Abstract

The project analyses life course trajectories of Berliners who are in receipt of social benefits. Using sequence and cluster analyses we draw an in-depth picture of the dynamic taking place among those receiving social benefits.We use administrative data from the German Federal Employment Service which covers employment, unemployment, social benefit payments, as well as data relating to different labour market policy measures. We examine which circumstances are conducive to certain trajectories being more successful than others. We choose Berlin, because here the risk receiving social benefits is higher than in many other German regions.