scholarly journals Missing out: The intergenerational ramifications of current social security arrangements

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlyn Lehmann ◽  
Jennifer Lehmann ◽  
Rachael Sanders

Neoliberal reforms and ring-wing ideologies have seen the ideal of the social security ‘safety net’ take a hammering in the UK, USA and Australia. While the gap between rich and poor has widened, and demand for welfare payments increased, politicians, certainly in Australia, have generally neglected low income families, preferring to twiddle the economic dials affecting middle and upper income earners instead. Of course, tussling over who pays tax, how much, what constitutes useful expenditure, and who receives welfare services and benefits is not new – these questions have attended the modern welfare state from its inception. But the welfare safety net that most of us, grudgingly or otherwise, concede to be necessary for collective social harmony is no longer proving as effective as we would wish. Even with a battered and frayed, but still ostensibly functional systems of welfare payment and support offered in Australia, the number of people experiencing perpetual disadvantage is rising, with intergenerational poverty – its increase and impacts on children – of particular concern.

Author(s):  
Stephanie Holcomb ◽  
Jessica L. Roman ◽  
Sabrina Rodriguez ◽  
Andrea Hetling

The functioning of the U.S. social safety net as a support for low-income families depends on various means-tested programs and a system of both public agencies and nonprofit organizations. Using in-depth interviews ( n = 5) and a survey of nonprofit employees ( n = 73), we seek to understand the role of nonprofits in promoting equitable access to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Our findings reveal that public assistance programs are a necessary support for families, but that access is not always easy or equitable, and nonprofits form a protective layer of support providing resources and guidance for those most in need. Implications for policy and partnerships between the various components of the social safety net are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 369-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatih Guvenen ◽  
Fatih Karahan ◽  
Serdar Ozkan ◽  
Jae Song

Drawing on administrative data from the Social Security Administration, we find that individuals that go through a long period of non-employment suffer large and long-term earnings losses (around 35-40 percent) compared to individuals with similar age and previous earnings histories. Importantly, these differences depend on past earnings, and are largest at the bottom and top of the earnings distribution. Focusing on workers that are employed 10 years after a period of long-term non-employment, we find much smaller earnings losses (8-10 percent). Furthermore, the large earnings losses of low-income individuals are almost entirely due to employment effects.


Legal Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christopher Rowe

Abstract As part of its response to Covid-19 the government paused the use of the ‘Minimum Income Floor’ (MIF), which restricts the Universal Credit (UC) entitlement of the self-employed. This paper places the MIF in the wider context of conditionality in the social security system and considers a judicial review which claimed that the MIF was discriminatory. The paper focuses on how UC affects the availability of real choices for low-income citizens to limit or escape from wage labour, with two implications of the move to UC highlighted. First, the overlooked labour decommodifying aspect of tax credits, which provided a minimum income guarantee and a genuine alternative to wage labour for people who self-designated as ‘self-employed’, even if their earnings were minimal or non-existent, has been removed. Secondly, UC has in some respects improved the position of low-paid wage labourers in ‘mini-jobs’, who are not subject to conditionality once they work for the equivalent of approximately nine hours a week on the minimum wage.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 986-986
Author(s):  
Robert B. Kucel

With the increasing interest in mental retardation more articles, monographs, and books appear on the subject. The Biosocial Basis of Mental Retardation is a collection of seven essays originally delivered at the John Hopkins Hospital. Although pediatricians have turned their attention in mental retardation mostly to the biological components of mental retardation, there is a growing awareness that social and psychological factors also play a significant role. The interrelationship of biological and social factors is virtually an unchartered sea. The several authors who originally presented these essays are attempting to highlight some of the social factors and, where appropriate, to point out how some of the social features relate to biological ones. For example, the well known relationship of the high incidence of prematurity in low socioeconomic group families is a fact most pediatricians know but the implication of this fact as far as prevention is concerned is a large and important concern and as yet poorly understood. With the increasing amount of federal interest in programs for low income families, many pediatricians will want to become better informed about the implications. Some of these points are considered in the chapter by Janet Hardy. For the person concerned with medical remedies for mental retardation, there will be little of interest in this book. On the other hand, for those who are anxious to know more about social and psychological factors as they relate to mental retardation, this is a very useful and fascinating compendium of articles. Particularly intriguing are the articles by Eli Ginzberg who discusses the mentally handicapped in an increasingly technological society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK SIMPSON

AbstractIn 2009, the UK government emphasised that it was ‘deeply committed’ to the maintenance of the state's social union, embodied in a single social security system. Five years later, the future of this social union appeared less certain than at any time since the 1920s. Dissatisfaction with the ‘welfare reform’ agenda of the coalition government was a driver of support for Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum campaign. Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Assembly failed to pass legislation to mirror the Welfare Reform Act 2012, normally a formality due to the convention of parity in social security. Despite Westminster's subsequent extension of the 2012 reforms to the region, divergence in secondary legislation and practice remains likely. This article draws on the findings of qualitative interviews with politicians and civil servants in both regions during a period covering the conclusion of the Smith Commission's work on the future of Scottish devolution and the height of a political impasse over Northern Ireland's Welfare Reform Bill that threatened a constitutional crisis. It considers the extent to which steps towards divergence in the two devolved regions have altered the UK's social union and to which the two processes have influenced one another.


2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Brown ◽  
Julia Lynn Coronado ◽  
Don Fullerton

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Savitha

Micro health insurance (MHI) is an important mechanism to fight iatrogenic poverty in India. Its sustainability and viability depends, to a greater extent on the renewal of membership. This article evaluates the factors that influence renewal decisions in Sampoorna Suraksha Programme (SSP) in Karnataka. This study shows income class and chronic illness in the family to determine the renewability. The findings indicate adverse selection since low-income low-risk and high-income low-risk families dropout. From the social welfare point of view, renewal from high-risk low-income families is welcome; yet this should not jeopardize resource mobilization of SSP. Sustainable and viable operations of SSP depends on continued membership of insured population that can be achieved through external financial assistance for the poorest, wider network of hospitals and increased awareness on health insurance. Dropout rate in any MHI scheme should be kept very low to achieve deeper penetration and wider coverage especially in India where large percentage of population falls outside the insurance ambit.


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