bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Self-Reliance Versus the Welfare State
Authors: Goodin Robert E.
Published: January 2009

Arguments for replacing the welfare state with more ‘self-reliance’ are morally questionable. Relying upon state assistance is importantly different from merely receiving it. Furthermore, ‘self-reliance’ as it is currently advocated amounts to reliance upon families. They must necessarily have discretionary control over needed resources in a way that state administrators of ‘welfare rights’ need not; and that makes those vulnerabilities morally more objectionable than equally heavy reliance upon state services.
The ‘Deserving’ and the ‘Undeserving’: Practice in an Urban, Local Social Security Office
Authors: Howe L.E.A.
Published: January 2009

This article describes the processes of assessment and administration of certain aspects of the supplementary benefit scheme in a social security office in Northern Ireland. Based on evidence obtained observing staff-claimant interaction and interviews with over fifty unemployed claimants, the analysis attempts to demonstrate that a combination of resource constraints, staff attitudes and beliefs, and claimant tactics gives rise to practices which sustain and reproduce the categories ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ at the very same time that staff insist that such practices are actually intended to vitiate this distinction.
Social Administration Digest
Authors: Campling Jo
Published: January 2009

A report from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) showed that £900 million a year of social benefits are unclaimed. Supplementary benefit accounts for most of this. Three out of ten people entitled to claim are not getting the benefit which is their due. The lowest take-up rates are among working families with children. Only half of those entitled to Family Income Supplement are receiving it. The take-up of rent rebates by families with dependent children is 58 per cent and of rate rebates 45 per cent.
The Effects of Unemployment and Policy Changes on America's Poor
Authors: Danziger Sheldon , Gottschalk Peter , Smolensky Eugene
Published: January 2009

First, we employ a methodology that decomposes the change in poverty into changes due to the means and variances of market and transfer incomes and to other factors which affect the shape of the income distribution. We then briefly describe the Reagan economic programme. Finally, we estimate a regression model that reflects changes in these moments of the income distribution to changes in the unemployment rates and to the Reagan programme. The regression estimates, together with the poverty rate decomposition, allow us to show that the administration's cuts in income-transfer programmes account for about 40 per cent of the recent rise in poverty and that increased unemployment accounts for about a third of the increase in poverty.
Taxes, Expenditures and Income Distribution in Switzerland
Authors: Leu Robert E. , Frey Rene L. , Buhmann Brigitte
Published: January 2009

In this paper, we analyse the impact of government policies on income distribution and poverty in Switzerland. First, we give an overview of the Swiss welfare system and provide an estimate of the poverty problem in this country. Second, we discuss some major problems of fiscal incidence analysis. Third, we examine the impact of taxes and expenditures on income distribution in Switzerland using a budget incidence approach. The analysis is based mainly on the first nationwide representative Income and Wealth Survey 1980 conducted by the authors. The major findings are the following:

1 The government budget, including the social security system, has a significant redistributive effect which is due mainly to expenditures rather than to taxation.

2 Direct taxes reduce income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient; indirect taxes increase it. The net effect of all taxes is to reduce income inequality.

3 The redistributive effect of social welfare expenditures is larger than that of other government expenditures.
What are the Distributional Consequences of the Socialist Government Policy in France?
Authors: Kessler Denis , Masson Andre
Published: January 2009

During the past four years, French economic and social policy appears to have differed both from the policies followed previously in France and from those of the other industrialized countries. The difference can be judged from the goals pursued, the means used and the results obtained. One of the goals of the socialist government elected in May 1981 was to reduce income and wealth inequalities and to improve the well-being of the poor through an active social and tax policy. This goal was also a means, since these measures — along with an expansionary fiscal policy — were supposed to precipitate economic recovery and to reduce unemployment by stimulating consumption expenditures. Actual developments, however, led to quite a radical change in French macro-economic policy. The fight against inflation and the reduction of internal and external deficits since June 1982 and the search for industrial investment and competitiveness since 1983 have reoriented both social and tax policies.
The State, Pensions and the Philosophy of Welfare
Authors: Barry Norman P.
Published: January 2009

This is a study of the prevailing state pension systems in Britain and the US in the context of a philosophy of welfare that has developed over the last decade. In this philosophy state welfare systems are justified in terms of their maximizing liberty and autonomy rather than merely social justice. It is argued that the state earnings-related pension scheme in Britain and social security in the US, because they are ‘unfunded’ and paid for out of current taxation, are not merely inefficient but also reduce the independence of individuals and impose high burdens on future generations. It is argued that no philosophical justification can be given for this imposition. The major theoretical flaw in state-managed pension arrangements, it is claimed, is the confusion of the welfare principle with the insurance principle.
The Israeli Welfare State at Crossroads
Authors: Doron Abraham
Published: January 2009

