Work and Welfare Benefits: Social Security, Employment and Unemployment in the 1990s

1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eithne McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Social Security Policy

ABSTRACTThis 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.

Long-term sickness and invalidity benefits: Forecasting and other actuarial problems

1987 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Haberman
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Security System ◽  
Security System ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Insurance Benefit ◽  
Disability Claim ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk

It is proposed to discuss the actuarial problems associated with the management of long-term sickness and invalidity benefits. The emphasis is on benefits provided by social security schemes (with particular reference to National Insurance benefit in the UK), but the main points are relevant to private sector benefits including permanent health insurance (PHI).The plan of the paper is as follows. We describe in Section 2 the nature of long-term invalidity benefit provided by the British social security system and then consider in Section 3 the problems associated with defining disability. A discussion of the differences between the incidence of morbidity and the making of an insurance claim leads to consideration of selection and moral hazard (Section 4). We then examine in Section 5 the methodology for analysing costs and estimating future costs with particular reference to the development within the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) of a model based on an incidence and survivorship approach to invalidity benefit and the debate aroused by CMI Report No. 7 on the same topic5. The paper then presents an analysis of recent trends in disability claim rates (Section 6) and incidence and termination rates (Sections 7 and 8) based on invalidity benefit within the British social security system, as well as PHI and the experience of other countries. Attempts are then made in Section 9 to explain these trends and the upward trend in financial costs for disability benefits experienced by many social security systems. The paper concludes with an examination of two areas of current interest, viz. sex differences in morbidity rates and claim rates (Section 10) and the relationship between claim rates and the prevailing level of unemployment (Section 11).

No Margin for Error: Fifteen Years in the Working Lives of Lone Mothers and their Children

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
JANE MILLAR ◽  
TESS RIDGE
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Social Security Policy ◽  
Over Time

AbstractOver the past two decades, the emphasis on paid work has become one of the defining features of social security policy in the UK. Lone mothers and their families have been one of the key groups affected. In this article we focus on the working and family lives of lone mothers and their children over time, drawing on material from a long-term qualitative research study, and setting this in the context of policy developments. We explore the long-term consequences of trying to sustain work, and manage low-income family life as children grow up and needs change over time. This highlights some of the tensions and limitations in family support and relationships when resources are limited. We reflect on the links between insecurity, legacies and the state.

scholarly journals Shifting the Goalposts: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study of the Health of Long-Term Incapacity Benefit Recipients during a Period of Substantial Change to the UK Social Security System

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAYLEIGH GARTHWAITE ◽  
CLARE BAMBRA ◽  
JONATHAN WARREN ◽  
ADETAYO KASIM ◽  
GRAEME GREIG
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Health State ◽  
Disabled People ◽  
Welfare Benefits ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThe UK social security safety net for those who are out of work due to ill health or disability has experienced significant change, most notably the abolition of Incapacity Benefit (IB) and the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). These changes have been underpinned by the assumption that many recipients are not sufficiently sick or disabled to ‘deserve’ welfare benefits – claims that have been made in the absence of empirical data on the health of recipients. Employing a unique longitudinal and mixed-methods approach, this paper explores the health of a cohort of 229 long-term IB recipients in the North East of England over an eighteen-month period, during a time of significant changes to the UK welfare state. In-depth interviews with twenty-five of the survey cohort are also presented to illustrate the lived experiences of recipients. Contributing to debates surrounding the conceptualisation of work-readiness for sick and disabled people, findings indicate IB recipients had significantly worse health than the general population, with little change in their health state over the eighteen-month study period. Qualitative data reinforced the constancy of ill health for IB recipients. Finally, the paper discusses the implications for social policy, noting how the changing nature of administrative definitions and redefinitions of illness and capacity to work can impact upon the lives of sick and disabled people.

Creating perspectives, negotiating social Europe

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otto Jacobi ◽  
Judith Kirton-Darling
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Social Dialogue ◽  
Wage System ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Social Europe

In this introduction to the eight reports on different sectoral dialogues, the coordinators of this issue provide an inventory of the different forms of social dialogue in the EU. It is argued that trade unions have hitherto made insufficient use of the opportunities offered by social dialogue but that the sectoral social dialogue offers a forum for unions to cooperate with employers to develop policies to safeguard Europeanised industries. Two fields of action are identified as being particularly suitable for Europe-wide campaigning: common rules for the European labour market, including a European minimum wage system, and a ‘citizens insurance’ to sustain social security systems.

scholarly journals INGRESO MÍNIMO VITAL Y NACIONALES BRITÁNICOS EN ESPAÑA EN TIEMPOS DEL BREXIT.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-76
Author(s):  
Thais Guerrero Padrón
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
The Social ◽  
Core Issue ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

