Keeping a distance but heading in the same direction: formal rules on unemployment benefit sanctions and social assistance benefit sanctions in Poland, 1989–2014

What is it about?

Purpose: This study has two aims: to examine the development of welfare conditionality and especially benefit sanctions in Central and Eastern Europe (the CEE), and to develop a methodology by implementing Institutional Grammar for studying rules on benefit sanctions relying only on legal text. Methodology: Institutional Grammar was used as a tool for analyzing legal regulations on benefit sanctions. It was incorporated into a social rights framework that provided a theoretical background for the study. Findings: The paper shows the dynamic development of rules on benefit sanctions in Poland in social assistance and unemployment services. Both the harshness and strictness of these rules has increased. Simultaneously, the rules of benefit sanctions in social assistance remain more liberal than those associated with unemployment services. Originality: The study presents the first comprehensive and concise overview of benefit sanctions development in the CEE and the first long-term comparison of these types of sanctions in two safety net systems operating in one country. The study also used Institutional Grammar for the first time in social policy research.

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