Panel Lebensqualität und Teilhabe - Feld- und Methodenbericht der Welle 2

"This method report describes the second wave of the panel survey "Quality of Life and Social Participation". It covers study design, questionnaires, organization of the field work, field outcomes, and data preparation of wave 2. The panel survey is a part of the evaluation of the Teilhabechancengesetz (Participation Opportunities Act), which is conducted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The central goal of the “Teilhabechancengesetz” is to improve the employability and social participation of long-term unemployed people with very poor labor market prospects and who have been receiving means-tested unemployment benefits according to Social Code (SC) II for a long time (Deutscher Bundestag 2019). The Teilhabechancengesetz comprises two measures of active labour market policy: Eingliederung von Langzeitarbeitslosen (Integration of the long-term unemployed) (§ 16e SGB II) and Teilhabe am Arbeitsmarkt (Participation in the labour market) (§ 16i SGB II), which essentially consist of wage subsidies accompanied by job coaching for participants. Based on the panel data, the study examines the impact of subsidies through the two programmes according to § 16e and § 16i SGB II on the employability and social participation of those supported. The survey design is based on a programme-specific sampling, which results in a dual-frame approach with two independent surveys – the 16e-panel and the 16i-panel. Telephone interviews (CATI) are conducted with those receiving support according to § 16e and § 16i SGB II (respective treatment groups) as well as with welfare recipients who do not receive support according to § 16e and § 16i SGB II (respective control groups). The study design encompasses three (16e-panel) or four (16i-panel) panel waves to examine the short-term, medium-term and long-term effects of participation in the respective programme. It should be noted that all interviews take place after the individual start of support. The personal questionnaire primarily focuses on individual social participation and employability as central target dimensions of the evaluation as well as on characteristics of the support programme participants receive, involving in particular coaching. The interview in wave 1 included the comprehensive measurement of social participation (see Hülle et al. 2022). With wave 2, a more differentiated measurement of employability was implemented by surveying further dimensions in the fields of "skills" and "job search". In addition, a newly developed question module on “further education” was fielded and the question module on “coaching” was expanded to also gather information on the reasons for non-participation or the termination of the coaching. The survey data can be linked to administrative data from the German Federal Employment Agency if linkage consent exists, which further increases the analytical potential of the "Quality of Life and Social Participation" panel. For the control of the field work of wave 2, the IAB developed a complex plan of defining and fielding tranches in order to ensure certain fieldwork outcomes. These outcomes include (1) ensuring a minimum time interval between the survey waves, (2) maximizing the number of interviewed treatment cases within the 16e-panel as long as they were still in the programme, (3) minimizing the time interval between the interview date of a treatment case and the interview date(s) of its matched control case(s). During wave 2, 12,262 telephone interviews were conducted by the survey vendor SOKO between March 2021 and March 2022. These are actually more cases than originally planned (103 percent of the targeted cases). The average response rate was 75%, with control cases having a higher response rate (76.5%) than the treatment cases (71.2%). On average, around five contact attempts via phone were necessary to complete an interview. The average duration of an interview was just under 30 minutes, although there are differences between the respondent groups due to the modular structure of the questionnaire. The interview time is longest for those who were still participating in a programme of interest at the time of the interview, averaging around 37 minutes. The group of unemployed control cases had the shortest interview duration with an average of around 27 minutes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))