The paper deals with the evolution of the welfare state in Israel and the impact it has had on the structure of Israeli society. It outlines the major phases of its development and stresses the social and political forces that shaped the process of trial and error in which these have evolved. The achievements and limits of the Israeli welfare state are analysed in the context of its particular circumstances as a developing industrial society that has also to cope with the integration of its various ethnic immigrant groups and with maintaining the morale of the population in face of the continuous threat to its national security. In conclusion the paper reviews the roots of the current crisis and outlines the possible strategies to deal with it, within the framework of Israeli society and in an international perspective.
Private Medical Care and the British Conservative Government: What Price Independence?
Authors: Mohan John
Published: January 2009

This paper discusses issues raised by the uneven expansion of private health care in Britain in recent years. The problems being experienced by the industry have exposed divisions in the private health care industry and have provoked criticisms of the Government and requests for a greater degree of state support for, and regulation of, the industry. The paper therefore examines the scope for changes of government policy to facilitate further expansion. It argues that few of the alternatives are either technically adequate, in terms of solving the private sector's problems, or politically feasible, in the sense of being electorally justifiable. It concludes that policies to further private sector expansion could be implemented only at the cost of the private sector's independence, or at the expense of the Government's commitment to the NHS.
Some Historical Dimensions of the Welfare State ‘Crisis’
Authors: Johnson Paul
Published: January 2009

Arguments about the harmful effects of government intervention in welfare issues, which seemed peripheral to the rapid expansion of state welfare in the twentieth century, have recently achieved the status of a new orthodoxy. This article examines the historical development of economic, administrative and ideological criticisms of state welfare in Britain and America, in order to identify the roots of this new orthodoxy. It finds that economic and administrative criticisms are neither necessary nor sufficient to explain the rise of this new view, which ultimately rests on specific ideological beliefs about the propriety of state welfare.
Alcohol, Politics and Social Policy
Authors: Baggott Rob
Published: January 2009

The growing awareness of the importance of lifestyle factors in the prevention of ill-health has stimulated a number of policy studies. But of the main causes of preventable ill-health alcohol misuse has been comparatively neglected, in spite of the fact that it also has wider implications for a range of other social problems. This article attempts to fill this gap by charting the development of alcohol policy and the alcohol issue over the last three decades. The main intention is to explain why the policy has taken its present form. At the same time it sheds some light on why a more comprehensive alcohol policy has been rejected by successive UK governments. As a framework, three potential explanations for this rejection are outlined: opposition by powerful interest groups; the hostility of voters and politicians; and opposition by government bureaucracies. The analysis thus provides an opportunity to test the relevance of these theories in an area of policy which has wide implications for social welfare.
Private Renting in London: Is It So Different?
Authors: Whitehead Christine M. E. , Kleinman Mark
Published: January 2009

This article examines the special role of the private rented sector in the provision of housing in London. The proportion of households who rent privately continues to be much higher in the capital than in the rest of the country. The reasons for this are analysed, together with the type of households that are found in the sector in London, and the sort of accommodation they obtain. The conclusion is reached that while the operation of the sector in London does differ in some important ways from the rest of the country, the major difference is simply its greater size in London. A forecast is then made of future trends. Finally, the likely effects of different policy options on those already in, and those seeking to enter the sector, are assessed.
The Withdrawal from Paid Work of the Wives of Unemployed Men: A Review of Research
Authors: Cooke Kenneth
Published: January 2009

Evidence from surveys suggests that when married men become unemployed their wives tend also to withdraw from paid work. This apparent relationship between the labour supply behaviour of spouses has never been fully explained. One of the most frequently cited reasons for this effect is the very small amount that wives are able to earn without incurring deductions from the family's social security benefits, but other factors may be equally, or more, important. This article reviews both the evidence of this effect and a number of reasons that have been adduced to account for it, and ends with proposals for further explanatory research.
The Closed Shop and the National Health Service: A Case Study in Public Sector Labour Relations
Authors: Harrison Stephen
Published: January 2009

