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The Work Programme has the potential to work well for relatively mainstream jobseekers but is unlikely to reach the most disadvantaged long-term unemployed people. The Government spent some £248 million less on the Work Programme than anticipated in 2012/13, due to providers' under-performance in a "payment-by-results" programme. In the short term, the Committee urges the Government to use the unspent Work Programme budget to: extend proven, alternative provision for disadvantaged jobseekers, such as the Work Choice programme for disabled people; extend and continue to promote Access to Work to help disabled people overcome the practical difficulties of starting a job; and provide further s...
Revised papers presented at the International Conference on Administrative Justice held in Bristol in 1997, reflect on developments in the field in the last 40 years and discuss options for the future. Contributors include policy makers, tribunal chairs and ombudsmen, and academics. The idea of administrative justice, central to the British system of public law, embraces the mechanisms aimed at balance in the exercise of public power. Among the themes addressed: the effect of the changing nature of the state on current institutions; human rights; the relationship between reviews of decisions and the adjudication of appeals; and international comparisons with the British system of administrative justice. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The essential verdict on Britain's first coalition government since the Second World War delivered by an unrivalled team of experts.
This book provides the first detailed history of guaranteed income schemes in modern Britain. It examines past and present British social policy debate to argue that the case for recasting the UK's transfer state to incorporate a Universal Basic Income is increasingly powerful.
For more than a decade, Carol Smart has been at the forefront of debates about the sociology of the family. Yet she has become frustrated by the fixation of many commentators with the supposed decline of commitment, and even the decline of the possibility of family life. In this exciting new book, she puts forward a new way of understanding families and relationships. Breaking with conventional wisdom, her book offers a fresh conceptual approach to understanding personal life, which realigns empirical research with theoretical analysis. She gives emphasis to ideas of connectedness, relationality and embeddedness, rejecting many of the assumptions found in theories of individualisation and de...
Welfare-to-work or activation policies refer to programmes aimed at promoting the employability, labour-market and social participation of benefit recipients of working age. Frontline workers delivering these policies are conceived of as policy implementers, as policy makers, and as actors mediating politics in an arena where conflicting interests are at stake. Frontline work plays a crucial role in determining what welfare-to-work practically means and how it affects the lives of the people it targets. Yet few books have deliberatively focused on comparing what happens when frontline workers, some of whom are professional social workers, meet clients. Pioneering the provision of scholarly r...
Social Security forms a major area of government policy and social expenditure. Government activity in this area impacts directly on all citizens, and consequently social security policy is the focus for much debate. People are affected by social security whether by funding it through taxation, or using it when claiming unemployment or other benefits. Introduction to Social Security is an up-to-date text on this important and complex social policy issue. It provides a second introduction for students of social policy and administration and includes contributions from some of the best known and most respected names in the field.
Approximately half of the total UK population are in receipt of one or more welfare benefits, giving rise to the largest single area of government expenditure. The law and structures of social security are highly complex, made more so by constant adjustments as government pursues its often conflicting economic, political and social policy objectives. This complexity is highly problematic. It contributes to errors in decision-making and to increased administrative costs and is seen as disempowering for citizens, thereby weakening enjoyment of a key social right. Current and previous administrations have committed to simplifying the benefits system. It is a specific objective of the Welfare Re...
Welfare provision in the UK has undergone a period of restructuring and new developments since the 1980s. This book assesses the policy implications of these changes in a number of areas, including health, education, housing, social policy and security.
In this report the Work and Pensions Committee reiterates its call for the establishment of a Welfare Commission to create a fairer and simpler benefits system that claimants can understand and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) can administer more accurately. The report concludes that the vast majority of decisions DWP makes are accepted by claimants and lead to the right benefits being paid on time to those who are eligible. But the level of official error in the benefits system has increased substantially since 2000-01. The level of overpayments due to official error has risen from £0.4 billion (0.4 per cent of benefits paid) to £0.8 billion (0.6 per cent of benefits paid) in 200...