Policy & Practice SOW 1201

Lecture 2 Why do we have a welfare state and what exactly is it supposed to do?

1

Overview

of Lecture (1)

Three Parts: 1 In order to answer the question - why do we have a welfare state - we need to know a little about the early development of welfare in Britain up to the 1970s or so 2

Overview of Lecture (2)

2 We need also to locate this British development in a comparative framework – what is distinct and similar about Britain’s welfare development?

This requires exploration of : 2a 2b 2c The key factors involved in why welfare systems develop Systems of classifying welfare systems Understanding where Britain fits in these classifications 3

3

Overview of Lecture (3)

Finally in order to address the first question in more detail – we need to ask: 3a) what exactly do these different types of state welfare provision do? Including some attention to what is happening to welfare provision in Britain now Then we will, at the end of the lecture, be in a better position to address the rather tougher question: 3b) - what are they supposed to be doing? 4

1a Historical Stages in the Development of the British Welfare State

  1601 Vagrancy Act made provision to set the poor on work  1 Pre Poor Law Early forms of welfare – Vagrancy Laws – paupers forcibly removed if they were from another parish & could not support themselves Some out relief at end of 18 th century 5

2 The Poor Law 1834

 Belief that population was increasing beyond the means to feed to be fed - Malthus  The Poor Law Commission recommended that: -

the workhouse test

– no relief outside workhouse

less eligibility

– relief inside lower than one could earn outside it  

Poor Laws

first attempt by govt. to impose order in the giving of aid Principle of

stigma less eligibility

and the attached to claimants still very much present today!

deliberate

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3 Gradual Involvement of State

   Enormous social problems in mid/late 19 th by contemporary 1 st world standards century – Outcast London example – origins of social work – problem of how to ration resources –

deserving

poor &, of course,

undeserving

poor British nation building – gradual take over of work by state of work previously done by church charities e.g.1870 Education Act (free compulsory education up to 11);Public Health and Factory Act reforms; gradual extension of local government (beginnings of town planning, council housing etc) WHY ???

– return to below National administrative systems established for education and public health 7

4

Post War Reforms – Universalist Welfare State Five Giants Attacked by the 1944 Beveridge Report:

Want

– Social Security – Universal National Insurance

Ignorance

– Education free till 15

Disease Squalor

– National Health Service free at point of delivery – Extension of council housing and New Towns; family allowances

Idleness

– combination of less eligibility rule and free education This Report was widely welcomed as a big improvement of previous arrangements. It contains 3 principal elements: 3.

1.

A guaranteed minimum standard – including income 2.

Social protection in the event of insecurity Provision of services at best level possible? – social citizenship Please note no initial plans for personal social services – assumed want would be abolished! – residiium would need assistance – PSS for the residuum/underclass?

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-

However…….

In practice post war British welfare may have guaranteed welfare as a right and included considerable protection BUT: whilst coverage was extensive, benefits & services were generally always delivered at a low level social protection was patchy – single women; disabled people services tightly rationed The Beveridge model was based on : Work being equated with paid male labour Therefore a

patriarchal

conception of families – male breadwinner with dependents assumption of full male employment Welfare services being geared up to this traditional ‘family’ model the promotion of

national

solidarity – ethnicity?

managing life course risks through national insurance – spreading income out over life time 9

2 Comparative Framework : 2a The Key Factors in Why Welfare Systems Develop?

1.

2.

3.

Demographic & economic – as states get more complex then welfare automatically develops –

poor explanation

Politics – demands from below – trade unions – and concerns from above – industrialists and reformers implementing from above –

partial explanation Multi-dimensional

Clearly the latter is the most useful How best to think about the different elements that go towards why welfare state systems develop?

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2b Systems of Classifying Welfare States

Simple classification:    Institutional model offered to all – UK – universal minima Institutional- Redistributive or Social Democratic model – Sweden – comprehensive provision with a commitment to egalitarianism Liberal or residual model – USA – individuals largely expected to provide for themselves; welfare for the ‘residuals’..often attached to a punitive view of the poor 11

An improved way of thinking about this issue

Esping-Andersen (1990, 1999) brought previous ways of thinking about this issue together & tried to theorise welfare states as combinations of political/economic and social factors – and called them

‘regime’ types

  He analysed:  the level of

state spending de-commodification

– the extent to which welfare was provided by

non-market providers stratification

– the extent to which access to welfare was determined by one’s social class 12

In practice this means……we can classify welfare regimes

Sweden Germany Regime Type Political Base Service Type

Social Democratic Broad-based compromise Universal Corporatist Employer/ Worker coalition Occupational

USA

Liberal Free Market Residual

Public Expenditure Labour Market

High level High Employment High Wage High Level High Wage Low level Low Wage 13

2c Where Does Britain Fit in

?

Britain led the way in trying to provide a comprehensive & universal welfare system; & post 1945 welfare reforms did represent an important leap forward….but not very extensive…..not very social democratic!

For, at root, our benefits are at best modest & often dependent on means testing, with limited transfers between rich & poor, & encouragement of private welfare…..but not liberal either. More about life time recycling of resources 14

Britain : an odd mix…a peculiar welfare state

There is still a strong foundation of

universal

principles in the education and health sectors – and some continuing commitment to universal social benefits at a low level.

But we tolerate and encourage private provision….and much welfare change of the last few years has not done an enormous amount to redistribute income from rich to poor Britain combines elements of the liberal or residual welfare system with strong remnants of a social democratic regime – education and health 15

Overview of British State’s welfare provision

As we saw last week the British state principally provides 5 social services: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Social Security – benefits, pensions etc – income maintenance – and Employment Policy Education Health Housing Personal Social Services One difference from last week – we now have to recognise that Employment Policy is key to understanding contemporary welfare Let’s look at each in turn bearing in mind our discussion so far today 16

3a what exactly does these different types of state welfare provision do? – and what are they supposed to do?