During the second half of the 1970s, the practice of the closed shop became widespread in some parts of the British public sector, but was resisted in others. This paper examines the issue in relation to the National Health Service, where trade unionists made frequent demands for the closed shop and where many managers were apparently not unwilling to concede it. Yet very few closed shops actually resulted. The paper examines the origin and patterns of these demands, health authority policies towards them, and their outcomes in terms both of the operation of the closed shops which were agreed, and the reasons for failure to agree. The conclusion is that although NHS industrial relations had apparently matured very rapidly between 1973 and 1977, the trade unions were neither strong enough nor united enough to enforce the closed shop; nor were industrial relations so far developed as to make the practice a natural next step.
Gender, Household Composition and Receipt of Domiciliary Services by Elderly Disabled People
Authors: Arber Sara , Gilbert G. Nigel , Evandrou Maria
Published: January 2009

Using data from the 1980 General Household Survey, differences in the provision of statutory domiciliary services to disabled elderly people are explored. Domiciliary services vary in their degree of ‘substitutability’, that is, in the extent to which the care may be performed either by state services or by other members of the elderly person's household. Domestic support services are substitutable by any available carer; personal health and hygiene services are partially substitutable depending on the relationship between the carer and the cared for; and medical services are not substitutable by informal carers. The paper shows that discrimination by statutory services against women carers is dependent primarily on the household composition of the elderly person rather than on gender per se. Taking into account the level of disability of the elderly person, younger ‘single’ women carers receive no less support than ‘single’ men carers, but carers who are married women under 65 obtain the least domestic and personal health care support. Carers who are elderly receive more support than carers under 65. Among disabled elderly people who live alone, men receive somewhat more domestic and personal health services than women.
Unemployment and Health: An Historical Perspective
Authors: Whiteside Noel
Published: January 2009

As unemployment has risen, so has academic, professional and political interest in its possible social consequences. In recent years a large number of studies have sought to prove—or disprove—that unemployment causes ill health, with few definitive results. This paper reviews the methodological and conceptual difficulties experienced by researchers in this field. It concludes that, generally, the impact of structural factors on the shape of the analysis has been all but ignored. It suggests that an historical perspective provides useful insights into the question and ought to be given more attention.
Defining and Measuring Poverty. A Reply to Stein Ringen
Authors: Donnison David
Published: January 2009

This response to Stein Ringen's paper recognises the importance of his recent work and the validity of some of the criticisms he makes of poverty studies, but argues that his own approach suffers from some of the same defects. He dismisses this research too hastily, partly because he has neglected some of the best of it. Drawing on these sources, this paper formulates with their help a more rigorous presentation of the relative concept of poverty and the analytical steps which should be taken by those using this concept.
Community Care for the Mentally Ill in England and Wales: Myths, Assumptions and Reality
Authors: Goodwin Simon
Published: January 2009

It is widely recognised that there are many problems with the community care policy for the mentally ill which has been in operation in England and Wales since the late 1950s. However, many existing accounts of the development of the policy rest upon a variety of erroneous assumptions about how it has evolved, and which in turn affect our understanding of how it might be changed. Some of these assumptions are examined, and it is argued that frequently they fail to acknowledge how both the rhetoric and the reality of the policy have developed. Taking this critique into account, a more accurate assessment of how to understand community care for the mentally ill is offered.
The Adequacy of the Social Security System in Belgium, 1976–1985
Authors: Deleeck Herman
Published: January 2009

For over 15 years the Centre for Social Policy at the University of Antwerp has been involved in research on social security. More specifically, it has tried to develop research methodologies which would make it possible to quantify the adequacy of the social security system in Belgium, and to assess its impact on the income of households. The first part of this article provides a broad outline of the social security system in Belgium. The second and major part presents the main results of the research. The same methodology and the same standardised presentation of results is currently being used in a comparative study financed by the Commission of the European Community and undertaken by research groups in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Ireland, Spain and Greece.
Dependency and Ageing in Britain: A Re-Examination of the Evidence
Authors: Falkingham Jane
Published: January 2009

There has been growing concern over the consequences for public expenditure of an increasing number of elderly people dependent on a relatively diminishing working population. This concern stems largely from demographically determined dependency ratios and it is not necessarily the case that a change in the age profile of the population will lead to a greater burden of dependency. The ‘engine of dependency’ is shown to have at least two other cylinders—patterns of labour-force participation across age and gender, and levels of unemployment. Policy to date has had a surprisingly narrow focus in view of the dual role of economic and demographic forces in influencing the ratio of dependency. The economic and political feasibility of alternative policy options is discussed.
Family Size Equivalence Scales and Survey Evaluations of Income and Well-Being
Authors: Bradbury Bruce
Published: January 2009

