This book examines the twin issues of cash and care — and the relationships between them — in the contemporary welfare state. Traditionally, ‘cash’ has referred to earnings and the range of income maintenance measures such as social security benefits, pensions and tax credits that are provided through or on behalf of the welfare state. In contrast, ‘care’ has included both the care of non-disabled children and the range of practical, personal and social support needed by longterm sick, disabled and older people, whether provided by the statutory, voluntary, private or informal sector. ‘Care’ provided by the welfare state has typically been...

During the 1980s, an impressive volume of research on the nature of care and carers was published in the UK. Twenty years later the unpaid work of care that is performed in the family, still predominantly by women, has become a major issue on the policy agendas of western European and North American countries and the European Union (EU). However, the way the issue is now framed by politicians, policy makers and many influential male academics bears little relation to the concerns of the 1980s, which were care-centred (see Finch and Groves, 1983; Land, 1983; Baldwin, 1985; Lewis and Meredith,...

During the 1970s, feminist researchers across the western world developed new research perspectives on the phenomenon of ‘care’. This research interest was widely linked to the political objective of finding new ways to strengthen women’s welfare and position in society. The topics, perspectives and influential academic disciplines in this field of feminist research varied between countries. Consequently there now exists a rich and fascinating multidisciplinary international body of research on care, which offers opportunities for researchers to learn much by reading studies from other countries.

Relationships between British and Nordic feminist research into care began to develop during the early...

Since the 1970s, consultation with service users has become an accepted feature of both policy making and professional practice. This reflects the impact of grassroots social movements on ways of thinking about welfare in Britain (Williams, 1999). The first part of this chapter locates this growth in consultation practice in a broader social and political context — the crisis of legitimacy in public services and the welfare state (Needham, 2003), and the crisis in the legitimacy of expert knowledge that characterises social life in the age of modernity. The chapter then reviews the nature of policy making, noting the limitations of...

The aim of this chapter is to draw together 20 years of research in Britain on the costs of caring for a child with a disability and to reflect upon the impact of that research on policy in the UK, in particular policy related to financial support. The hope is that the chapter will not only present new perspectives on a very traditional form of disadvantage, but will also offer researchers ideas about how they can ensure that the results of their work make an impact on policy. However, before outlining the research, it may be useful to review briefly...

The Australian economy has experienced over 13 consecutive years of strong economic growth, following extensive deregulation of its financial, product and labour markets. Throughout this period, the Commonwealth government has tightened its targeting of income transfers and relied increasingly on competitive tendering between government and non–government agencies to deliver its social programmes, leading the world in many of its reform initiatives. The fact that the Australian welfare system has traditionally relied on an extensive array of non-government agencies has made the task of privatising welfare more manageable than some other countries have found. However, the counterpart to this is...

How does it feel to be poor¹ in a society otherwise dominated by affluence? What kind of participation and what kind of choices are available to poor consumers? And, more generally, what are the consequences of the increased emphasis on consumption and consumerism for social marginalisation and the distribution of social welfare in Scandinavian societies?

This chapter examines the creation of new forms of poverty and social vulnerability in contemporary Scandinavian welfare states by analysing the relationship between access to consumption on the one hand and the experience of welfare and social integration on the other. The analysis builds on...

Since the early 1990s the UK has seen a rapid growth in the availability and marketing of consumer credit products, particularly to the lowestrisk, highest-profit customers. In addition, intense competition in the financial services market has made credit available to a relatively wide customer base, including people with poor credit records or a history of bad debt. Consequently, use of credit has increased dramatically and the majority of UK households now have access to, and make use of, mainstream consumer credit facilities such as credit and store cards, unsecured personal loans and hire purchase (Kempson, 2002).

Despite this expansion, access...

This chapter explores the interaction between paid employment and informal caregiving in Britain.¹ The work-life balance, or how to reconcile caring responsibilities with paid work, has become an urgent one for policy makers concerned to maximise employment rates in order to maintain economic competitiveness. Moreover, as Jane Lewis points out in Chapter Two, along with childcare, the question of who will provide informal care has become increasingly important with the decline of the married male breadwinner family model and the increasing policy emphasis on paid employment as a route out of poverty and social exclusion. With a rising proportion of...

This chapter provides an overview of different models of financial support for informal carers (that is, the kin and close friends) of older people. These models reflect the institutional and cultural traditions of the broader societies and welfare states of which they are a part. Thus, the underlying logic, rationale and form of different models of payment for informal care are shaped by wider welfare state institutional and cultural traditions, and by beliefs about the relationships between families (particularly the role of women within them) and formal, collectively funded state provision.

