Our colleagues at Heriot-Watt University have published their latest report on destitution in the UK, which makes grim reading even before the effects of the pandemic...
The origins of modern welfare was published in July 2010, by Peter Lang. The publisher and I agreed at the time of publication that our contractual agreement would expire after ten years, and the rights would revert to me. I am taking the opportunity now to make this work freely available, on a Creative Commons licence.
The book contains modern English versions of two documents from the early sixteenth century, which have some claim to be the earliest ever studies made in the field of social policy. The De Subventione Pauperum, by Juan-Luis Vives, was a commissioned academic report, written for the Senate of Bruges, and published in 1525. It represents, a watershed in thinking about governance, social responsibility and public policy. In Book 2 it proposes a comprehensive civic organisation of welfare services.
Current benefit payments are at their lowest level since 1948, finds a new report from the IPPR. Further analysis suggest it could even be relatively lower than the Elizabethan Poor Laws.
A video of the 'Shame, Poverty and Health' seminar at the University of Exeter in July is now available to watch here. The seminar explored the how poverty undermines individuals' wellbeing, confidence and dignity.
The human cost of government imposed austerity should be a key issue, argue Vickie Cooper and David Whyte. Drawing on their new book, 'The Violence of Austerity', they set out how austerity is shaping people's lives and deaths.
The final report from the PSE qualitative research on the reality of life on low income records how people's perpetual struggles to make meagre budgets stretch eventually this takes its toll on their lives.
Do views in Scotland on the necessities differ from those in the rest of the UK? Is reasonable to have a single poverty standard for the whole of the UK or should Scotland have a separate standard. In this this research analysis working paper, Maria Gannon and Nick Bailey examine the PSE UK findings.
Would an independent Scotland choose a significantly different social settlement with a more generous social minimum than the rest of the UK? Drawing on the PSE UK findings into attitudes to necessities, Nick Bailey investigates.
Social protection spending in the European Union fell between 2009 and 2011 – from 29.7 per cent of GDP overall to 29.1 per cent, according to data from Eurostat, the EU statistical office. But it remained significantly higher than the level in 2008 (26.8 per cent), before the full impact of the global economic recession.
Social protection expenditure includes social benefits, administration costs and other spending linked to social protection schemes.
The opposition Labour Party's plans for the future of the benefits system have been clarified in two new reports. The first, by Liam Byrne (shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions), bases plans for reforming the social security system on a return to full employment. The second, published by the Labour Party to coincide with its annual conference, sets out a range of policies aimed at reforming benefits and tackling the cost of living crisis.