Increased participation in the paid work force is one of the major goals of welfare reform in New Zealand. This goal is unlikely to be achieved given the high proportion of lone parents without a school qualification and labour market demands for skills. The outcome will be even worse outcomes...

Governments across Europe are looking for innovative ways to deliver employment programmes which deliver value for money for the taxpayer. The current UK Government has committed to the concept of Payment by Results (PbR). In the UK’s PbR model, the financial risks of delivering...

Housing policy in England and Wales has undergone a major shift in emphasis since the Coalition Government in the UK determined to use housing markets to resolve housing needs. In many locations social housing has become a ‘safety net tenure’ which is part of the developing welfare...

The objectives of current UK policy for welfare reform are in conflict: on the one hand, the Government’s determination to drive down the deficit with major cuts to public expenditure; and on the other, the introduction of a new system of welfare intended to protect claimants from poverty,...

During the first decade of the 21st century, China’s top leaders reined in the marketising, commercialising welfare reforms of the 1990s, and recommitted the State to a role in providing social goods. But the governmental and social elites who shape welfare policy are still debating the...

The political ideologies and economic strategies promoted since the early 1980s have created the ingrained welfare conditions that current reforms are meant to address. Behind the reforms is an ideology that not only seeks to reduce the role of the state but also implicitly blames the poor for...

The Work and Social Assistance Act grants a minimum income to anyone with insufficient means to support themselves. Local authorities (municipalities) have been responsible for implementing the Work and Social Assistance Act since 2004, which includes managing the social security budget and...

This article engages in a dynamic comparative analysis of key labour market reforms in Denmark, Sweden and Finland from the early 1990s to the 2000s. During this period traditional egalitarian and collectivist elements of Nordic social insurance were reshaped by workfare reforms. The ways in...

Activation measures in Finland have meant the weakening of the level, qualification criteria, coverage, and time limits of social benefits in a way inimical to the post-Second World War Nordic welfare model. These changes have been accompanied by a growth of labour market flexibility, of...

The language of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, social exclusion and social and spatial segregation has been prominent in policy debates in the UK in recent decades and has been associated with failures in health, education, employment, crime and other policies. But while these patterns are seen...