Social Welfare Systems in United Kingdom - Assignment Example

? Topic: Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction Social welfare system is concerned with the various mechanisms put in place by governments to promote human wellbeing by providing assistance to the needy individuals and families without having to subject them to the stigma of charity. Rubery (2010:19) defines social welfare as ‘an organized response of government, voluntary and profit making sectors to mitigate the worst effects of free market on individuals.’ Different governments have different social welfare systems depending on the needs of citizens as well as political, social and economic conditions. In some countries, welfare services are provided by the government while in others, majority of services are funded through contributions by members, NGOs, and families. All governments aim at ensuring good health for all citizens, access to education and proper housing in order to improve their standards of living and enable them to engage in nation building for economic prosperity. However, some countries like USA and UK have welfare policies aimed at helping the unemployed through unemployment compensation and child care assistance. However, eligibility is constrained through use of means-testing or welfare to work programmes to avoid over reliance on benefits by individuals and reluctance to search for employment. The devolution of social welfare in United Kingdom in 1998 was as a result of constitutional changes enacted by the Blair government. Previously, the UK welfare state promoted notions of national community sharing of burdens, risks and security and a system of national rights but with emergence of devolution, the principle of uniformity was compromised (Birell, 2009). The key areas of social welfare system that were devolved includes; health, housing, education, criminal justice, and social care while UK parliament reserved the power over social security, employment law, immigration, abortion, equality legislation, and taxation. The different countries in UK (Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) were given power to legislate some areas of social policy and each country has different standards of social welfare. This move had various impacts on social welfare system which will be discussed in the paper. The United Kingdom Social Welfare System The UK social welfare policies are aimed at promoting solidarity, cohesion and fairness. Every citizen has a right to health care, education and proper housing irrespective of gender, race, religion or nationality unlike in the past during the regime of Poor Laws Act which was based on male dominance. According to this Act, males were the providers to their families hence the rest of family members were treated as dependants and therefore the welfare provision was given to males. However, as the nature of work changed and more women absorbed in the labour market, it became necessary to treat all citizens equally, besides, some benefits such as national health service (NHS) and social security were based on contributions from earnings (Lavallette & Pratt, 2006). Moreover, a healthy workforce is the backbone of the economy thus a country has to ensure access to health care to all its citizens. All citizens are required to register with practitioners or access free health services in hospitals. The government also ensures subsidized housing through national housing or assisting the low income earners to pay rent. Education was free in UK until 1998 when the loan system and partial tuition fees was introduced (Rubery, 2010). However, the fees and loans are funded by the state and are accessible to all students and repaid only if earning exceed a certain threshold. The social security benefits enable citizens not to lose their income during turbulent times or due to other circumstances such as old age or disablement through the pension scheme, unemployment compensation and income support schemes (Parry, 2012). Devolution of UK Social Welfare System According to McEwen and Parry (2005), the UK had a unitary, state-directed social security system before devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland took over power in 1999. When Blair’s labour party took over power, it withdrew from central government delivery of social welfare services giving way to diverse social welfare policies determined in state governments. Birrell (2009: 7) notes that the states did not acquire equal powers to administer social services; Scotland and Northern Ireland got power to enact primary and secondary legislations for devolved matters including areas of welfare policy while Wales did not get the power to enact primary legislation but secondary legislation only. Northern Ireland was suspended in 2002 for political reasons. However, Daly (2011) acknowledges the fact that historically, social policy was more devolved as Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland had separate boards of commissioners to administer social security and that the education and legal systems of Scotland and Northern Ireland were different from England and Wales. The welfare system was territorial in nature but was later merged in 1948 following Beverigde report and poor laws abolished. The issue of devolution was thus not a new phenomenon when the Scotland Act of 1998, Northern Ireland Act of 1998, and Government of Wales Act1998 devolved powers to these states. According to Smith (2008), the UK government and parliament retained the power to legislate on all matters whether devolved or reserved and the government decisions continue to impact on devolved social welfare matters. The devolved social welfare matters also have an impact on national government policies on social welfare. According to McEwen and Parry (2005), the Scottish parliament was given power to propose and pass primary and secondary legislations. Parliament also has the power to allocate finance to the areas over which it has responsibility therefore it can use its discretion to decide on how to allocate the resources. The social welfare policy areas devolved to the Scottish parliament include; health, housing, education and training, social work, criminal and civil law and other areas not related to social policy such as public transport, roads and environment among others. The Westminster on the other hand, reserved the powers over social security, equal opportunity, regulation of professions and other areas not related to social policy such as macro-economic management, defence, foreign affairs and energy among others. The government also retained authority over employment law, health and safety law and employment-related benefits whereas the Scottish parliament took control over training and skills elements of employment policy. The department of work and pensions was also incorporated within its policy network (Wood, 2006). By fighting for devolution, the Scottish