The determination of the different needs of families of different compositions is necessary in order to ensure horizontal equity in tax/transfer policies. Despite the seeming simplicity of the problem, a consensus as to the appropriate means of determining relative need remains elusive. One approach which has been proposed has been to use social surveys to analyse the relationship between subjective evaluations of well-being and incomes. This paper examines such methods, and discusses the key assumptions upon which they rest. An explanation is advanced as to why these methods may lead to an understatement of the differences in relative needs of different family types.
Statutory Sick Pay and the Control of Sickness Absence
Authors: Dean Hartley , Taylor-Gooby Peter
Published: January 2009

The shift from national insurance to employer administered, state funded Statutory Sick Pay has been discussed in terms of the privatisation of social security and its impact upon the living standards of sick-absent employees. This paper reports a survey of employers’ perceptions of the change. Many employers have seen the introduction of the scheme as an opportunity to extend control of sickness absence among workers. The new regime may be better understood as part of a process whereby the government and employers link together to manage labour in the interests of capital, rather than as the privatisation of one aspect of social security.
Rescuing the Good Samaritan: An Exposition and a Defence of the Samaritan Principle in the Welfare State
Authors: Pemberton Alec
Published: January 2009

Catholics are urged to show a ‘preferential option for the poor’. For the most part debate about the exercise of such an option is primarily in terms of a justice model—righting the twin wrongs of the ‘exploitation’ and ‘oppression’ of the poor. But there is another, largely untheorised approach to helping strangers in need—Samaritanism. This paper provides an exposition of Samaritanism and a defence of its role in the modern Welfare State. In doing so it seeks to challenge non-Christians to put their rationale for helping the needy on an equally secure footing as that provided by Christianity.
Organisational Influences on Professional Behaviour: Factors Affecting Social Work Involvement in ‘Schemes’
Authors: Sinclair Ian , Crosbie David , Vickery Anne
Published: January 2009

Community schemes play an important part in a community approach to social work. This paper investigates the extent to which social workers' involvement in such schemes is influenced by personal preference or by their work setting. Data from questionnaires completed by 394 social workers/social work assistants show that the likelihood of a worker's involvement with a scheme varies with the organisation and procedures of the area office, the perceived attitudes of team leaders and the title of the worker's job. Workers' personal attitudes were related to involvement in schemes only in area offices organised on a geographical basis. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for the development of a community approach to social work and for the degree to which social workers can expect to control their work as autonomous professionals.
Women, Economic Dependency and Citizenship
Authors: Lister Ruth
Published: January 2009

Citizenship is, once again, on the political and academic agenda. This article explores some of its meanings for women. It examines some of the contradictions raised by notions of dependence and independence and the relationship between ‘private’ and ‘public’ forms of dependence. It then considers the implications of financial dependence and of the sexual division of labour and of time for women's rights and obligations as social, political and ‘active’ citizens. It concludes by drawing out briefly some policy implications, arguing that radical changes are needed in domestic life and in the organisation of paid employment and state provisions, if women are to be full citizens. This will require changing both our conceptions of Citizenship and the structures which fashion citizenship rights. Ultimately, neither the question of dependency nor of citizenship can be divorced from that of power.
Dependency and Interdependency: the Incomes of Informal Carers and the Impact of Social Security
Authors: Glendinning Caroline
Published: January 2009

Consideration of the income and social security needs of informal carers has remained conspicuously absent from discussions about ‘community care’. Similarly, carers have been more or less invisible in the development of social security policies. This paper reports on a study of the financial circumstances of a sample of working age carers, who were living with and providing substantial amounts of help and support to a disabled person in the same household. The study highlights first, the substantial work-related costs incurred by carers with full time employment; and second the financial dependency of carers without full time earnings, on their spouse, sibling or on the person being cared for. The implications of these findings are discussed in the light of recent developments in social security policies.
Transformation Through Tenure? The Early Purchasers of Council Houses 1968–1973
Authors: Forrest Ray , Murie Alan
Published: January 2009

The sale of council dwellings under the right to buy has been a prominent feature of the privatisation policies of the Thatcher governments. The impact of such changes in the ownership and control of dwellings remains a subject of considerable debate. Whilst there is now substantial evidence on the short term effects of council house sales, the longer term impacts on dwellings and households have largely been a matter for speculation. This paper explores some of the central policy and theoretical issues through new research evidence on dwellings sold by local authorities in the late sixties and early seventies. In particular it focuses on what has happened to households and dwellings since privatisation, the political orientation of those households and on attitudes towards and experiences of state provision. In general it presents a picture of continuity and stability rather than dramatic change and transformation following privatisation.
An Econometric Analysis of the Growth in the Numbers Claiming Invalidity Benefit: An Overview
Authors: Holmes Phil , Lynch Mauricea , Molho Ian
Published: January 2009

