臺灣的世代貧窮現象：貧窮陷阱或福利陷阱？

迄今為止，我國政府對於長期待在社會救助體系或是世代貧窮之家戶，仍缺乏積極性的作為，甚至連最基本的追蹤調查都闕如；然而，世代貧窮不僅是個別家庭的損失，還可能造成整個國家嚴重的經濟負擔，因此阻斷貧窮世襲乃是社會救助工作之首要任務。惟我國目前對於世代貧窮家戶的瞭解仍十分不足，因而引發研究者欲深入瞭解世代貧窮家戶，以及社會救助制度在協助這些家戶時所面臨之阻礙。　　研究者在檢閱國外世代貧窮相關文獻後，發現貧窮世代傳遞主要有兩種模式，第一種是「貧窮陷阱」，第二種則是「福利陷阱」。據此，本論文進而衍生出三項研究目的：（1）瞭解世代貧窮家戶的特徵與風險因子；（2）探討福利陷阱與貧窮陷阱是否存在，及其如何影響世代貧窮家戶自立脫貧；（3）蒐集社會救助專業人員對於社會救助制度的反饋，作為政府未來修訂相關政策之參考。本研究採取實用主義典範，以質量併用的混合研究方法回應研究目的。其中量化方法係以「台灣貧窮兒少資料庫」與「台灣教育長期追蹤資料庫」進行次級資料分析；質性方法則透過立意取樣選取8名社會救助專業人員進行深度訪談。　　研究結果顯示：（1）成長於世代貧窮家庭者常見的特徵包含：女性、單親家庭、父母親教育程度以及早年家庭收入偏低；（2）早年的營養不良以及青少年時期學業表現不佳為影響貧窮家庭子女落入世代貧窮的重要風險因子；（3）貧窮陷阱確實存在，其中早年的營養攝取、家庭支持以及青少年時期學業表現可謂是構成貧窮陷阱的三大要素；（4）我國社會救助體制的確存在福利陷阱，並且主要有三大弊病：過渡性福利措施名不符實、缺乏鼓勵受助者投入勞動市場之經濟誘因、過多福利資源以低（中低）收入戶資格作為發放標準之一；（5）社會救助專業人員所面臨之阻礙與困境主要有六：審查業務繁重、貧窮第二代累積人力資本受阻、福利邊緣戶未受到保障、貧窮家庭之就業障礙未有效排除、現行脫貧計畫缺乏懲罰機制以及福利資格認定缺乏彈性等等。　　根據研究發現，研究者進一步提出具體的政策建議，主要涉及五個面向：（1）勞、社政整合與積極勞動市場政策；（2）工作與家庭平衡政策；（3）社會福利申請流程改造以及電子化；（4）社會福利總歸戶以及所得設算制度改革；（5）貧窮家庭之親職教育。除此之外，研究者亦建議我國政府應針對參與「兒童及少年未來教育與發展帳戶」之家庭發展貧窮動態資料庫，以供後續研究者得以更加深入地探討世代貧窮議題。

關鍵字

世代貧窮；貧窮陷阱；劣勢累積；福利陷阱；社會救助

並列摘要

So far, the Taiwanese government has lacked active countermeasures for long-term poor families or intergenerational poor families, and even the most basic follow-up surveys have been lacking. However, intergenerational poverty is not only a loss for individual families but also a serious economic burden for the entire country. Therefore, blocking the intergenerational transmission of poverty is the primary task of social assistance. Due to the lack of understanding of intergenerational poor families in our country, this study wants to have a deeper understanding of intergenerational poor families and the obstacles faced by the social assistance system in assisting these families. 　　After reviewing the literature on intergenerational poverty abroad, I found that there are two main modes of intergenerational poverty transmission. The first is the poverty trap, and the second is the welfare trap. Based on this, this study derives three research purposes: (1) understand the characteristics and risk factors of intergenerational poor households; (2) explore whether welfare traps and poverty traps exist and how they affect intergenerational poor families to escape from poverty; (3) collect the feedback of social assistance professionals on the social assistance system as a reference for the government to revise relevant policies in the future. This research adopts the paradigm of pragmatism and responds to the research purposes with mixed methods. The quantitative method uses the “Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty” and the “Taiwan Education Panel Survey” for secondary data analysis; the qualitative method uses purposeful sampling to select 8 social assistance professionals for in-depth interviews. 　　The research results show that: (1) common characteristics of those who grew up in intergenerational poor families include: women, single-parent families, low parental education, and low family income in the early years; (2) early malnutrition and poor academic performance during adolescence are important risk factors affecting children from poor families falling into intergenerational poverty; (3) early malnutrition, low family support, and poor academic performance during adolescence can be described as the three major elements of the poverty trap; (4) the failure to implement transitional welfare measures, the lack of economic incentives to encourage recipients to enter the labor market, and excessive welfare resources using the statutory poverty status as one of the criteria for payment constitute the welfare trap in Taiwan's social assistance system. (5) The main obstacles and difficulties faced by social assistance professionals are six: Welfare qualification review is heavy, the accumulation of human capital by children from poor families is hindered, the protection of near-poor families is insufficient, the employment barriers of poor families have not been effectively eliminated, the current poverty alleviation program lacks a punishment mechanism, the granting of statutory poverty status is inflexible. 　　According to research findings, my policy recommendations mainly involve five levels: (1) integrate labor and social administrations and promote active labor market policies; (2) work-family balance policies; (3) improvement and digitization of the social welfare application process; (4) the integration of social welfare and the reform of the imputed income system; (5) parental education for poor families. In addition, I suggest that the Taiwanese government should develop a poverty dynamic database for the families participating in the “Children Future Education and Development Account” so that poverty researchers can explore intergenerational poverty issues in more depth.