scholarly journals From the Windrush Generation to the ‘Air Jamaica generation’: local authority support for families with no recourse to public funds

Author(s):  
Andy Jolly

The ‘Air Jamaica generation’ of migrants to the UK over the past 30 years has received less political and scholarly attention than the so-called Windrush generation. Children of this generation are often invisible in social policy discussions because they lack the legal right to paid employment, and are subject to the no recourse to public funds (NRPF) rule. This excludes them from accessing welfare provision, including most social security benefits, council housing and homelessness assistance. This chapter examines support under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, one of the few welfare entitlements which children and families with NRPF retain, arguing that, without access to mainstream social security, section 17 is an inadequate safety net to prevent poverty. The chapter concludes that this is rooted in discriminatory legislation and policy, resulting in situations which, while structural in cause, would be viewed as neglectful if perpetrated by a parent or carer.

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-162
Author(s):  
Ed Gareth Poole ◽  
Guto Ifan

Although social security is traditionally viewed as a highly centralised function in the UK, health care and long-term social care have long been devolved to sub-state governments, an arrangement requiring extensive internal coordination agreements. This coordination has various objectives, including ensuring parity of benefits provision in Northern Ireland (where social assistance is devolved) and Great Britain (where it is centralised), securing financial reimbursements for cross-border health care provision, and determining responsibility and eligibility criteria for individuals in need of social care. Further devolution and decentralisation of social security benefits over the past decade have made such coordination arrangements even more essential.


2020 ◽  
pp. jech-2020-214770
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Richardson ◽  
Martin Taulbut ◽  
Mark Robinson ◽  
Andrew Pulford ◽  
Gerry McCartney

BackgroundLife expectancy (LE) improvements have stalled, and UK tax and welfare ‘reforms’ have been proposed as a cause. We estimated the effects of tax and welfare reforms from 2010/2011 to 2021/2022 on LE and inequalities in LE in Scotland.MethodsWe applied a published estimate of the cumulative income impact of the reforms to the households within Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles. We estimated the impact on LE by applying a rate ratio for the impact of income on mortality rates (by age group, sex and SIMD quintile) and calculating the difference between inflation-only changes in benefits and the reforms.ResultsWe estimated that changes to household income resulting from the reforms would result in an additional 1041 (+3.7%) female deaths and 1013 (+3.8%) male deaths. These deaths represent an estimated reduction of female LE from 81.6 years to 81.2 years (−20 weeks), and male LE from 77.6 years to 77.2 years (−23 weeks). Cuts to benefits and tax credits were modelled to have the most detrimental impact on LE, and these were estimated to be most severe in the most deprived areas. The modelled impact on inequalities in LE was widening of the gap between the most and least deprived 20% of areas by a further 21 weeks for females and 23 weeks for males.InterpretationThis study provides further evidence that austerity, in the form of cuts to social security benefits, is likely to be an important cause of stalled LE across the UK.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Jawad

The role of religion in social welfare provision, and more broadly in shaping the development of state social policy in the UK, has become an issue of increasing prominence in the last decade raising both new challenges and opportunities. This article brings together new and existing research in the field of religion and social action/welfare in the British context to present a preliminary discussion of how and why religion, as a source of social identity and moral values, matters for social policy. The key argument is that religious welfare provision goes beyond the mixed economy of welfare paradigm and has the capacity to challenge the Utilitarian underpinnings of mainstream social policy thinking by giving more relative importance to ethical issues such as self-knowledge and morality, in addition to the more conventional concepts of wellbeing or happiness. The article proposes the concept of ways of being in order to bring together these moral ideational factors that underpin social welfare.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAYLEIGH GARTHWAITE ◽  
CLARE BAMBRA ◽  
JONATHAN WARREN ◽  
ADETAYO KASIM ◽  
GRAEME GREIG

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.


