| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Minimum income standards
— how might budget standards be set for the UK? | | Author(s) | Christopher Deeming |
| Journal title | Journal of Social Policy, vol 34, no 4, October 2005 |
| Pages | pp 619-636 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org |
| Keywords | Income [older people] ; Cost of living ; Poor elderly ; Public expenditure ; Social policy. |
| Annotation | Britain's New Labour government will spend some £35 billion in 2005 on social protection for vulnerable groups with low incomes such as pensioners, disabled people, and working families with and without children. It also regularly reviews the National Minimum Wage for workers. Although its intentions are laudable, the government can be criticised for setting income floors with little or no grounded assessment of individual welfare requirements. Budget standards, originating in Rowntree's work on poverty at the end of the 19th century offer an alternative for setting minimum incomes. Used by Beveridge in 1942 to rationalise the proposals for social security levels, they have been largely neglected by successive governments and were recently rejected by New Labour in its review of child poverty measures. Academic research, however, continues to identify non-arbitrary income thresholds. The transparency of evidence to maintain a defined standard of living along with the minimum personal costs involved are key attractions. The challenge remains to find a generally acceptable standard. How much emphasis should be given to scientific prescription for health compared to popular cultural practice captured by national surveys of poverty and social exclusion or agreed by the consensus of ordinary citizens in focus groups. This article considers the current debate within UK social policy. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-051118210 A |
| Classmark | JF: J3C: F:W6: WN8: TM2 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|