As from 1 January 2021, after the end of the transitional period imposed by the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, the UK will be for all purposes a third State and its nationals considered as “foreigners”. The change of status of the UK raises interesting questions regarding the social security rights of EU citizens and UK nationals. This paper deals with the possibility of access to the Minimum Living Income benefit for British nationals residing in Spain, either under the Spanish immigration laws or within the framework of the EU Regulations on the Coordination of Social Security systems. As a core issue, the identification of the Minimum Life Income benefit with the special non-contributory benefits of Article 70 of Regulation 883/2004 is argued. To this respect, the lack of inclusion of the Spanish benefit in Annex X can be considered as a serious oversight, possibly rectifiable by regulation and very necessary to avoid the conflict that this lack of clarification could generate

scholarly journals From social security to state-sanctioned insecurity: how welfare reform mimics the commodification of labour through greater state intervention

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Reeves ◽  
Insa Koch
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Insecurity ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Central Tension

Social security systems confront a central tension: how to reconcile welfare retrenchment with the political challenges with implementing these reforms. One way in which policy makers have responded to this tension is by repurposing existing institutions to serve new ends. We investigate the system of Universal Credit (UC) in the UK as an example of such a ‘conversion’. UC expands the mantra of ‘active citizenship’ to a much larger population than ever before. However, far from producing uniform outcomes, UC’s implementation has been marked by chaos and ultimately failure for individuals and communities. We argue that UC exemplifies a broader shift from social security to state-sanctioned social insecurity as policy reforms come to mimic the insecurities and risks commonly associated with the market

scholarly journals Sincere Cooperation, Mutual Trust, and Mutual Recognition in Social Security Coordination

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
Henrik Wenander
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Mutual Trust ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Member States ◽  
Legislative Choice

This article looks into the meaning of the concepts of sincere cooperation, mutual trust, and mutual recognition in EU social security coordination. It analyses the legislative choice of coordination as the main regulatory mechanism in the field, and examines the role of administrative cooperation. Furthermore, the article highlights the challenges that arise in situations where mutual recognition is required under the Regulations, as in connection with portable documents relating to the posting of workers. It also considers the limits to mutual trust via the principle of prohibition of fraud and abuse of rights established in the case law of the CJEU on free movement. In the last few years, this principle has been extended into the field of social security law, notably in Altun. In this way, the coordination regime does not require totally blind trust: rather, it balances the Member States' interests of maintaining the integrity of their social security systems with the Union interest of simplifying free movement. As in other fields of EU law relating to free movement, the mutual trust between the Member States in social security coordination may therefore be set aside in extraordinary cases.

The (Possible) Role of the Right to Social Security in the EU Economic Monitoring Process

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-314
Author(s):  
E. De Becker
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Financial Aid ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

The outbreak of the financial and economic crisis in 2008 had a severe impact on the member states of the European Union. Countries like Greece had to ask the Troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) for financial aid. In return, they were obliged to reduce public spending and, as a result, national social security systems were drastically reformed. Furthermore, the EU has exercised its competences to supervise national budgets more extensively, even for countries not applying for financial aid through the Country Specific Recommendations under the European Semester. Like the decisions providing financial support, these recommendations also touch upon member states' social security systems. Moreover, the actions of the EU seem to generate a tension between the social rights provisions in (inter)national human rights instruments and the EU economic monitoring process, hence creating a possible deficit at the level of the EU. The five collective complaints against Greece under the framework of the European Social Charter (Council of Europe) illustrate this tension. This Article investigates this tension further and provides insights in possible ways to close the gap between (inter)national social rights provisions and the EU economic monitoring process by looking at the right to social security in the EU legal order. In doing so, this Article scrutinizes the judicial safeguards available at EU level, namely the right to social security in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFEU) and the role of general principles of Union's law for the protection of fundamental rights. It will become clear that a lot of uncertainty still remains regarding the content and scope of the right to social security in the CFEU, as well as the enforceability of this provision in the EU economic monitoring process.

Making Transitions Pay: An Assessment of the Dutch Life-Course Scheme

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS VAN HUIZEN ◽  
JANNEKE PLANTENGA
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Savings Accounts ◽  
Unpaid Leave ◽  
Market Approach ◽  
Normative Criteria

AbstractIntroducing individual savings accounts into the system of social security may be an innovative way to reorganise European social security systems. This article examines the merits and drawbacks of this modernisation strategy using the Transitional Labour Market approach as a frame of reference. On the basis of normative criteria derived from this approach, we perform an evaluation of the Dutch life-course scheme (‘Levensloopregeling’). This scheme is a unique and pioneering arrangement that offers employees a fiscally facilitated option to save money to finance periods of unpaid leave. Following the assessment of the Dutch case, we identify several pitfalls of reforms based on individual savings accounts. Finally, we put forward some proposals to overcome these shortcomings.

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