2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete Alcock

This paper discusses some of the tensions revealed in the development and implementation of recent area-based approaches to social policy in England. Such programmes are now a central feature of Government policy practice, although similar programmes have been developed in the past in the UK and other welfare capitalist countries. They reflect concerns to combat social exclusion and ‘join-up’ service provision. They are also evidence of a shift towards more agency based policy practice – from ‘top-down’ to ‘bottom-up’ planning. Thus participation of citizens is a key element in all programmes. Some of the problems of securing such participation are discussed, including in particular the tendency for expectations of participation to lead to pathological interpretations of the causes of (and solutions too) social exclusion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-191
Author(s):  
Bjarte Askeland

Abstract The article presents an overview of Norwegian law with regard to damages caused by means of mass transportation by buses, railways and airplanes. The author explains why and how in Norway, as elsewhere in Scandinavia, there is strict liability for damages caused by means of mass transportation. Also the assessment of damages in the mentioned categories is discussed. For personal injuries there are no caps for trains or buses, partly because a greater part of the loss of income is covered by social security benefits, something which is typical of the ‘Nordic model’. Along the same lines, the rules on contributory negligence favour the victim somewhat more than in other parts of Europe, with regard to accidents caused by both buses and trains. Hence the law is all in all rather friendly to the victim. As for damage caused by air traffic, there are tensions between the ‘victim-friendly’ attitude and the relevant EU regulations which make the Montreal Convention applicable to Scandinavian law. These tensions are discussed towards the end of the article. Thus the article highlights and illustrates how the Scandinavian legal culture with the ‘Nordic Model’ as its special hallmark endorses solutions that somewhat contradict the common solutions in continental Europe and in the UK.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 390-390
Author(s):  
Catheryn Koss

Abstract A recent Pew Research Center poll found less than half of non-retired U.S. adults believe they will receive Social Security benefits when they retire. Pessimism about Social Security’s future is even stronger among people under 50, raising concerns about political support for the program. The current study examined to what extent education about how Social Security functions and strategies to address program funding shortfalls could increase optimism about Social Security’s future. In Fall 2020, twenty-two undergraduate students enrolled in an on-line aging and social policy course were asked how likely they would receive Social Security income when they retired. Consistent with national polling data, only 38% believed they would probably or definitely receive Social Security retirement income. Students were also asked to briefly explain why they answered the way they did. Common reasons given for pessimism about receiving Social Security retirement income included having heard Social Security will run out of money and believing only U.S. citizens are eligible for Social Security benefits. Over a two-week period, students completed asynchronous on-line activities covering Social Security retirement eligibility, worker and spousal benefits, current funding, and proposed changes to address funding shortfalls. Upon completion, 67% of students stated they would probably or definitely receive Social Security retirement income when they retired (p = .07). These preliminary results suggest that education about the program can reduce pessimism about Social Security’s future. Additional data will be collected from 45 students enrolled in the same course in Spring 2021.


2021 ◽  
pp. 27-42
Author(s):  
Ian Cummins

The rise in rates of imprisonment since the late 1970s is one of the most striking features of social policy. The USA and England and Wales have been the “leaders” in these developments. The rate of imprisonment doubled in the UK in the twenty years to 2015. This chapter will begin with a discussion of the historicity of mass incarceration and the penal state. It will examine the expansion of the use of imprisonment in England and Wales over the past thirty years. In contrast to the previous theoretically orientated chapters, this will focus on data such as the rates of imprisonment and the development of policy within this field. The chapter will also provide a comparative analysis that will place the development of the penal state in England and Wales within an international context.


Author(s):  
Steve Rogowski

In the UK, neoliberalism and associated austerity have dominated social work and welfare provision over the last decade. Consequences include severe financial cuts to social work with children and families, as well as public services generally, and large increases in poverty and inequality. Despite increasing numbers of people in difficulty, the social work and welfare system has become more punitive and presents ongoing threats to social work’s commitment to human rights and social justice. This article examines such developments and includes the views of practitioners. Despite the strength and depth of challenges, it argues that critical/radical possibilities remain for practitioners to work both individually with service users and collectively. Such opportunities need to be taken with a view to working towards a more just and equal society, this being a much-needed antidote to the unequal neoliberal world we currently inhabit.


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