Working Age Population Benefits Essay

This essay will consider whether the welfare state has eliminated poverty. It will examine what poverty is and how the definition varies from societies. The essay will look at the aims of the welfare state from conception and how it has changed to present times. The welfare state being analysed is the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It will discuss the nature of the social democratic welfare state and liberal criticisms of the problems this type of state brings. The recent changes to the welfare state will be reviewed and what the consequences of the changes may be. It will then look at recent statistics to determine whether the welfare state has eradicated poverty.

Living in different countries, we always wonder if everyday life routines are the same. Some of these routines, would include education, social life, and most important of all career perspectives. Rules and procedures vary from the different business you apply to however do the different rules and procedures vary from the countries that business thrive from? The purpose of this essay is to describe the differences and similarities from the National Association of Social Workers and the International Federation of Social Workers.

Changes within the welfare system as a result of policy shifts and by new thinking, more generally in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have had many methods, but the one that seemed most important, was that welfare recipients were required to do much more to justify their income support payments than before. The foundation of this new idea is that income support programs should allow individuals to maximise their participation in work. Due to the general shift in welfare administration, the number of activity test requirements an individual in Australia must meet in order to receive unemployment benefits, has expanded significantly since the early 1990s. This complex, overly bureaucratic process means that disadvantaged individuals cannot access the income support payments they require.

There are serious pockets of child poverty at a local level: in 100 local wards across the UK

|Within Scotland, there were 980,000 people living in relative poverty and 620,000 across Britain working but living in relative |

The social welfare system in the United States can be a controversial topic especially now with the new presidential elect. For this paper I was assigned to look into two different peoples perceptions and attitudes on the social welfare system. I looked into how they perceived the system and whom they believed benefits from this system. Throughout this paper the identities of the two people I interviewed will not be revealed. I will simply refer to them in pronouns. My goal during this interview was not to educate my two interviewees so some of the information contained in this paper may not be accurate. Throughout this paper the two interviewees opinions will be stated and their opinions will then be compared and discussed. Although the whole population of the United States is experiencing the same welfare system each individual perceives and has different beliefs about the system.

As we can see though income is a major contributor to poverty, when children are born the parents have a hard decision to make whether to return to work or stay at home. Either one of these decisions though has a negative consequence on the family’s budget, be it higher expenses or less income. A lot of people think that claiming benefits will help them make up the short fall in wages but this isn’t the case. In reality, benefits are set at levels that leave recipient’s living below the poverty line. In 2009/10 it was estimated that a family with one child claiming jobseekers allowance received only 65 per cent of the amount they required to live above the poverty line. (DWP, 2011.) This then has a knock on affect in other aspects of life. Parents have to decide whether feeding their children is more important than heating there home. It is estimated that 1.6 million children are growing up in homes which are too cold. (Barnardos, 2014.) Children growing up in poverty have it very hard not only do they grow up being cold and hungry they also miss out on activities at school and with friends.

According to the article and The Poverty and Employment Precarity in southern Ontario ( PEPSO) the research is based on workers and the labour market in the greater Toronto, Hamilton area (GTHA) and the labour market stretching from Hamilton in the west to Whitby, in the east and centered on the city or Toronto. Which also includes the regions of Durham, peel, York and Halton.The data collected from PEPSO and statistics Canada survey finds 60% workers are aged 25-65 in the GTHA.

Unemployment is seen as one of the possible reasons for the increase in poverty rates, despite the increase in welfare payments. Whilst it is likely that this startling increase in unemployment levels is partly responsible for the increase in poverty, it still

In the 21st century the unemployed or sole parent households become reliant on income support and non wage benefits L. Kirkwood et al: 2006). In 2002, 8.6 per cent of GDP was spent on social assistance benefits in cash to Australian residents L. Kirkwood et al: 2006). Total welfare expenditure in 2005-06 was $90.2 billion, of which $61.3 billion (68%) was cash benefits and $28.9 billion (32%) benefits-in-kind (welfare services). Spending on welfare services in 2005-06 was 3.0% of GDP or $1,404 per person (Welfare, 2011).

The sole focus, with regards to Income transfer policy, will be that of unemployment benefits. Stovicek & Turrini (2012) view unemployment benefits as a key instrument to deal with labour market risks. As benefits such as those insure individual’s personal incomes during spouts of employment and allows for assistance during longer unemployed periods. Looking at this from a macroeconomic perspective, these benefit systems perform a pivotal role of automatic stabilisation, hereby contributing to smooth aggregate shock. The welfare typology adopted will be Social Democratic, with an abstract look into liberal and corporatist as a

The social welfare in the UK is very different in practice for example benefits and services are delivered at minimum level as the coverage it widespread and can be too costly or even extensive. The social protection in which the welfare state provided is irregular and unpredictable and the services are rationed very tightly. As the services have been contracted out to self-reliant providers the control over the quality and reliability of social protection had been even more difficult to maintain. (Spicker2014)

Stratification by economic status creates social classes. In Ireland, class structures are organised by occupation, ranging from professional workers such as doctors in class 1 to refuse collectors in class 7. The process of classifying people by occupation does not account for those in society who have no occupation such as the retired and long tern unemployed and those unable to work due to illness or disability. These people subsequently become known as the ‘declassed’. The class structure does not take account of women who work within the home as “women can be categorised according to their husband’s occupation”. The Carstairs Social Deprivation Indicator which is used in Britain takes other elements such as car ownership and overcrowding

As my investigation progressed I found that likewise to Booth’s research into poverty the lowest wages to the working class is 21 shillings which I have concluded to be 14.5% of the population. Along with this, the image acts as evidence to that the statistic since an average middle or upper class person can afford to spend 60% on food and the rest on clothing or leisure items, whereas a family of 4 live off 21 shillings a day.

We are all driven to lead fulfilling lives, and the majority of the population throughout the ever-evolving world has thought about their future and how they are able to continue to support themselves and their families throughout their entire life time, whether that is through things such as sickness, disability and even aging. Throughout the modern world there have been schemes and ideas on how the government are able to support their citizens throughout these difficult times. Things such as the sickness benefit, accommodation expenses, childcare subsidy, orphans benefit, disability allowance, funeral grant and the pension, just to name a few, are some schemes set up by the government to help out their citizens when they are in trouble,