Introduction

The paradigm of activation and self-responsibility to provide for basic needs has been at the top of the political agenda in most Western social welfare states for years. This is true for Switzerland, and meanstested benefits are no exception to this development. Basic needs are guaranteed on the one hand by a constitutional right to minimum financial means and, on the other hand, through so-called measures of social assistance which include (further) financial support. Switzerland being a federal state, social assistance and the duties for the beneficiaries are regulated in statutes at cantonal level. There is no federal social assistance law.

Neither the constitutional right to minimum financial means nor the right to social assistance are unconditional. Both rights are subsidiary to the individual's own resources and the obligation to work in the primary labour market. In addition, if the claimant is unemployed they can be obliged to participate in a work programme offered by the social assistance authorities. Under certain circumstances, participation in such a work programme is not only a behavioural duty of the social assistance recipient, which can lead to benefit cuts, but participation can also be an eligibility criterion for the benefits. This chapter will focus on these programmes and mechanisms which can lead to questions over eligibility for minimum subsistence rights guaranteed by the constitutional right to financial support when one is in need (Article 12 of the Swiss Constitution; hereafter Constitution1). These programmes will be referred to under the term ‘work programme’ or ‘remunerated work programme’. Chapter 1 argued that the republican argument for the resourcing of basic liberties by a system of social security can contradict another requirement of the republican theory of non-domination: an equal distribution of the freedom to change occupation and employment. This chapter will examine whether the implementation of these programmes is in accordance with fundamental rights and, more precisely, whether they respect the normative framework elaborated in Chapter 4 by Elise Dermine.

To this end, the chapter offers a short introduction to the federal social assistance and work programme organization in Switzerland. It then moves on to the right to assistance when in need (Article 12 of the Constitution) and investigates the scope of this right, its history and its eligibility criteria.