Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T05:57:44.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Work and Welfare Benefits: Social Security, Employment and Unemployment in the 1990s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Eithne McLaughlin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper considers social security policy and structures in relation to the labour market of the late 1980s and 1990s. The paper begins by describing the labour market of the late 1980s and summarising projective descriptions of labour demand in the 1990s. The second section of the paper reports on recent research examining the labour supply behaviour of long term unemployed people, drawing out the role of social security policy and structures therein. The third section of the paper concludes that the role of social security policy is at present essentially reactive rather than proactive; that it does little to address the likely need for labour of certain kinds in the 1990s; and that efforts to address the problem of long term unemployment through social security policy have been largely misdirected. The final section of the paper briefly considers some of the ways in which social security systems can be more proactive and suggests a number of both short term and longer term policy changes which research indicates would be of benefit in the UK.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 1991 , pp. 485 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Atkinson, J. (1985), ‘Flexibility and the workforce’, Work and Society, 9, 2–4.Google Scholar
Banks, M. and Ullah, P. (1986), youth Unemployment: Social and Psychological Perspectives, Research Paper 61, Department of Employment, London.Google Scholar
BBC TV (1988), ‘Brass tacks: job census in Chesterfield’.Google Scholar
Berthoud, R. (1984), Selective Social Insecurity: an Analysis of the Government's Plan, Policy Studies Institute, London.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J. (1985), ‘Social security policy and assumptions about paid work’, in Klein, R. and O'Higgins, M. (eds) The Future of Welfare, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J., Cooke, K. and Godfrey, C. (1983), ‘The impact of unemployment on the living standards of families’, Journal of Social Policy, 12: 4, 433–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cass, B. (1988), ‘Unemployed in Australia’, Social Policy and Administration, 22: 2, 150–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, M. (1978), ‘The unemployed on supplementary benefit: living standards and making ends meet on a low income’, Journal of Social Policy, 7: 4, 385–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curran, M. (1988), ‘Gender and recruitment: people and places in the labour market’, Work, Employment and Society, 2: 3, 335–51.Google Scholar
Dale, A. and Bamford, C. (1988), ‘Older workers and the peripheral workforce’, Ageing and Society, 18: 1, 43–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Employment (1988), Employment Gazette, The 1987 Labour Force Survey, November 1988.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1988), Employment Gazette, May 1988.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1988), Training for Employment, Cmnd 316, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Department of Employment (1991), Employment Gazette, Labour Market Data, February 1991.Google Scholar
Department of Social Security (1988), New Directions for Social Security, DSS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Department of Social Security (1989), Social Security Statistics, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Dilnot, A. and Walker, I. (eds) (1989), The Economics of Social Security, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Drew, E. (1984), ‘Full-time unemployment or part-time working?’ Equal Opportunities International, 3: 3, 29–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Euzeby, A. (1988), ‘Unemployment compensation and employment in industrialised market-economy countries’, International Social Security Review, 1, 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakim, C. (1987a), ‘Home-working in Britain: key findings from the national survey of home-based workers’. Employment Gazette, 02 1987.Google Scholar
Hakim, C. (1987b), Home Based Work in Britain, Research Paper 60, Department of Employment, London.Google Scholar
Hakim, C. (1987c), ‘Trends in the flexible workforce’, Employment Gazette, 11 1987.Google Scholar
Hakim, C. (1989a), ‘Employment rights: a comparison of part-time and full-time employees’, Industrial Law Journal, 18: 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakim, C. (1989b), ‘Workforce restructuring, social insurance coverage and the black economy’, Journal of Social Policy, 18: 4, 471–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hepple, B. (1986), ‘Restructuring employment rights’, Industrial Law Journal, 15: 2, 69–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, S. and Millar, J. (1989), ‘Income risk and income maintenance: implications for incentives to work’, in Dilnot, A. and Walker, I. (eds), The Economics of Social Security, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
IFF Research Ltd/Department of Employment (1988), The London Labour Market, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Layard, R. and Nickell, S. (1987), ‘The labour market’, in Dornbusch, R. and Layard, R. (eds), The Performance of the British Economy, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Leighton, L. (1986), ‘Marginal workers’, in Lewis, R. (ed.), Labour Law in Britain, Blackwell, London.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, E., Millar, J. and Cooke, K. (1989), Work and Welfare Benefits, Avebury/Gower, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Millar, J., Cooke, K. and McLaughlin, E. (1989), ‘The employment lottery: risk and social security benefits’, Policy and Politics, 17: 1, 75–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moylan, S., Millar, J. and Davies, B. (1984), For Richer, For Poorer: DHSS Cohort Study of Unemployed Men, HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Perrin, G. (1969), ‘The future of social security’, International Social Security Review, 1969, 1, 17.Google Scholar
Reeves, T. (1973), Unemployed Men's Attitudes to Choosing Jobs, Industrial Sociology Unit, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.Google Scholar
Walker, N. (1985), ‘Attitudes of the unemployed to restart’, People and Jobs International, Spring, 1985.Google Scholar
West, H. (1988), Labour Market Flexibility: The Attitudes and Behaviour of Unemployed People. A Review of the Literature, Psychological Service Report 300, Department of Employment, London.Google Scholar