scholarly journals Government’s Income Support Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Contentious Issue ◽  
Support Policy ◽  
The Welfare State

Income support policy was already a contentious issue before the arrival of Covid-19, but it has assumed increased significance as a result of the job losses and disruption to people’s earnings following the border closures, trade disruption and the period of nationwide lockdown. This article documents the government’s income support and social welfare responses to the pandemic and places them in the context of the pre-existing debates around welfare policy. The article finishes with a brief discussion of possible future directions for the welfare state.

Caring and Grieving in the Context of Social and Structural Inequity: Experiences of Australian Carers With Social Welfare Needs

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110468
Author(s):  
Kristin Bindley ◽  
Joanne Lewis ◽  
Joanne Travaglia ◽  
Michelle DiGiacomo
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Structural Vulnerability ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Significant Attention ◽  
The Welfare State

Caring for and bereavement following the death of someone with a life-limiting illness may precipitate social welfare needs related to income support and housing. Nevertheless, carer experiences of welfare policy and institutions have not received significant attention. This qualitative study explored experiences of carers who navigated social welfare policy while caring for someone with a life-limiting illness, and in bereavement. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 bereaved carers in an area associated with socioeconomic disadvantage. Carers differentially encountered precariousness, with some experiencing structural vulnerability. These positionalities appeared to be shaped by policy and process-related burdens, perceptions of the welfare state, and degrees of legitimisation or disenfranchisement of forms of capital and coping orientations. Recommendations that may improve carer experience were identified. Implications relate to the need for an expanded conceptualisation of vulnerability in health and welfare practice, policy that authentically validates caring and grieving, and upstream strategies that address inequity.

Historical Context

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Charitable Organizations ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
Assistance Programs ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Welfare State

The chapter explores the origin of social welfare policies in welfare states in Western democratic countries. It traces the state of poverty in most Western democracies before the Great Depression of 1930s, and states' interventions with welfare social assistance programs previously handled by communities, churches, and charitable organizations. The chapter, therefore, examines the historical context of social welfare policy, the nature of the welfare state regime, modern welfare state approaches to social welfare policy, and the market and global economies and the welfare state.

Welfare rights, self-help and social enterprise: Unpicking neoliberalism’s mess

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Gerrard
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Welfare Rights ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Welfare State

Neoliberalism is often represented as a fundamental intrusion of individualism into post-war welfare policy settlements. This article seeks to unpick this understanding through a case study of the intersections between the welfare rights and self-help approaches of the homeless and community sectors in the 1970s and 1980s, and the emergence of social enterprise and The Big Issue in the 1990s. First, I outline the development of a dedicated ‘homeless sector’ in the 1970s. Second, the ways in which this sector developed in relation to challenges to state authority in social welfare is examined. Finally, I explore the discursive intersections between the critiques of the welfare state, and the rise of neoliberalism and social enterprise. I suggest the emergence of social enterprise is emblematic of wider claims to individual agency, while also interwoven with the rise of neoliberalism and the capitalist recuperation of self-help and welfare rights challenges to state strategies.

Social Welfare Policy: Preferences of Arab and Jewish Social Workers in Israel

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idit Weiss-Gal ◽  
John Gal
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

Seeking to understand the impact of race and nationality on the attitudes of social workers towards social welfare policy, this study compares the attitudes of Arab and Jewish social workers in Israel. This analysis seeks to determine whether the attitudes of the two groups of social workers diverge and, if so, in what direction. Based on a sample of 110 social workers, evenly divided between Arabs and Jews, the findings revealed both similarities and differences in the social welfare policy references of the two groups of social workers. Although both supported the welfare state, they also expressed a lack of enthusiasm to finance it and a degree of skepticism regarding its impact. In contrast to their Jewish counterparts, Arab social workers were more supportive of the welfare state but did not support policies that were perceived as unsupportive of Arabs.

The Rise of Block-Granting as a Tool of Conservative Statecraft

The Forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-247
Author(s):  
Ryan LaRochelle
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Block Grant ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Block Grants ◽  
Social Welfare Programs ◽  
Political Weapon ◽  
The Welfare State

AbstractThis article sheds new light on how conservatism has affected American state development by tracing the history of how block-granting transformed from a bipartisan tool to solve problems of public administration in the 1940s into a mechanism to roll back and decentralize the welfare state that had reached its zenith in the 1960s. By the early 1980s, conservative policymakers had coopted the previously bipartisan tool in their efforts to chip away at the increasingly centralized social welfare system that emerged out of the Great Society. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan successfully converted numerous categorical grants into a series of block grants, slashing funding for several social safety net programs. Block-granting allows conservative opponents of the postwar welfare state to gradually erode funding and grant more authority to state governments, thus using federalism as a more palatable political weapon to reduce social welfare spending than the full dismantlement of social programs. However, despite a flurry of successes in the early 1980s, block-granting has not proven as successful as conservatives might have hoped, and recent efforts to convert programs such as Medicaid and parts of the Affordable Care Act into block grants have failed. The failure of recent failed block grant efforts highlights the resilience of liberal reforms, even in the face of sustained conservative opposition. However, conservatives still draw upon the tool today in their efforts to erode and retrench social welfare programs. Block-granting has thus transformed from a bipartisan tool to improve bureaucratic effectiveness into a perennial weapon in conservatives’ war on the welfare state.

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