Invalidity benefit is the main form of state-provided long term sickness benefit in Great Britain, and the number of claims for the benefit have increased beyond all expectations since its introduction in 1971. This paper summarises the results of a project on the issue, analysing data over the period 1975/6 and 1983/4. The numbers claiming the benefit are viewed in terms of the outcome of the inflow and the duration of claims. The determination of both inflows and durations were found to be dominated by demographic effects in terms of age and health, but other factors were also found to be relevant at the margin. These included local housing and labour market conditions, as well as pay prior to entry and rates of benefit. Inflows were found to fall over the period, however, as a result of changes in the population ‘at risk’ of entry. The main cause of growth in the number of claims lay in increased durations, in relation to which it was observed that the percentage of new claimants with characteristics associated with longer claim durations increased over the period.
Afro Caribbeans and Schizophrenia: How Does Psychiatry Deal With Issues of Race, Culture and Ethnicity?
Authors: Knowles Caroline
Published: January 2009

This paper discusses the various ways in which British Afro Caribbeans are disadvantaged in their encounter with psychiatry. It suggests that far from being monolithic and institutional, racism must be deconstructed and traced to the actions, practices and procedure involved in specific encounters. The procedures of psychiatry are examined through the discourses of psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. From this analysis it is suggested that psychiatry's relationship to Afro Caribbean populations in Britain arises from the ways in which psychiatry conceptualises notions of ethnicity, race and cultural difference, as well as ways in which it organises and reproduces itself as a form of therapeutic intervention.
Health and Labour Force Participation: ‘Stress’, Selection and the Reproduction Costs of Labour Power
Authors: Bartley Mel
Published: January 2009

This paper will discuss the applicability of concepts of ‘stress’ and ‘selection’ to which health researchers appealed in their attempts to explain the relationship between health and unemployment, and examine the implications of some of the major studies carried out in Europe and the USA for these competing approaches. The contradictions arising from this evidence will then be addressed with the aid of a technical advance in population statistics which allows us to test hypotheses about whether the associations between socio-demographic characteristics and mortality may be due to selective mobility of seriously ill persons into socially disadvantaged positions. It is concluded that a better understanding of the results of available studies may be reached if we avoid the dichotomy between ‘stress’ and ‘selection’, and explore whether concepts of labour market processes and the reproduction costs of labour power can throw new light on the relationship between health and patterns of labour force participation. The paper aims both to encourage health researchers to consider policy and market variables more closely, and to tempt researchers more specialised in these latter fields to apply recent advances in the understanding of the interaction between labour market and income maintenance policies to the question of how economic conditions and change may affect health.
A New Era for Social Policy: A New Enlightenment or a New Leviathan?
Authors: Glennerster Howard , Power Anne , Travers Tony
Published: January 2009

A succession of Acts of Parliament passed between 1988 and 1990 mark the most decisive break in British social policy since the period between 1944 and 1948. This paper examines the extent to which common principles underlie this legislation. One of the most important common elements has been the reduction in the powers of local government and in the presumption that local authorities should be the main providers of social welfare outside the social security system. Schools, housing estates and social care services are to be given greater powers to run themselves or to become separate organisations. Local authorities are to use their resources to fund and contract with external agencies. The possible outcomes of this change in governance are discussed.
What does Equity in Health Mean?
Authors: Pereira João
Published: January 2009

Up until very recently, the international debate on health inequality tended to disregard the issue of specifying equity objectives precisely. This was unfortunate, given the importance of normative analysis for understanding why people care about social justice in the field of health; the extent to which specific types of inequality are compatible with equity; how the concept should be measured; and how rational policies may be formulated and monitored. This article critically appraises six well established approaches to defining equity—egality, entitlement, the decent minimum, utilitarianism, Rawlsian maximin, and envy-free allocations—as well as two alternative formulations recently proposed by health economists—equity as choice and health maximisation. All of these are found wanting in some respect when applied to the health sector. It is argued that Sen's ‘capabilities’ concepts, strangely ignored by health services researchers in the past, could prove an effective framework within which to organise research and policy formulation in the area of health and health care inequality.
Community Law Centres: Problems and Proposals
Authors: Stephens Mike
Published: January 2009

