The making of a welfare class? : : Benefit receipt in Britain / / Robert Walker, Marilyn Howard.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Bristol University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-1995
• VerfasserIn: Walker, Robert,; Howard, Marilyn,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol : : Policy Press, , [2000]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2000
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 p.)

Over the last three decades Britain has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of people receiving welfare benefits that has provoked fears of a growing underclass and mass welfare dependency. The making of a welfare class? provides the first comprehensive analysis of the reasons for this growth and subjects notions of welfare dependency and the underclass to empirical test. It focuses on four principal groups of benefit recipients - children and families, retirement pensioners, disabled people, and unemployed people - and, using important new evidence, explores the relative importance of economic, demographic, institutional and normative factors in the pattern of growth. The book addresses a phenomenon - growth in benefit recipiency - which is common to all advanced industrial countries and nowhere well understood. As a central focus of government policy and a key development in modern society, the issues explored in the book will therefore be of interest to academics and policy commentators alike. Written in an accessible style and assuming no prior knowledge, with succinct chapters, elegant summaries and extensive use of graphics, complex arguments appear simple. A comprehensive glossary of technical terms is included. As a result, The making of a welfare class? is compulsory reading for undergraduates and postgraduate students of sociology, social policy and economics and anyone else interested in the development of modern British society and welfare policy.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Contents -- List of tables and figures -- Acknowledgements -- List of acronyms -- Setting the scene -- The conundrum -- Taking an overview -- Benefits for unemployed people -- Trends in claimant unemployment -- The economy and unemployment -- Demography and unemployment -- Unemployment institutions -- Beliefs, behaviour and unemployment -- Understanding trends in unemployment-related benefits -- Benefits for disabled people -- Trends in benefits for disabled people -- Beliefs about disability -- Institutional factors and disability benefits -- Demography and benefits for disabled people -- The economy and disability -- Understanding the growth in disability benefits -- Benefits for children and families -- Trends in receipt of benefits by children and families -- Aspects of the demography of family life -- The economy and the family -- Beliefs about the family and poverty -- Social security provisions for families and children -- Reflecting on benefit receipt by families and children -- Benefits for retirement -- Trends in pension provision -- The demography of pensions’ growth -- Institutional aspects of pension provision -- Beliefs, opportunities and retirement behaviour -- The economy and pension provision -- Pathways to pensions -- Towards a welfare class? -- Understanding the pattern of caseload growth -- References and further reading -- Index