1a Income Maintenance        involves some redistribution – through some state benefits – last week/session Public expenditure on state benefits growing despite attempts to control. £103 bn in 2003/4. £50.5bn insurance based; £29.7 means tested Increasing shift from insurance based to assistance based (means tested) in last 25 years Entitlement and take up rates very between unemployed, pensioners, etc…..details later in unit Non-take up big problem – not least for social workers working with poor users Means testing can lead to unemployment and poverty traps - explain New Labour has instituted large reviews of social security and has increased some benefits for families and children getting people into employment – see Case Study – child tax credits…..but sees principal fight against poverty as being through 17

1b Employment Policy

    Not in 1940s reforms but now very important Merged with social security – Dept of Work & Pensions Key New Labour priority ‘Welfare to work’ – key policy initiative New Deal for unemployed – more of on next slide EU law in conflict – social programme – with UK – expands British employment rights and employment protection considerably 18

New Labour’s New Deal

New Labour made commitment to replace past employment support provision with a

New Deal

for the unemployed 

Compulsory

training and work experience aligned to renewed commitment to help key groups gain entry to labour market  New Deal Programmes cover Young People 18-24; long term unemployed; lone parents; partners of unemployed; disabled people; 50 plus & partners  This has been combined with:  Statutory minimum wage  Working families tax credits Family friendly employment rights – maternity & paternity leave See Alcock P (2003) pp 124-126 for more discussion 19

Employment Key for Solving Poverty for New Labour

     Implicit in the New Deal is the above assumption This is a contentious assumption No good producing employment opportunities if people not able to take them for good welfare reasons – e.g. single parents What will happen in periods of economic downturn when jobs are scarce?

New Deal could be seen as WORKFARE…..not WELFARE at all……but then again principal source of welfare is a job!

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2 Education

      Universal free education provided from 1945 from 5 15…now 16…..next year 17 Is free education provided to ‘educate’ (liberal view) or ‘train’ (social capital view) and sort people out into labour market allocations – think about it? Return to at end of lecture Some levels are provided free by state completely . Should they be?

– primary, secondary, further .….but higher and nursery not 50% to be in HE by 2007….8% in the 1960s Private school provision allowed New Labour targets extra resources to certain schools & categories of pupils 21

3 Health

     Improving health not necessarily same as treating illness – different policy priorities The NHS was established in 1948 by Labour – the Conservative Party opposed.

Largely free service but has always charged for certain services – notably prescriptions Approximately 7 million people covered by private health insurance Increasing encouragement & development of

partnerships

between private contractors and the NHS – see in particular, private finance initiative 22

4 Housing

      Exploitation of tenants, over-crowding & public health issues led to initial intervention by state against racketeer private landlords Government accepted responsibility for providing all with homes after 1 st WW – Homes Fit for Heroes Housing stock now primarily owner occupied orientated – just over 70% of population own their own houses Certain categories of homeless people have statutory right to public housing Much confusion about the present ‘large scale voluntary transfers’ – LSVTs - of housing stock from local authorities to housing associations 3 scenarios – will public housing still be a public service controlled by LAs? Or Is it an opportunity to get local democratically run housing? Or is it the re-introduction of private landlordism by the back door?

See Ginsburg N 2005 The Privatization of Public Housing, Critical Social Policy, Vol 25, No 1, pp 115-135 23

5 Personal Social Services (a)

 Early development dominated by charitable, often church, provision    Late 1940s statutory responsibility largely transferred to new local authority based Children’s, and Health and Welfare Depts Seebohm Reforms of 1971 – one generic social service dept. Preventive social work?

Since 1990s – particularly under pressure of high profile child abuse cases – gradual return to specialisms – fire fighting?

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5 Personal Social Services (b)

        Work with child offenders shifts between

welfare

&

justice

approaches All SSDs since 1990 are required to produce community care plans SSDs have various & different names now!

Huge decline in residential provision and shift to community, or smaller scale, residential provision Mixed economy – see last week – now for community care provision – LAs having to purchase 85% of their provision from private or voluntary sectors Social care not free at point of delivery for all – but is in Scotland!

Increasing use of charges for domiciliary support care Some SSDs employ welfare rights workers to help poor clients – the majority – to improve their incomes through better take up of benefits 25

3b What are the social services supposed to do? (a)

This as I hope you are beginning to realise is quite a complex question – and one we cannot really answer properly today.

But next week/session we will see that the different welfare ideologies produce very different answers to the question By way of a taster…..

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3b What are the social services supposed to do? (b)

Various possible interpretations :     Literal – they do that they say they do – do they? Functionalist – as industrialisation/capitalism develops welfare services emerge to carry out certain functions…explain difference between manifest & latent functions – see next slide for social work Political – welfare is a combination of struggles from below for a better life and the needs – from above - of industry for an educated, healthy workforce Beneficent – welfare emerges in response to awareness of hardship – moral reform 27

Social Work : Manifest and Latent Functions

Manifest Functions   Services for those – who through no fault of their own fall through the welfare net An accountable professional activity that enables individuals, families and groups identify personal & environmental differences adversely affecting them ( CCETW, 1991)  Protecting children and the vulnerable  To enable social inclusion to take place Latent Functions?

   A social control device to ‘police’ and contain the less well off and potentially rebellious sections of the population A largely bureaucratic, procedural activity with little or no professional discretion – legalistic, formal and arms length  Assessing and managing potential risk and dangerousness A compensatory service for those who are largely socially excluded from large aspects of the social order confirming their exclusion Discuss in seminars 28