The principal aim of law centres is to service the claims of poor and low income people in the field of social welfare law. Their successes and limitations in realising this aim constitute the major part of this paper. Levels of demand, the satisfaction of unmet legal needs and the role played by law centres in the spectrum of advice services are important factors in assessing their mission. No assessment can be complete, however, without taking into account the internal problems faced by law centres—such as, funding, caseload levels, and rationing procedures. This paper argues that the formation of a national network of law centres would help to solve many of their operational difficulties and to position them more effectively within the spectrum of legal advice services.
Resources, Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty
Authors: Callan Tim , Nolan Brian , Whelan Christopher T.
Published: January 2009

Ringen has advocated the use of both income and deprivation criteria in identifying those excluded from society due to lack of resources, a widely accepted definition of poverty. We illustrate with Irish data how this might be done, paying particular attention to how appropriate indicators of deprivation are to be selected. The results show that employing both income and deprivation criteria rather than income alone can make a substantial difference to both the extent and composition of measured poverty. This highlights the restrictive nature of poverty conceived in terms of exclusion rather than minimum rights to resources.
Public Opinion and the National Health Service: Patterns and Perspectives in Consumer Satisfaction
Authors: Judge Ken , Solomon Michael
Published: January 2009

This paper examines the nature of public opinion concerning the National Health Service. Data from two series of national surveys covering the period 1983–92 are used to analyse trends in opinion. OPCS data for 1991–2 are examined in more detail to investigate the determinants of satisfaction with health services. A range of demographic, socio-economic and health status characteristics, as well as media coverage of health-related issues, are found to be significantly related to expressions of satisfaction with the NHS, in addition to recent experience of using health services. The complexity of the formation and expression of public opinion is acknowledged. In particular, the importance of taking note of the methodological implications and political context associated with expressions of public opinion is emphasised.
Work and Welfare Benefits: Social Security, Employment and Unemployment in the 1990s
Authors: McLaughlin Eithne
Published: January 2009

This paper considers social security policy and structures in relation to the labour market of the late 1980s and 1990s. The paper begins by describing the labour market of the late 1980s and summarising projective descriptions of labour demand in the 1990s. The second section of the paper reports on recent research examining the labour supply behaviour of long term unemployed people, drawing out the role of social security policy and structures therein. The third section of the paper concludes that the role of social security policy is at present essentially reactive rather than proactive; that it does little to address the likely need for labour of certain kinds in the 1990s; and that efforts to address the problem of long term unemployment through social security policy have been largely misdirected. The final section of the paper briefly considers some of the ways in which social security systems can be more proactive and suggests a number of both short term and longer term policy changes which research indicates would be of benefit in the UK.
Costs and Benefits: A Review of Research on Take-up of Income-Related Benefits
Authors: Craig Peter
Published: January 2009

This paper reviews recent research on take-up with a view to identifying the most promising lines of further enquiry. In the late 1970s take-up research seemed to be foundering in the face of the complexity of the factors affecting claiming decisions. Progress came via the development of models of the claiming process. The most influential postulated a series of thresholds which claimants must pass in a set sequence on the way to claiming a benefit. One question for future research is whether this model is still the best starting point or whether there are others which capture the key factors and their interaction more fully and accurately. Another approach is to look at claiming decisions indirectly by applying multivariate techniques to continuous survey data to examine the relationship between variables such as age, income and housing tenure and differing probabilities of claiming. A second question is what the two approaches can offer each other. Overhanging all the issues facing take-up research is the problem of sampling a population—eligible non-recipients—for which, almost by definition, no suitable sampling frame exists. The paper concludes by examining various options for identifying this elusive group.
Paying for Early Retirement
Authors: Casey Bernard
Published: January 2009

The paper looks at the relative importance of state benefits, employer benefits and private sources in supporting early retired men. Using data from various administrative sources, the General Household Survey and the Family Expenditure Survey, it shows how the increase in early retirement which occurred between 1979 and 1986 went hand in hand both with a greater reliance on means-tested benefits and a greater reliance on employer benefits. Although the income of the early retired was well above the minimum accorded by the ‘income support’ system, there were major differences between subgroups of the early retired—those dependent solely on state benefits and those with other sources of income, private and personal—and these differences have become more pronounced over time. Finally, the paper looks at the total costs of early retirement: to the state, to employers and to the early retired themselves. Total costs ballooned between 1979 and 1986. Much of the extra expenditure on benefits fell on employers, but the early retired themselves, through accepting a considerable reduction in their income, bore the bulk of the costs of early retirement.
Individual Taste or Collective Decision? Public Policy on School Meals
Authors: Rose Richard , Falconer Peter
Published: January 2009

