basic needs and foster progressive labour, social and community integration. (Law 13/2003, Art. 1)

The benefit is of a transitional nature (Law 13/2003, Art. 2). The insertion programme consists of a set of actions aimed at the gradual social integration of the measures’ holders, as well as the members of their household (Law 13/2003, Art. 3). RSI aims at the social and professional integration of people aged between 18 and 30 years old or families who are in a situation of severe economic need and who fulfil all other conditions. ⁴ The rigidity of the programme’s criteria for granting social benefits establishes that failure to complete the insertion programme, besides involving the immediate cessation of the benefit, prevents the citizen from re-applying for the benefit for a minimum period of 12 months (Law 13/2003). The citizen and the household are subject to requisites, the responsibility for assignment and supervision of which falls under the umbrella of the Social Security Institute. The financial support given is equivalent to US$584 per month for a family with no income, consisting of two adults and two children. ⁵ The target group of the RSI is citizens over 18 years old living in a situation of severe economic shortage and with a total monthly income lower than US$216.30. ⁶ While receiving the unemployment benefit, beneficiaries must either attend training courses that are considered as facilitators of their employability or have access to regular education. However, beneficiaries are subject to a limit of participation in the programme of up to 1 year, and its renewal depends on the proof of the non-alteration of family income, a fact commented on by Cardoso (2011):

if the scarce assets or capital that is held are the product of a life lived until then, of an experience of inequality at the level of the basic conditions and the opportunities, one cannot pretend that, in a short time, like by magical arts, such capitals increase exponentially and a new trajectory begins. (p. 55)

The measures adopted with the RSI aim at providing immediate relief to the situation of poverty of the beneficiaries and enabling them to be part of the workforce and wider society. However, the Portuguese labour market has difficulties in integrating them due to

the precarious nature of labour relations, the lack of real professional opportunities in certain sectors, and the very low salaries offered preventing employment to be an alternative. On the other hand, there are also personal conditions that constitute an obstacle to the success of RSI in terms of employability, namely the very low levels of education and training of many RSI beneficiaries. (Baptista and Cabrita, 2009: 22)

In this matter, Cardoso (2011) adds that it is important to take into account the particular situation of the person, their limitations and the development of their potential.

Regarding ASES, this policy aims to democratise access to higher education, make sure that lack of resources is not a mechanism of exclusion, and thereby help to improve the qualification of citizens. The mandatory payment of fees (to all students regardless of their socioeconomic condition) of no less than US$888.30 per school year imposes restrictions to access. One of the alternatives to mitigate this situation is the democratisation of access to higher education through policies of positive discrimination and the promotion of equal opportunities for people with socioeconomic needs. However, these policies, which have been implemented by the Portuguese government, have faced some constraints with the revision of the regulations for granting subsidies that have defined increasingly strict selection criteria, especially in the period between 2011 and 2014.

In the case of RSI, it is a measure directed at emergency needs with palliative results, making it difficult to end the situation of vulnerability, bringing into debate the accommodation/dependence of the beneficiaries, the assistentialism of the programme and the difficulty in operationalising the ‘exit doors’ (Fernandes, 2012). Frequently, social policies tend to respond to social problems in emergency situations, thus responding to those problems superficially without solving macro-structural inequality. Measures of strong social control are then adopted, the resolutive efficiency of which is questionable (Boschetti, 2012).

Together, socioeconomic vulnerability – which affects access for some parts of the population – and the low professional qualifications of people simultaneously contribute to the creation of the unemployment cycle. In this context, we question the full effectiveness of policies aimed at filling situations of lack of protection in the face of the austerity measures adopted in response to the socioeconomic crisis experienced in Portugal, namely, those aimed at promoting access to higher education by supporting the payment of tuition fees and offering an income for the survival of citizens.

We assume that the austerity measures adopted as a result of the worsening of the crisis period had an effect on both policies. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the framework provided by poverty line indicators, defined at European level but disseminated by the Portuguese Institute of Statistics corresponding to 60 percent of median income per adult, in line with community legislation.

