Alison Koslowski

Unemployment and Income Protection: How do Better-Earning Households Expect to Manage Financially?

Apart from health care and education, it could be argued that working-age households with above-average income in the UK have never relied as much on the welfare state as their counterparts in many other European countries. How then do better-earning households expect to cope financially with the risk of unemployment, and to what extent do they plan ahead for a possible loss of earnings? Based on sixty-one interviews with couples, the article discusses various sources of income protection that these households envisage drawing upon in the event of unemployment. State benefits figure only marginally, private insurances to a limited extent and savings slightly more. However, there is little evidence of strategic planning. By contrast, many perceive their current job and personal employability as providing some security and regard the prospect of occupational redundancy pay as a major source of income protection. This finding contrasts sharply with a paucity of systematic information about the actual scope, quality and development of employer-based income security.

Fathers at work: explaining the gaps between entitlement to leave policies and uptake

ABSTRACT Why are fathers in Scotland unlikely to use the full range of leave benefits available to them? Taking a capabilities approach allows us to explore the perspective that some fathers may experience an agency gap and thus not have the capabilities to utilise entitlements. This paper addresses the question empirically using a mixed-methods design which includes: analysis of data from the Growing up in Scotland study, 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with fathers of young children working in the public sector in dual-earner couples, as well as an audit of extra-statutory benefits offered to fathers by employers. We argue that the reliance on an extra-statutory leave system in the UK explains at least part of the gap between fathers’ entitlement to and uptake of statutory leave, as such benefits are not routinely available to all parents. The extra-statutory entitlement is more than just a ‘top-up’ to the statutory; it is rather a conversion factor for the take up of statutory entitlement, by fathers. Organisational cultural norms support many employed fathers in taking a couple of weeks leave post-birth, but longer leave duration for fathers is not yet a usual parenting practice in Scotland, particularly lower down the income distribution.

Book Review: T. Meyer, P. Bridgen and B. Riedmüller (eds), Private Pensions versus Social Inclusion? Non-State Provision for Citizens at Risk in Europe. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2007, 272 pp., £69.95 (hbk), ISBN 9781847203533

The idea of a basic income has a long-standing history, although it is only in recent decades that it evolved from a narrow academic topic to a widely discussed proposal attracting the attention of scholars, laymen and policymakers from across the ideological spectrum. The aim of this book, a revised translation of an earlier work, is to connect the idea of basic income with the theoretical notion of republicanism: does a republican view on the organization of society offer a good justification for introducing a basic income? The central tenet of republican thought is freedom. Building on historical characters such as Aristotle, Cicero and Robespierre, the author defines this conception of freedom as follows: ‘being free means not having to depend on any other party in order to live’ (p. 68). Thus, people are only free in a republican sense if they have the material independence to enjoy this freedom, if they don’t have to live at the mercy of others. As a consequence, if property and wealth are very unequally distributed (as is the case in our contemporary world) most people are deprived of this freedom. Hence the leitmotiv of this book is concern for the fight against poverty and inequality. At this point, basic income enters the arena. Basic income is an income which is paid on an unconditional, universal and individual basis. Therefore, it should serve as an appropriate instrument to achieve material freedom, as it endows every individual with a means of living. The author indeed makes an excellent and convincing case in defending his republican conception of basic income. The book is well written, the arguments are clever and it tries to offer a holistic, and thus complete, approach to basic income which includes an overview of almost all current issues in the basic income debate. The first chapters consist of a thorough introduction to basic income, while most of the following chapters contain an exhaustive elaboration of the issues and implications connected with implementing such a revolutionary idea (i.e. the relationship between basic income and work, poverty and the welfare state, ethical and technical criticisms, a comparison with other proposals etc.). As a consequence, there will be few innovative insights for scholars who are already well acquainted with the issue. Two chapters do, however, offer ground-breakingmaterial: Chapter 3 on republicanism and Chapter 8 on financing basic income. The latter is of particular importance as it attempts to tackle one of the most debated questions in basic income research: How can it be funded? Raventós makes use of micro simulation models to show that basic income as a replacement of other allowances doesn’t have to be utopian, though the simulation is restricted to the Spanish region of Catalonia. As it cannot be the intention of the author to restrict basic income solely to this region, this important chapter ultimately leaves the reader somewhat unsatisfied. This brings me to the main drawbacks of this work. Due to Raventós’s quest for completeness, some of his arguments are only superficially dealt with, and some issues need to be studied in more depth. Two examples can illustrate this. First, when approaching the issue of female equality, all attention is devoted to the expected positive effects of basic income, such as the heightened economic independence of women, but nothing is mentioned about the risks. It is, however, possible that basic incomewill provide womenwith more incentives to stay at home and take care of the children instead of actively seeking and engaging in remunerated work. This could bring about a return to the much reviled male-breadwinner model. Second, in his analysis of the welfare state, the author claims his view to be different from ‘what is found in conventional literature’ (p. 2). Unfortunately, this only leads to an unrealistic generalization of the characteristics of the welfare state. A last, but merely aesthetic, remark is that the book makes a sometimes rather slovenly impression, exemplified by a significant number of small typographical errors. Despite these minor criticisms, this book offers an intelligible, intellectually refreshing and well-written introduction to basic income. It can be recommended for anyone in search of a better society.