School meals today are provided on a compromise basis; some pupils are charged and others are not. The compromise thus rejects two types of universalistic principles: allocating private benefits by the market and provision of merit goods collectively free of charge. The article examines, empirically and conceptually, the changing meaning of school meals; the demand and supply of school meals and the allocation of public subsidies to non-needy children; conflicting goals of expert nutritionists, egalitarians, redistributionists, efficient managers, and parents and children. The article concludes by considering political constraints on rationalising the programme in the name of universalistic principles. These constraints include the inheritance of commitments from previous governments, collective responsibility of spending and Treasury ministers; intra-party divisions between frontbench and backbench MPs; and low political salience of charging as an issue.
Consensual Approaches to Poverty Lines and Social Security
Authors: Veit-Wilson J.H.
Published: January 2009

The principal problematic issue in all poverty measures is the source and status of the standards of needs and deprivation. Rejection of minimum subsistence or quasi-absolute approaches to defining poverty, and acceptance of the social relativism of poverty, logically demand that the indicators of deprivation equally be derived from the society in question and not be prescribed for it by ‘experts’. The paper reviews the policy implications of the distinction between deprivation and poverty, and discusses two principal approaches to empirical methods of establishing ‘consensual’ measures of poverty: the income proxy method and the deprivation indicator method. The paper also distinguishes sociologically-based poverty lines from politically-based social security scales, outlining some important aspects of the theoretical and methodological relations between them.
Age and Income in Contemporary Society: A Research Note
Authors: Hedström Peter , Ringen Stein
Published: January 2009

This research note describes the distribution of family income in seven industrial nations, using data from the Luxembourg Income Study. Significant differences between the countries are identified. A ‘poverty cycle’ of the type identified by Rowntree still describes the distribution of income over age groups, but it is neither strong nor universal. Elderly families are found to be a key group for understanding the degree of income inequality in contemporary societies.
Citizenship: Opportunities, Rights and Routes to Welfare in Old Age
Authors: Twine Fred
Published: January 2009

British debates on citizenship often start from an examination of the important work of T.H. Marshall (1950). This paper is no exception. It is argued that Marshall confuses ‘rights’ and ‘opportunities’ within his notion of civil rights. This critique is then developed in terms of Titmuss' concept of the ‘social division of welfare’ so as to distinguish different routes to welfare in old age. A distinction is made between a civil opportunity route to occupational pensions and a social rights route to a state earnings related pension. This distinction is then elaborated to tease out some social class and gender dimensions of citizenship and inequality in old age from a life course perspective.
The Myth of ‘Unemployable’ People: an evaluation of a new employment service for the ‘hard core’ unemployed
Authors: van den Berg H. , van der Veer C.G.
Published: January 2009

In an era characterised by vast unemployment it is widely believed that certain categories of people are essentially ‘unemployable’. In most Western European countries, for instance, immigrants and other minority groups are considered to belong to the ‘hard core’ unemployed. While standard methods of the employment service have largely failed in assisting such individuals, a new method has been developed in the Netherlands referred to as the ‘tailor-made’ method. This article summarises research findings on the characteristics and suitability of this method. The findings contradict the myth of the ‘unemployable’ people.
Users and Providers: Different Perspectives on Community Care Services
Authors: Wilson Gail
Published: January 2009

Elderly clients usually express satisfaction with their services when they are asked. Surveys of clients and carers therefore have to take this tendency into account. It is important not to ask direct questions and to allow for positive, neutral and negative responses, otherwise positive responses will be overestimated. A survey of clients and carers served by a community psychogeriatric service indicated that the way a service is delivered can be more important than what is provided. The differences between staff and user perceptions of services are analysed. There are theoretical reasons for the differences connected with the combination of care and control exercised by service providers. There are also practical reasons in terms of staff perceptions, which are dominated by process, and client perceptions, which are more directly influenced by the services as they are actually delivered. Attempts to incorporate users' views into the processes of service delivery need to understand these differences and to acknowledge the limitations of user satisfaction surveys.
Comparing Family Policy in Britain, France and Germany
Authors: Hantrais Linda
Published: January 2009

In a context where the employment model of welfare is dominant, family policy has remained an area of limited and indirect competence for the European Community. Comparative analysis of Britain, France and the Federal Republic of Germany as examples of EC member states with different socio-cultural traditions and policy styles shows the limitations of theories about universalism, convergence and harmonisation of family structures and policies. Compared with Britain and Germany, the family policy making style in France is more explicit, visible, coherent and legitimate. Its objectives are overtly pro-natalist and it would seem to have had a stronger direct socio-economic impact.
Sweden's Syringe Exchange Debate: Moral Panic in a Rational Society
Authors: Gould Arthur
Published: January 2009