In 2010, in a total population of approximately 10.6 million inhabitants, 1.8 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, around 17.0 percent of the total population. Between 2012 and 2013, with a total population of around 10.5 million inhabitants, there was an increase of 237,000 people suffering severe material deprivation, and an increase of the severe material deprivation rate of 8.6 percent to 10.9 percent, numbers that had repercussions on the increase of the poverty rate in Portugal INE, 2011). With regard to the number of beneficiaries of RSI services, the number of citizens covered decreased from 526,382 in 2010 to 320,554 in 2014 and to 208,974 in June 2015 (Portugal Social Security, 2015). It is therefore possible to see a linear decreasing trend in the variation rate of the citizens covered by the RSI (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1.

Severe material deprivation rate and citizens covered by RSI in Portugal, 2010 to 2015.

With regard to ASES, two aspects need to be analysed during this period: the number of students enrolled in higher education and the number of students with scholarships. Following the guidelines of the Convention against Discrimination in Education issued by UNESCO in 1960, Portugal expanded the number of students in higher education only after the April 1974 ‘Revolution’, and the first specific law for ASES was enacted in 1980 (Cerdeira, 2009; Lopes, 2013; Martins, 2012; Vaz, 2009). In this context, social services of state universities were created throughout the country with social support structures and, according to Cerdeira (2009), budget allocations for the area increased from 1980 until the year 2000, with a decrease as from 2004. In the 2010–2011 academic year there were 403,445 students enrolled in state and private higher education. In the 2013–2014 academic year there were 370,996 students, and 21,500 less students 2 years later (Portugal Ministry of Education, 2015). The number of students with scholarships and grants started declining also in 2010, with the largest decline until 2013, from about 75,000 to 58,818 scholarship holders. The trend of the impact of cuts and reductions in education budgets is confirmed by the study of Mauritti et al. (2015) as being a consequence of the fiscal adjustment measures taken by the Portuguese government in recent years (Figure 2). It is believed that the cuts on the budget contributed to a reduction of the number of students enrolled because of the obligatory tuition fees payment.

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Figure 2.

Number of students enrolled and with scholarships in higher education.

The volume of expenditure of the State Budget with ASES and RSI gradually reduced. The investment in RSI decreased from approximately US$487m in 2011 to US$346m in 2014, a reduction of about 40 percent in 3 years. Conversely, public expenditure in ASES, which had registered an increase of about 760 percent from 1991 to 2009 (Cerdeira, 2009: 302), suffered a decrease of 17 percent from 2011 to 2015 (Figure 3).

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Figure 3.

RSI and grant expenditures.

The data show widespread reductions in the number of citizens with ASES and RSI support, reflecting the reduction of expenses with these social protection subsystems concomitant with the constant increase in the poverty indicator of the country.

With regard to ASES, one identified a redistributive effect on the value of scholarships at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD); nevertheless, such redistribution followed a national trend. Thus, during the academic years 2014–2015 and 2015–2016, the number of students with scholarships increased but the value of scholarships decreased, redistributing the amounts paid. In 2011 alone, 46 percent of paid scholarships corresponded exactly to the amount of costs with tuition fees, which means that the student received the scholarship only to cover tuition fees.

Thus, the question that arises when faced with this particular structural conjuncture is how the Portuguese social protection system finds ways to react to budget cuts without letting austerity measures hinder the fundamental social rights of citizens, especially those that are most unprotected, considering the characteristics of social policies (Figure 4). Another question is how social work can participate in the process of formulating innovative responses and synergetically combine its performance regarding the two policies here exemplified.

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Figure 4.

Synthesis of the synergies in social work intervention in both subsystems.

Indicators for informed practice in social work

The aim is to find evidence in the empirical field in order to support proposals of an informed practice in social work within the context of budgetary adjustment, considering the Portuguese reality. To that end, hypotheses were tested to find relationships between social indicators, based on the data collected by the survey of students from four Portuguese state universities who received scholarships in 2014. This means that this is a specific public who meet the eligibility criteria established by the Portuguese ASES legislation, and who are therefore classified as students with economic needs.

Parents’ social indicators

In relation to Hypothesis 1, the working conditions of the students’ parents are influenced by schooling; an analysis of Figure 5 allows us to understand that most fathers are employed (59.5%), of whom 5.8 percent had completed higher education, 23.1 percent had secondary education and 47.0 percent had completed primary education. Among mothers, 59.6 percent were employed, 41.0 percent had 5–8 years of schooling and 34.5 percent secondary education (see Figure 5).

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Figure 5.

Parents’ work situations and schooling.

