Three ways to defend social security in Britain

an article by Ben Baumberg (affiliation(s) not provided) published in Journal of Poverty and Social Justice Volume 20 Number 2 (June 2012)

Abstract

British social security is now in a time of crisis, where cuts are being made to a system that was already struggling to provide decent security.

In this paper I argue that successful proposals to combat this must
(i) lead to reductions in poverty/inequality;
(ii) fit existing perceptions of claimant “deservingness”, and;
(iii) change deservingness perceptions in the long run.

I conclude that three influential recent proposals – Decent Childhoods¹, National Salary Insurance², and The Solidarity Society³ – are only partially successful in meeting these criteria, and that successful reform requires a fusion of the respective insights of each proposal.

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¹I failed to find a link to the document but here is a blog post about it.
²by Graeme Cook published by IPPR – full report (PDF 18pp)
³by Tim Horton and James Gregory for The Fabian Society summary  (PDF 20pp) full report (PDF 260pp)

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