Social Security and Fairness (June/July 2024)

The study on social security and fairness was conducted by the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. During the survey period from July 5 to July 19, 2024, the German population aged 16 and over was surveyed in personal interviews on the following topics: distributive justice in Germany, perception of reforms to the welfare state and need for reform of the social security system, citizen´s income, economic situation and old-age provision. The respondents were selected using a quota sample.
The findings are supplemented by the results of eight qualitative group discussions with a total of 48 participants from different social classes from all over Germany, which Ipsos conducted online from June 3 to 6, 2024. Only the results report is available for this qualitative study; no data was archived.<br>Assessment of distributive justice with regard to economic conditions in Germany; development of social justice in the last ten years; reasons for this assessment; assessment of distributive justice with regard to own participation compared to others; social justice most likely through stronger vs. less strong state intervention; importance of different areas of social justice (intergenerational justice, performance justice, opportunity justice, family justice, distributive justice and needs justice); realization of these areas of social justice; Split A: Perception of justice with regard to: similarly high retirement provision for all regardless of occupation vs. strong differences depending on the individual´s pension provision, tax advantages for parents compared to childless people vs. no advantages for parents, earnings according to performance vs. no major differences in income (end of split A); split B: perception of justice in relation to earlier retirement for people in physically demanding occupations vs. the same retirement age for all, unconditional basic income for all vs. state support only for the unemployed, as much state support for immigrants as for Germans in need vs. greater support for Germans in need (end of split B).

Welfare state: opinion on the need to reform the social security system in Germany; demand for an expansion of social security; particularly important tasks of the welfare state (e.g. securing pensions, ensuring adequate healthcare, combating the misuse of social benefits, etc.); trust in the social security systems (protection in the event of illness, protection in the event of unemployment and statutory pension); social groups that receive too little support in the welfare system (e.g. people in need of care, low earners, pensioners, single parents, sick people, children from low-income families, etc.) or groups that are overprovided for; assessment of personal benefits from the welfare state; preference for higher taxes and more comprehensive protection vs. less taxes and less protection; policy ensures more equality between the poorer and richer vs. policy increases social differences; perception of various reforms of the welfare state that have already been adopted or are still planned (e.g. introduction of the citizen´s income/abolition of Hartz IV, increase in unemployment benefit, etc.); reforms of the federal government in the area of the welfare state lead to more social justice vs. less social justice; reasons for this assessment; measures that contribute to more social justice in Germany and measures that tend to lead to less justice.

Citizen´s income: knowledge of detailed regulations on citizen´s income (e.g. amount, assumption of rent and heating costs, obligations of unemployed persons to cooperate, top-up option, sanctions for breaches of obligations, etc.); assessment of citizen´s income; assessment of these regulations as appropriate; assessment of the gap between citizen´s income and low income as appropriate or large or small; suitable measures to increase the gap between earned income and support income again (reduce Citizen´s Income, increase minimum wage, reduce income tax, other); effects of the current level of Citizen´s Income on the motivation of Citizen´s Income recipients to work; current level of Citizen´s Income leads to many Citizen´s Income recipients not going to work although they could work; abusive claiming of Citizen´s Income by many people vs.is the exception rather than the rule; opinion on the special regulation for Ukrainian refugees (regulation is fine, all refugees should receive citizen´s allowance, Ukrainians should receive less); respondent receives citizen´s allowance him/herself or knows other recipients of citizen´s allowance.

Economic situation and old-age provision: assessment of own economic situation at present and in comparison to five years ago; assessment of the risk of social decline; assessment of personal financial situation in old age; respondent lives entirely or predominantly on an old-age pension or retirement pension; income and asset situation in old age (e.g. state pension, own house or apartment, company pension scheme, life insurance, etc.); assessment of own old-age provision as sufficient; satisfaction with the amount of own pension.

Demography: Sex; age; age categories; educational attainment; occupation; occupational status; monthly net income of main earner (grouped); main earner (respondent, other person in household); children; number of children; age of children; number of children in household; multi-person household or single household; number of persons in household with own income; monthly net household income (grouped); marital status; living with a partner; federal state; population of place of residence (size of place); character of place of residence; social and economic status; interest in politics; party sympathy.

Additionally coded: external questionnaire number; indicator of the semi-groups, indicator of the West-East questionnaire; weighting; respondent mentioned at least one of the items asked.