Roughly 12.3 percent of fathers were self-employed and had a higher level of schooling, as 8.9 percent held a higher education degree, 5.1 percent had not completed higher education and 31.6 percent had completed secondary education, while 2.5 percent were illiterate. Regarding mothers, 5.6 percent of the students mentioned them in the same condition, in which we found that a large percentage of mothers completed 8 years of schooling (56.4%), 17.9 percent of them had secondary education and the same percentage had finished higher education.

Approximately 16.0 percent of the fathers were unemployed; 48.6 percent of them had 8 years of schooling, 17.8 percent had secondary education and only 6.5 percent had higher education. Unemployment reached 17.2 percent of mothers, and particularly those who had 5–8 years of schooling (50.0%), followed by secondary education (23.3%), and 0.8 percent for mothers who had never been to school. Only 6.7 percent of mothers with full tertiary education were unemployed.

In the group of retirees, 11.4 percent of the fathers had 1–4 years of schooling (35.6%) and 5–8 years of schooling (39.7%), with the percentage of higher education graduates being lower (8.2%). Among the 6.5 percent of mothers in the same condition, 57.8 percent had attended 5–8 years of school and 26.7 percent 1–4 years, with only 2.2 percent having completed higher education.

Roughly 11.0 percent of mothers were responsible for home care and, among them, schooling was also limited to the lowest levels, as 42.9 percent had completed 5–8 years and 26.0 percent 1–4 years, 1.3 percent were illiterate and the percentage with complete higher education is 5.2 percent.

One can therefore conclude that there is a significant relationship between the working condition and the level of schooling (χ²(15) = 35.836, p = 0.002 and χ²(20) = 48.364, p = 0.004, respectively) and that the association is weak (Cramer’s V = 0.137 and Cramer’s V = 0.132, respectively). The hypothesis is thus confirmed since less educated parents are more likely to be unemployed, retired or professionally inactive.

Mothers and fathers in a situation of employment, whether self-employed or not, present the highest percentage of complete tertiary education. As a result, the percentage of employment varies according to the level of education: the percentage of employed mothers is higher for those with 8 or more years of schooling, as well as for those who are self-employed, unlike the retirees who mainly have up to 8 years of school education. The percentage of employed fathers is higher for those with up to 8 years of schooling, while the percentage of employees and retirees is higher for those with secondary and higher education.

Within the general context of Portuguese society, according to Eurostat, 63.0 percent of employed people completed basic education, while 77.6 percent completed secondary education. However, the employment rate of those who completed higher education was higher than the rates presented, which is 82.7 percent, while the rate for the rest of the EU in 2014 is 83.7 percent for the population aged 25–64. Therefore, employment rates vary according to the level of education, and individuals with low schooling are subject to fragile employability (Kovács, 2004) and lower wages.

Unemployment rates − 17.2 percent for mothers and 16.7 percent for fathers – were above the national average of 10.8 percent in the second quarter of 2016, according to INE (2017). The average level of schooling for ASES mothers in unemployment is higher than the national average for some levels of schooling, according to data from INE and Pordata in 2016. For Portuguese women with primary education the percentage was 11.7 percent, and for secondary and post-secondary education it was 13.4 percent. However, the national average of 8.6 percent of women with higher education was higher than the percentage of ASES mothers who were unemployed, at 6.7 percent. Illiteracy for women in unemployment was 11.0 percent in 2016, a higher percentage compared to 0.8 percent of the mothers who are part of this research. As for fathers, the percentage of illiterate men in Portugal was 14.9 percent in 2016, which is not the same for ASES fathers who are unemployed (INE, 2017). Our data also show that 18.7 percent of men in this situation have primary education and 31.8 percent secondary and post-secondary education, lower percentages compared to ASES fathers. However, 8.0 percent of unemployed men had higher education, a percentage higher than the 6.5 percent of ASES fathers.

Still in relation to higher education, our data show that the fathers and the mothers who finished higher education present percentages below the Portuguese average and well below the European average. Observing educational indicators, 22.8 percent of Portugal’s population are aged between 25 and 64 and have completed full tertiary education, compared to 34.9 percent of the OECD countries and 31.0 percent of the EU Member States (data from 2015).