The chapter first argues that the issue of paying...

In comparative research, Austria has been classified as a strong breadwinner state (Lewis and Ostner, 1994; Duncan, 1995), among other reasons because of the low level of formal care services. Millar and Warman (1995) describe the Austrian care system as based on a nuclear family model. Bettio and Plantenga (2004) characterise Austria (and Germany) as a publicly facilitated private care system, with a large private informal care sector based on strong family obligations to provide care; within this the role of the state is to give financial support to the family. Thus, Austrian welfare policy is ‘service lean’ but very...

In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), Personal Assistance Budgets (PABs) have been introduced for disabled people. PABs are cash payments that allow the recipients to employ their own personal assistants. Interestingly, no distinction is made between informal carers and other (unrelated) personal assistants. Under the scheme, relatives have no independent entitlement to financial compensation in respect of the care they provide, but must enter into a legal labour relationship with the budget holder. The PAB scheme is very similar to the Dutch personal budgets described in Chapter Ten.

This chapter examines how the PAB arrangement works in practice and...

Increasing employment and reducing child poverty are two central goals of current government policy in the UK, and lone mothers — with their relatively low employment rates and relatively high poverty rates — are one of the key target groups for both. Since 1997 there has been a substantial investment in government support for lone parents in work, including a dedicated labour market programme (the New Deal for Lone Parents), increased financial support for those in work (the Child and Working Tax Credits), and an expansion of childcare services (the National Childcare Strategy).

These policies have had some success in the context...

The Labour government in the UK aims to increase the lone parent employment rate to 70% by 2010. To help achieve this aim, a state subsidy for childcare through Tax Credits has been introduced. However, the subsidy has been restricted to formal childcare, despite evidence that the majority of lone parents use informal care, are more likely to rely solely on this form of care than couple families, and that deficiencies in formal childcare provision in relation to quality, suitability and affordability still act as a significant barrier to lone parents’ employment.

This chapter investigates the potential of a state...

This chapter presents an important dimension to our understanding of unpaid care, by focusing on the role of children as active caring agents within their families. In general, children’s active agency within households and the contributions they make to family life have tended to be neglected or ignored. Policy discourses have tended to constitute children as passive, dependent family members in need of appropriate adult care and control. Where children have gained recognition as caring family members, it has been as ‘young carers’ caring for sick or disabled parents (Becker et al, 1998). In particular, children living in working families...

This chapter explores the implications of two competing discourses on participation: the consumerist discourse and one concerned with empowerment, democratisation and liberation. These discourses are situated in the context of their relationship to welfare provision and changes therein since the 1980s. Drawing on recent research, the chapter connects participation in political activity with the development of movements of people using health and social care services.¹ It discusses the implications these may have for the nature of involvement and, indeed, of democracy. It therefore illustrates some of the more theoretical issues about the role of service users, and the knowledge they...

During 2005, the British government committed itself to achieving independent living for disabled people and set out proposals for delivering this aim. This chapter¹ examines the role of research evidence and the disability movement in influencing government policy, situating the discussion in the context of wider debates on citizenship, human rights and the role of the state. It also asks whether these new proposals further an individualist and consumerist approach to meeting needs, thus undermining the collectivism and public service ethos that have been such an important part of the welfare state; or whether they will help disabled people to...

Policy proposals published in England during 2005 emphasise the importance of ensuring that older people and adults needing care achieve ‘independence’ and are given ‘choices’ consistent with their own well-being. Indeed, the Green Paper on social care is entitledIndependence, well-being and choice: Our vision for the future of social care for adults in England(DH, 2005). This chapter will first explore how far the interpretation of the complex and fluid concepts of ‘independence’ and ‘choice’ reflected in current policies is adequate ‘to secure the dignity and quality of life of older citizens, and to ensure that they receive the...

The separation between ‘cash’ and ‘care’ is deeply rooted in the structure and traditions of the British welfare state. Policies relating to cash have traditionally been concerned primarily with replacing or supplementing income from paid employment; cash payments have been delivered through the social security or income tax systems. Policies relating to care have generally focused on the provision of services, funded by the state and delivered by a range of statutory and voluntary agencies. This traditional division between cash and care was underpinned by assumptions about the responsibilities of families and the different roles of women and men within...