Satisfaction With Social Security
The OECD's comparison between France, Germany and the UK shows clear differences.
VS – 10/2024
In
a recent study,
the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) compared how
satisfied people in France, Germany, and the UK are with social protection. New
data from the OECD's "Risks that Matter 2022" survey was used to
analyse attitudes towards social programmes in the education, employment
promotion, family policy, health, housing, pensions and unemployment sectors.
In comparison, French respondents were consistently the least satisfied,
although according to the OECD, France performs well in many social programme
performance indicators and French social security is comparable to Germany. The
authors analysed various factors that affect satisfaction with social
protection in order to better understand the differences in respondents'
satisfaction between the three countries.
Low satisfaction in France
Back in 2022, only 28 per cent of
respondents in France stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied on
average with the social protection services in the policy sectors that were
surveyed. The proportion was 37 per cent In Germany and 38 per cent in the UK.
There
is hardly any difference in risk perception in the three countries. There are
almost no significant differences in the assessment of the various social and
economic risks, such as job loss or insufficient income, over the next few
years. The situation is very different
when it comes to concerns about accessing high-quality healthcare. At 71 per
cent, respondents in the UK were significantly more concerned here than those
in France (65 per cent) and Germany (56 per cent).
This is not due to social protection
Satisfaction
with the social protection systems is also not due to the extent and
organisation of social security. The OECD's analyses show that in France, for
example, only 17 per cent of respondents are satisfied with their pensions, even though
pension entitlements are the highest there. France also performs comparatively
well in most OECD indicators covering healthcare services. Nevertheless, the
satisfaction rate here is only 14 per cent. This is extremely low when compared
to Germany's 47 per cent. The difference here is striking, even after taking
into account the higher expenditure and the higher concentration of doctors in
Germany. It is also particularly noteworthy that in the UK, which performs
worst of the three countries in terms of objective healthcare indicators, the
proportion of satisfied respondents, at 43 per cent, is three times higher than
in France.
In
its analysis, the OECD highlights the fact that per capita spending on social
programmes in France stagnated in real terms in the years under review. On the
other hand, it has risen significantly in Germany in some sectors, especially
with regard to family support and disability benefits. However, according to
the OECD, even this stagnation does not adequately explain the widespread
dissatisfaction of the French with their social protection. Especially not when
you look at the UK.
Culture and expectations as an explanation
The
study highlighted the fact that France often has a low level of satisfaction in
comparison to other countries. The term "French Dissatisfaction
Puzzle" was introduced in academic literature to cover this.
According
to the authors of the study, the high expectations placed on the French welfare
state are probably still relevant. People might well be especially sensitive if
their expectations are not met in a country where equality and solidarity are
paramount and where the state has traditionally played a very strong role in
the social protection sector.
Socio-economic
characteristics could also play a role here. Supporters of radical right-wing
and left-wing parties as well as non-voters, are generally much more
dissatisfied with social policy than supporters of established parties. As the
group of voters from radical parties and non-voters is larger in France than in
Germany, the authors believe that this group is particularly important when it
comes to understanding the high level of general dissatisfaction among the
French.