However, unemployment is a special factor of concern in Portuguese society and long-term unemployment is even more of a concern. Long-term unemployment ‘results in a lack of learning and loss of qualifications. A precarious situation does not improve people’s employability’ (Kovács, 2004: 62). In this study, it is possible to verify that the reduction in the number of citizens covered by RSI is not directly related to the capacity of the labour market to give work to the unemployed, but to the control of spending on social policies. However, although the measures adopted by RSI have among their objectives the qualification for labour and social integration, the Portuguese labour market finds it difficult to integrate RSI citizens because of their low qualifications – low level of education and training – a fact that promotes the creation of the unemployment cycle. In this way, there is a need to rethink the way in which this objective has been developed.

In this context, the social work intervention in RSI is based on helping the construction of people’s ‘life projects’ and on the paradigm of the involvement of technicians and service receivers, in which families find answers to their needs in conjunction with the motivation work to develop a ‘spirit of initiative’ (Rodrigues, 2010). Life projects are the result of a set of factors derived from an assessment of people’s situations, based on their own resources, life experiences and paths, and future expectations (Fernandes, 2012).

According to Rodrigues (2010), the Portuguese social protection system, until the middle of 1990, was focused on work that was considered to be a path of social integration. However, the inability of the labour market to attend to the employment needs of citizens has forced the creation of alternative mechanisms, instituted through a new social contract, which encompasses the accountability of the state, the market and local communities: the ‘inclusive economy’ or social economy. Inclusive or social economy can be seen as a ‘gateway’ for citizens covered by RSI when other social actors are included to complement the social responses of the state. In turn, the state should not be exempt from responsibility in its role as an instrument of social protection, but rather it should be modified by focusing on responses to social problems in the valuating the human being.

Final reflections

The characteristics of the social policies developed by the countries of southern Europe have implications for the subsystems of ASES and RSI that are felt in their own regulations. ASES continues to be drawn up on the basis of medium budgetary legacies, restrictions on access to support and the need for proof of economic means of survival. The same can be analysed in RSI, whose legal basis is based on the principle of subsidiarity. Both subsystems were affected by austerity measures.

The data show the recent impact of the measures adopted, which in turn show the reduction of spending on social policies and the difficulty of the mechanisms of social responses to react against such measures, due to the history of institutionalisation and development of Portuguese social policies.

In RSI, there was a reduction in the number of citizens covered and difficulties in operating the ‘exit doors’. In ASES, there was a decrease in the allocation of support and greater pressure on services, which suggests not only a regression in the democratisation of access to grants and welfare policies, but also the growth of inequalities and the production of new social problems. This contrasts with EU claims for social cohesion and reduction of inequalities between member states.

As far as the two social policy measures are concerned, there are at least five challenges to be faced by policy makers, managers and the technicians who operate them. The first is the overcoming of corporatist inheritance designed as public policies of universal guarantee to the citizen, based on the idea of rights and not for electoral or assistentialist purposes. The second is the struggle against material deprivation and the growing economic poverty of families. In the case of ASES, the third is the reformulation of social support structures, historically disjointed and discontinuous, in order to give them greater autonomy of management so that they are part of social protection networks built on the basis of rationality and capable of interfering in economic growth. The fourth is the creation of innovative social responses to the lack of guarantees of state funding, especially in contingent situations, such as those carried out by the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro. The fifth is the inclusion of citizens in the process of policy making and evaluation, given that participation democratises ‘public management’ and reverses the priorities of administrations towards policies that address more than just emergency issues.

We propose the reverse of the policy-making logic: the promotion of the idea of public investment in people, whose return generates economic and sustainable development for society, which, despite being the basis of the philosophy underlying the legal design of ASES and RSI, is still not enough. In this way, the logic is not about public expenditure with innocuous returns, but investment in human capital and possibilities for changes in macro and micro structures of society. We believe that social responses formulated on the basis of innovation can break the cycle of reproduction of inequalities and injustices.

In the web of Portuguese social protection, social work faces a challenging conjuncture, imposed by the contemporary financial crisis and austerity measures, which reproduce regressive measures and serve as barriers to the promotion of well-being and human development. It is fundamental that social workers develop critical awareness in order to promote strategies of action that address these obstacles and strengthen the commitment to an emancipated society. It is important to point out that social work has the formative elements of professional identity, especially due to theoretical, operative, ethical and political knowledge, focused on the principle of emancipation, the importance of which is at the forefront and the final reason for professional action. In this way, social work can and should be an essential collaborator in the design of public and social policies based on the principle of emancipation and leading to the strengthening of citizenship and autonomy, resulting in a sustainable society with integrated and proactive individuals.

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