Fran Bennett

The ‘living wage’, low pay and in work poverty: Rethinking the relationships

The ‘living wage’ is an idea with a long history in the UK currently enjoying a renaissance. This article explores possible reasons for its re-emergence as a policy demand, but argues that thinking of low pay primarily as ‘poverty pay’ caused by employers’ failure to pay a living wage raises practical and conceptual issues that are problematic. It examines to what extent recent attempts to resolve such issues in the UK and elsewhere have succeeded, and concludes by suggesting that alternative ways of analysing and addressing the two key issues associated with the living wage, low pay and in work poverty, are required.

Social Policy Digest Online

The Social Policy Digest went online in the summer of 2003. This means that the Digest, which used to be printed as part of the Journal of Social Policy , is now only available via the web.

Dimensions of Financial Autonomy in Low-/Moderate-Income Couples from a Gender Perspective and Implications for Welfare Reform

The ‘unitary household’ lives on in policymakers’ assumptions about couples sharing their finances. Yet financial autonomy is seen as a key issue in gender relations, particularly for women. This article draws on evidence from semi-structured individual interviews with men and women in thirty low-/moderate-income couples in Britain. The interviews explored whether financial autonomy had any meaning to these individuals; and, if so, to what extent this was gendered in the sense of there being differences in mens and womens understanding of it. We develop a framework for the investigation of financial autonomy, involving several dimensions: achieving economic independence, having privacy in ones financial affairs and exercising agency in relation to household and/or personal spending. We argue that financial autonomy is a relevant issue for low-/moderate-income couples, and that women are more conscious of tensions between financial togetherness and autonomy due to their greater responsibility for managing togetherness and lower likelihood of achieving financial independence. Policymakers should therefore not discount the aspirations of women in particular for financial autonomy, even in low-/moderate-income couples where there remain significant obstacles to achieving this. Yet plans for welfare reform that rely on means testing and ignore intra-household dynamics in relation to family finances threaten to exacerbate these obstacles and reinforce a unitary family model.

Within-household inequalities across classes? Management and control of money

Both women and men strive to achieve a work and family balance, but does this imply more or less equality? Does the persistence of gender and class inequalities refute the notion that lives are becoming more individualised? Leading international authorities document how gender inequalities are changing and how many inequalities of earlier eras are being eradicated. However, this book shows there are new barriers and constraints that are slowing progress in attaining a more egalitarian society. Taking the new global economy into account, the expert contributors to this book examine the conflicts between different types of feminisms, revise old debates about ‘equality’ and ‘difference’ in the gendered nature of work and care, and propose new and innovative policy solutions.

100 Questions: identifying research priorities for poverty prevention and reduction

Reducing poverty is important for those affected, for society and the economy. Poverty remains entrenched in the UK, despite considerable research efforts to understand its causes and possible solutions. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, with the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge, ran a democratic, transparent, consensual exercise involving 45 participants from government, non-governmental organisations, academia and research to identify 100 important research questions that, if answered, would help to reduce or prevent poverty. The list includes questions across a number of important themes, including attitudes, education, family, employment, heath, wellbeing, inclusion, markets, housing, taxes, inequality and power.

Universal Credit:assumptions, contradictions and virtual reality

Universal Credit is a major change in the UKs social security system which will affect around eight million households by replacing six existing means-tested benefits and tax credits with a single benefit, based on income, assets and circumstances, and paid monthly. Much commentary about Universal Credit has supported the principle but raised concerns about delivery. This consensus about the principles and the focus on delivery have resulted in less attention being paid to key policy choices informing the design. This article examines two aspects of the design of Universal Credit: the aim to make Universal Credit as much ‘like work’ as possible, and the architecture of the means test. The focus here is the gap between the assumptions underlying the design of Universal Credit, on the one hand, and the research evidence about life on a low income, and in low-waged and often insecure employment, on the other. Finally, we discuss the most significant contradiction between the ‘transformational’ aim for Universal Credit, to help people achieve greater ‘independence’ from the state, and the realities of deepening and widening control of claimants’ lives.

