Helen Bolderson

The Origins of the Disabled Persons Employment Quota and its Symbolic Significance

This article explores why some of the arrangements for the employment of disabled people are so resistant to change despite their evident shortcomings. From historical data it is argued that the negotiations which shaped the Disabled Persons Employment Act 1944 were motivated by sectional concerns which were detrimental to the interests of disabled people but that the legislation subsequently became symbolic of deeply felt and widely shared values. The implications of this for current policy options are discussed. An attempt is made to show how an analysis of the relationships between motives, actions and values in the policy-formation process can help to explain why some policies are both more ineffective and more persistent than others.

The Ethics of Welfare Provision for Migrants: A Case for Equal Treatment and the Repositioning of Welfare

The paper examines the structure of selection that determines migrants’ welfare rights. Using illustrations from the UK, it confirms that migrants’ welfare rights are stratified by, and dependent on, immigration status. It describes the outcome of this structure and shows why welfare policies need to reclaim independence from immigration policies to which they have become tied. Using terms from Walzer (1983), an argument is made for ‘autonomy’ in these different ‘spheres’. An alternative approach is suggested in which access to welfare provisions for migrants is made regardless of immigration status and is based instead on equal treatment and non-discrimination between migrants and nationals of the receiving country. Nationals are seen to be migrants’ comparators, and unequal treatment between them constitutes discrimination. Alternative approaches to migrants’ welfare include reliance on universal international human rights law, and approaches that take into account more radical, substantive equality values than equal treatment. We argue, however, that amongst the advantages of an equal treatment policy are the rights retained by national governments to exercise sovereignty in determining the shape of their welfare provisions whilst also engaging international law on human rights.

Comparing Social Policies: Some Problems of Method and the Case of Social Security Benefits in Australia, Britain and the USA

The cross-national works of development sociologists and of political scientists have sought to disentangle some of the determinants of welfare, whereas studies in comparative social policy have been mainly evaluative. These have laid themselves open to charges of being, variously, a-theoretical, unsystematic and narrowly focused on the state sector. However, a case is made here for the continuation of such studies with a clear focus on social policy rather than the mixed economy of welfare, using more explicit evaluative criteria and a range of methods. A small comparative study of social security benefit levels in Australia, Britain and the USA is used as an illustration of the potential in this approach and the problems of method involved.

Devolved Social Security Systems: Principal-agent versus multi-level governance

This paper presents an analytical framework for comparing patterns of devolution to subnational governments and autonomous social insurance institutions in social security systems. The framework has two components. One is an analysis of financial structures along the dimensions of financial autonomy (indicated by the extent to which the administering institution raises its own revenue or depends on central grants) and financial responsibility (indicated by whether marginal costs are borne by the administering institution). The other component of the framework concerns the assignment of policy-making power; in particular, we contrast the effects of competitive and cooperative modes of devolution. The discussion uses examples from Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. While we looked for ‘principal-agent’ relationships between central governments and administering institutions, we found that more complex multi-level governance structures prevailed in most cases.

Compensation for Disability

Difficulties encountered in the transfer of money to a minority group in society are explored. Should benefits for disabled people seek to mitigate earnings loss, functional incapacity or damage? Should they take the form of contingency benefits, merited payment, or compensatory and reparatory ‘gifts’? What are the reasons for the different approaches adopted in the War Pensions, Industrial Injuries, and Invalidity Benefit schemes? An historical account of the development of these schemes shows that payments related to attributed characteristics or ‘condition’ avoid the pitfalls of undue stress on status, performance and achievement inherent in alternative, and apparently more integrative, benefits. Payments related to condition accentuate ‘difference’ but if they represent a collective liability for societys vicariously caused diswelfares, they need not be experienced as stigmatizing. It may therefore be possible to conceive of a compensatory / reparatory payment for all disabled people, as of right, independent of insurance status, average life earnings, current wage, and other measured achievements. To avoid ‘physiological and psychological means testing’ the basic payment would be assessed on a disabled persons assumed ‘loss of faculty’ but, in the interest of equity, individual measurements of functional limitation may be necessary for additional cash benefits and services.

Exclusion of Vulnerable Groups from Equal Access to Social Security

Asylum-seekers are amongst the most marginalised and vulnerable groups in European countries. While awaiting the outcome of a claim that they have made for formal recognition of refugee status they may be at risk of being excluded from welfare and social security support in the country to which they have migrated/fled (the ‘receiving country’). In this paper we examine the nature of this risk, using illustrative material from United Kingdom (UK) policies, and examine how policies that deprive asylum seekers of social security or reduce its value to them sit side by side with rights enshrined in international conventions.

The social security persons abroad regulations a case for policy analysis

Abstract The Persons Abroad Regulations form a minor and arcane part of British social security legislation but although little known or discussed they have major implications. Except in cases where Britain has reciprocal social security agreements with other countries, these Regulations govern whether people can continue to be paid their benefit when they go abroad with different restrictions applying to different benefits. The Regulations thus raise some fundamental issues about the nature and extent of rights to social security and there are also questions to be asked about the role of reciprocal agreements and the policies underlying them. In addition the history of the Regulations throws a good deal of light on the disjunction between policy formulation and social and demographic change, and their current operation illustrates how legal and organisational complexities can hamper understanding. The article explores these issues and also makes a suggestion for minimising the impact of this legislation ...