The distribution of clean syringes to intravenous drug users has been accepted by many European countries as a necessary measure to prevent the spread of HIV. In Sweden however an official report recommending the widespread adoption of syringe exchange schemes was rejected after considerable debate in the press, at public meetings, in parliament and government. The medical consensus in favour of syringe exchange schemes was rejected by a much wider consensus of drug agency workers, militant pressure groups and the political establishment. It was felt that syringe exchange schemes would not only condone drug misuse but encourage it. The success of the restrictive line in this debate can only partially be explained through a pluralistic analysis of the principal actors involved. To understand why drug misuse in Sweden has come to symbolise a much greater threat to social stability and national values, a deeper analysis of Swedish institutions and culture is required.
Community Ownership and the Break-up of Council Housing in Britain
Authors: Clapham David , Kintrea Keith
Published: January 2009

This article provides an assessment of the Community Ownership programme in Scotland, which involved the transfer of council housing to par-value co-operatives and community-based housing associations. The evaluation is considered under four headings: resident involvement; the effectiveness of housing management; neighbourhood impacts; and financial appraisal. The findings lend support to the government's programme of breaking up council housing, but lead to criticisms of the emphasis on large-scale voluntary transfers and the neglect of ownership co-operatives in England. In Scotland, the lack of support for the formation of tenant management co-operatives is also criticised.
Dismantling the ‘Iron Rice Bowl’: Welfare Reforms in the People's Republic of China
Authors: Leung Joe C. B.
Published: January 2009

In common with most countries in the world, China is facing an increasing demand for welfare. The free-market economic reforms of the last decade have dramatically transformed social policy in China, which is gradually retreating from an egalitarian and collective approach and moving towards a pluralistic and ‘residual’ orientation. Now, widening income inequalities are accepted as both necessary and inevitable.
Ideology, Programme and Organizational Factors in Public Assistance: The Case of Israel
Authors: Doron Abraham , Kramer Ralph M.
Published: January 2009

While ideology may not explain differences in welfare policy on an international comparative basis, it can help account for the process of policy development in a particular country. In Israel, ideology was very significant in the historical development of public assistance by its influence on social security policy choices concerning the removal of certain groups from the residual programme of public assistance. Indirectly, ideology also shaped the extent and type of convergence of public assistance and social insurance, as well as the relative size and scope of these two benefit systems. It had, however, relatively little influence on the subsequent operating character of the public assistance programme, which seems to have an inner logic, independent of ideology, inhering in its operating principles. The latter — local responsibility, relative liability, less eligibility and means-testing – were reinforced by the organizational character of the sponsoring agency. Because they serve as a residual programme for groups whose claim for support is not yet legitimized, public assistance programmes in most Western countries will confront the same dilemmas and acquire a similar operating character.
The Hospital Accident and Emergency Department: What is its Role?
Authors: Calnan Michael
Published: January 2009

The problem over the use of accident and emergency departments is portrayed in terms of a typical conflict between professional and lay needs. However, in contrast with the more common image of the professional hospital doctor successfully developing both structural and interactional strategies for maintaining professional dominance over the patient, it is argued that the structural characteristics of the accident and emergency department pose control problems for the profession. These control problems have been exacerbated by developments in other areas of the health service and have led to the development of policies which emphasize both clinical and social elements of patient need. Although there is apparent recognition by providers of the importance of taking into account patient need, the proposed policies are based on professional images of how patients ‘ought’ to use the service. What is clearly lacking is comprehensive data on how the public and the community wishes to use the service and how they actually use the service. Data from national and local studies on patient felt needs and patient demand for the hospital accident and emergency departments are presented and the implications for policy are discussed.
The Deceit of Self Help: Preschool Playgroups and Working Class Mothers
Authors: Finch Janet
Published: January 2009

This article explores the voluntary, self help sector of preschool provision, using material from an in-depth study of playgroups in economically deprived areas of Lancashire. It argues that such playgroups tend either to collapse or to abandon the principle of self help because the economic, structural and cultural location of working class women makes these alternatives to statutory provision not a viable option in such localities. The restructuring of welfare to encourage self help is deceitful because it promotes forms of provision which working class women cannot provide for themselves; it fits well, however, with encouraging them to be ‘better’ mothers on a full-time basis.