Content or Discontent? Perceptions of Social Protection in France, Germany and the United Kingdom

Executive summary

What factors drive satisfaction with the social protection system in France, relative to Germany and the United Kingdom? This report investigates differences in perceptions of social protection across countries using novel data from the OECD’s Risks that Matter Survey, which explores public attitudes towards social programmes including family policy, health, employment support, education, unemployment, housing and pensions.

Informed by findings from the welfare state literature, this paper proposes a range of potential causal mechanisms driving perceptions of social protection. These exploratory variables include individual risk perceptions; the shape, size and cost of social programmes; frictions in application and service delivery in social programmes; and socio‑economic and cultural factors.

French respondents are less satisfied with social protection than respondents in Germany and the United Kingdom

Compared to respondents in Germany and the United Kingdom, French respondents are systematically the least satisfied with social protection. Only 28% of respondents in France report that they are satisfied or highly satisfied with social protection services across the eight policy areas measured, on average, compared to 37% in Germany (across policy areas) and 38% in the United Kingdom. Looking at services, French respondents are least satisfied with disability/incapacity related support (23%) and most satisfied with healthcare (34% satisfied or highly satisfied).

Yet individuals’ risk perceptions do not vary dramatically across these three countries. When asked to rank different social and economic risks over the next few years, the greatest (average) variation across countries comes in the area of worries about accessing good-quality healthcare: UK respondents (71%) are more worried than the French (65%), who in turn are more concerned than Germans (56%) about accessing good-quality healthcare. The differences across countries are narrower in other possible risks. In some policy areas, such as becoming ill or disabled, paying all expenses and becoming the victim of crime, respondents are similarly worried across countries (Chapter 2).

The shape and size of social programmes offer little explanatory power

This analysis then explores to what degree popular satisfaction in France, Germany and the United Kingdom maps onto actual generosity and coverage of social programme benefits and services in those countries. This analysis finds that the relationship between actual social benefits (across different programmes) and perceptions of the welfare state is inconsistent. For example, French respondents have the relatively lowest satisfaction with pensions (17% expect their pensions would offer adequate income support), yet France has the highest pension entitlements across the three countries. France performs relatively well on most public health indicators in this paper, yet only 34% of French respondents are satisfied with access to good-quality and affordable healthcare (compared with 47% in Germany and 43% in the United Kingdom). Results are more nuanced in areas like education, family support, and employment services, where countries have relative strengths and weaknesses across the policy indicators (Chapter 2).

In France, per capita spending on social programmes (in real terms) stagnated in multiple policy areas for the past decade or longer (e.g. in housing, long term care for the elderly, and incapacity-related needs), while it has increased significantly in Germany in some areas, namely family support and incapacity-related benefits. These patterns are indicative of a more stagnant policy commitment in France and may contribute to broader dissatisfaction with social protection in France, but are unlikely to explain the large cross-country differences in satisfaction entirely.

An analytical approach to assess attitudes towards social protection confirms that French respondents have a much lower-than-expected level of satisfaction with social protection than respondents in other countries, relative to actual benefit levels and coverage (the approach is an adaptation of (Inglehart et al., 2008[1])). While the magnitude of this result is sensitive to model specifications, the large difference in France compared to Germany and the United Kingdom offers additional evidence that the shape and size of the French welfare state does little to influence attitudes, vis-à-vis outcomes in other countries.

Contributions, benefits, and frictions in applications and service delivery play a limited role

Simulations using the OECD Tax-Benefit Calculator suggest that while net contributions are negatively associated with satisfaction with social protection, this pattern only holds within-country and across family types – suggesting that individuals with lower household contributions (and greater benefits) are more satisfied with the social protection system. Yet the design of tax-benefit systems does little to explain cross-national variation in satisfaction with social protection (Chapter 3).

Perceived difficulties in accessing social benefits also seem to have little effect on French satisfaction with social protection, relative to other countries. French respondents are generally on par with German and UK respondents in their reported understanding of the benefit application processes, whether they would be treated fairly by government officials, and the ease of applying. The French are slightly more confident than respondents in other countries in their knowledge of how to apply for social benefits, but also more pessimistic about whether they would qualify.

French respondents also report lower “time taxes”, i.e. they report spending less time on administrative procedures than respondents in Germany and the United Kingdom. For example, respondents in Germany (7.3 hours) and in the United Kingdom (7.2) devote significantly more time each year to organizing their healthcare than their French counterparts (4.7 hours). The French also report spending less time annually organising their taxes: 4.3 hours, on average annually, compared to 5.3 hours in the United Kingdom and 6.8 hours in Germany (Chapter 3).

The role of socio‑economic traits

Looking within countries, some groups are more satisfied with social protection than others. France, Germany and the United Kingdom share similar (perceived) at-risk profiles: parents, respondents in low-income households, and women have stronger average risk perceptions. For example, parents in France are worried about child and family-related risks: they are about 27 percentage points more likely to worry about accessing good-quality childcare or education for their children, and about 12 percentage points more likely to worry about giving up their job to take care of a family member than respondents without children.

Within-country variation is larger in the case of satisfaction with social protection services and benefits. In addition to older respondents, women, and parents of dependent children being less satisfied with social protection services and benefits, political partisanship emerges as a strong determinant of satisfaction with social protection in France and Germany.

Supporters of radical right-wing parties, radical left-wing parties, and non-voters are substantially more dissatisfied with social protection across all areas than supporters of establishment parties. Since the size of the group of radical right-wing party supporters and non-voters is larger in France than in Germany, this group appears to be particularly important for understanding the high aggregate dissatisfaction among the French (Chapter 4).

Broader cultural tendencies and expectations influence perceptions of the welfare state.

Academic research suggests that reporting low levels of satisfaction, compared to similar countries, seems to be common to France. In fact, the term “French Dissatisfaction Puzzle” has been introduced to describe the lower-than-expected levels of satisfaction with other outcomes in France, and it seems to apply to French people living elsewhere. Other research suggests that the French tend to respond more positively when asked about their personal life than when asked about the state and future direction of their country.

Harder to measure, but likely still relevant, are high expectations for the French welfare state. In a country that prioritises equality and solidarity, and where the state has historically played a very strong role in social protection, people may be especially sensitive when their expectations are not met.

References

[1] Inglehart, R. et al. (2008), “Development, Freedom, and Rising Happiness: A Global Perspective (1981–2007)”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 3/4, pp. 264-285, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00078.x.