Financial Togetherness and Autonomy Within Couples

This chapter examines the implications of the concepts of togetherness and financial autonomy for gender equality, drawing on findings from both qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research explored the two concepts in individual interviews with men and women in low- to moderate- income couples. The quantitative research used the British Household Panel Survey to analyse the factors affecting the differing assessments of their household income by men and women in couples across the range of incomes. The findings support the argument that an honest recognition of interdependence (or togetherness) is essential when analysing women’s financial autonomy.

Money matters: using qualitative research for policy influencing on gender and welfare reform

The UK government has been considering the design and delivery of the proposed “universal credit”, the centerpiece of its welfare reforms. The authors draw on findings from their own research, about how low/moderate-income couples manage money and negotiate gender roles, to demonstrate their relevance to exploring the gender implications of the proposals for universal credit. Findings from this and other similar studies are used to explore the value of qualitative research to policy design and debates – in particular to supplement economic modeling, which has been highly influential in driving the current UK governments thinking on welfare reform. The authors discuss the reasons why insights about gender relations within the household revealed by such qualitative research appear to have been resisted in the reform.

Book Review: Human Dignity and Welfare Systems

This book represents an attempt to develop a definition of human dignity, apply the definition to a comparative analysis of the treatment of unemployed people in four countries, and then use this assessment to put forward an alternative typology of welfare states. Human dignity is an increasingly important concept in social policy debates, so it is important to clarify what is meant by it. Chan and Bowpitt develop their own definition by trawling the writings of an eclectic mix of psychologists, philosophers, religious writers and others. The seven essential elements retrieved from this exploration are physical well-being, psychological well-being, the ability to fulfil caring duties (being able to meet your children’s needs), social integration, human learning/development, self-determination and equal value. The authors’ empirical focus is on unemployed people, whose economic weakness makes them a crucial test of whether a welfare system truly strives to promote human dignity. Chan and Bowpitt are also interested in what they call ‘workfare’, though ‘activation’ may be the more appropriate term. They justify their choice of the four countries examined in relation to the recent economic pressures in two (Hong Kong and Sweden), and the nature of the welfare systems in the other two – China’s being a socialist market welfare state and the UK’s being work-oriented. The way in which unemployed people are treated within each of these welfare states is comprehensively analysed. The countries are then compared under each element of human dignity. Particularly relevant features include the level of benefits, the nature of conditionality and the degree of professionalism of employment services staff. The authors also examine how unemployed people are treated by officials, their public image and their opportunities to influence policy. The focus on these aspects is welcome, as it takes us into the politics of ‘recognition’ as well as ‘redistribution’. There is no investigation, however, of whether means-tested benefits as opposed to non-means-tested benefits, or dependence on another person rather than on the state, may have a different impact on human dignity. And the personalization of employment services is seen as a goal to strive for, without real reflection on the increased scope for discretion, and possibly discrimination, this entails. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sweden emerges as the country that best preserves the dignity of unemployed people, although the authors argue that some aspects still need to be worked on even there. Sweden’s advantages over the UK include the more generous level of benefits and the professional training of the staff who deal with unemployed people. The analysis sees collective welfare provision, political participation and control over one’s own life, as well as clear national objectives and well-planned intervention, as key factors associated with achieving greater human dignity. Finally, the authors propose a new typology of welfare states based on human dignity. While this is an original exercise, it is inevitably limited largely to the treatment of unemployed people in benefits and employment services. Despite its symbolic nature, this does seem a rather narrow base on which to build an alternative typology. The discussion could usefully be linked to wider topical debates about conditionality’ which often put more weight on the nature of the jobs and labour market into which unemployed people are being ‘activated’ in assessing the quality of the quid pro quo with which they are presented. And the voices of unemployed people themselves could be integrated more with such an analysis. This book nonetheless provides a brave starting point, and a clear impetus, for further exploration of a significant concept.

Social Policy Digest Goes Online

Readers will be aware that one of the Journal of Social Policys regular features, the Social Policy Digest, is being relaunched as a web-based publication.