Welfare & benefit systems

European, demographic and social changes have called into question the financial stability and political support for existing national social insurance programmes. This book provides information about the cross-national differences and commonalities between social insurance schemes in Europe, and reflects upon their future roles.

This classic text provides the first comprehensive examination of the social policy of New Labour. It compares and contrasts current policy areas with both the Old Left and the New Right and applies the concept of the 'third way' to both individual policy areas and broader cross-cutting themes.

This book examines the nature and meaning of 'empowerment' in the child welfare context using the family group conference approach to decision making in child welfare and protection. The authors evaluate the FGC approach so that current practice can be improved and lessons learned for other areas of work with children and families.

This report explores the problems and opportunities presented for child protection workers responding to child abuse that occurred in the context of violence towards the child(ren)'s mother. It provides good practice examples for overcoming the traditional difficulties in this area.

This ground-breaking book analyses the living standards of nearly 80 million children in the EU. It considers whether the well-being of children is becoming more similar across member states or if the countries are diverging while their economies converge. It provides a wealth of evidence not previously drawn together in a single source.

Over the last three decades Britain has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the number of people receiving welfare benefits that has provoked fears of a growing underclass and mass welfare dependency. This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the reasons for this growth and subjects notions of welfare dependency to empirical test.

This book makes an original contribution to current debates around welfare reform through a qualitative investigation of the opinions and experiences of welfare users. Competing philosophical, political and academic perspectives on citizenship and welfare are also analysed and discussed, making this book important reading for students and teachers.

'An offer you can't refuse' compares, in depth, international 'work-for-welfare' (workfare) policies objectively for the first time. It considers well-publicised schemes from the United States alongside more overlooked examples of workfare in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Norway.

This report examines links between parents' employment patterns while raising children and what happens when those children become young adults. Some of its findings carry important implications for public policy and for further research. A number are likely to prove controversial, arousing public debate concerning their meaning and relevance.

There is widespread recognition among policy makers, professionals and activists in Britain that Canadian work on violence against women has been in the vanguard. This report brings together 'state-of-the-art' accounts of Canadian approaches to violence against women and discusses them in the context of current UK policy.

This is a qualitative study that documents the daily lives of vulnerable lone mothers and their children in Denmark. Loss of rights, gender and ethnic inequality, and family violence all emerge as key themes with international implications. Policy and practice recommendations are made with wide-ranging applications for an international audience.

Social Policy Review is an annual selection of commissioned articles focusing on developments and debates in social policy. Social Policy Review 13 reviews a varied and interesting selection of social policy developments in Britain and internationally, and sets current policy developments in a broader context of key trends and debates.