parliament hoped to bring improvements in NHS, education, and welfare services which had been withdrawn by the conservative government as a strategy to curtail the scope of the welfare program. Due to the devolvement of some social policy matters with UK parliament retaining authority over devolved and non-devolved matters, there were bound to be controversies between the Scottish Parliament and the UK government. Some policy areas thus were contested by either side and require negotiations to reach an agreement. Some of the contested areas as noted by Parry (2012) include; housing provision, post graduate university education and earnings-related pensions. Some matters such as undergraduate university education, skills training, and public transport support for the elderly among others are partially contested while retirement pensions and universal health service remain uncontested since they have a Universalistic rights-based view. The Northern Ireland assembly was also established through Northern Ireland Act of 1998. It has 108 elected members and has power to pass legislations in devolved matters. Its role included policy development, giving advice on departmental budgets and annual plans. However, the assembly was suspended in 2002 by the secretary of state and later restored in 2007 after the St. Andrews agreement or Northern Ireland Act of 2006. It has three levels of devolution namely; transferred or devolved, reserved and excepted matters (Gibb, 2004). The transferred matters are those that were devolved to Northern Ireland parliament such as health, social services, education, social development, and higher education. The reserved matters on the other hand, are those over which the UK parliament retains power over but are expected to be devolved in near future to the Northern Ireland parliament such as policing, criminal justice, human fertilization, and national minimum wage. The excepted matters are the ones over which UK parliament retains sole power over such as social security, taxation, and national security. The Government of Wales (GOW) Act 1998 established the devolution in Wales. The National Assembly for Wales (NAFW) has 60 elected assembly members with power to pass assembly measures. The GOW Act 2006 saw the separation of the assembly and the executive as well as being given more legislative powers (Holden, 2007). The assembly was given mandate to introduce measures but must seek the consent of NAFW and UK parliament through legislation competence order process. These matters are included into schedule 5 of 2006 Act. The Scottish and Wales administrations were against the mean-testing technique of determining eligibility to welfare benefits and market-based reforms in favour of universalism in welfare provision. By having devolved power to distribute resources, this aim could be achieved. There are many advantages and disadvantages associated with devolution of social welfare matters from UK parliament to respective states. One of the shortcomings of devolution is that the UK parliament reserved the right to some welfare matters such as social security thereby leaving the devolved systems with no power to apply their discretion in supplementing income of their citizens. The devolved administrations have no authority to supplement income of citizens because social security is set at national level. The only areas where they can supplement income are by use of policy related areas such as by offering the elderly free public transport. They can also offer free drug prescriptions to out-patient health treatment. Otherwise social security is offered nationally by use of means-testing or welfare to work programmes to encourage individuals to take up employment (Spicker, 2008). People contribute through their earnings and get pensions after retirement or register for unemployment insurance to get benefits in case one loses a job or is disabled. The devolved governments are therefore not able to deal with areas of anti-poverty policy as they have little power to redistribute income and resources. Another issue that has emerged due to devolution is the budgetary allocations. Birrell (2009) argues that the formula used to allocate funds to devolved administrations is unfair as it is not based on the needs of countries of UK. The Barnett formula is based on expenditures in England such that ‘when changes in expenditure by UK departments apply to England, there is an allocation o comparative programme in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland based on population’ (27). In this sense, the formula is considered unfair to England. However, the formula is beneficial in that there is no need for negotiations between different departments hence eliminating any form of conflicts between governments. Moreover, the formula offers a degree of certainty and predictability of funding to devolved administration. There is also controversy over cash-related matters which are largely devolved such as fees for higher education and charges for long-term personal care. Some governments like Scotland and Wales take a Universalist perspective and consider welfare provision as a right and this may contradict UK social policy. The issue of personal care has therefore been highly contested by those who believe it is a right especially Scotland and those who don’t like UK thus offer free nursing care and no personal care. Some of those who receive free care risk losing their social security benefits as the UK government are not willing to transfer savings back to Scotland (Parry, 2012). Another shortcoming of devolution is that each country has its own social policies as enacted by respective assemblies hence the principle of uniformity is lost. The policy initiatives are divergent from each other and from England hence causing difficulties in implementation of general policies (Holden, 2007).There also lacks cooperation with the UK department of anti-poverty and social inclusion policies hence the aim of these policies may not be realised. Even if the departments work hard to eliminate poverty, the specific policies implementation in specific countries may not be supportive of such initiative or may put more emphasis on different initiatives. Birrell (2009) also argues that devolved responsibilities rest on already overloaded local authorities and are enforced by the assembly hence undermining the local authorities as it now falls under ministers and departments. The legislative competence process applied in Wales to get consent to establish measures is lengthy and cumbersome; it may take 10 months (Birrell 2009: 9). This may hinder development of social welfare policies which are beneficial for the wellbeing of citizens. It is also more difficult to have an integrated working with some devolved areas of community-based social policy. Gibb (2004) also notes that there is a thin line between devolved and non-devolved matters hence not able to easily distinguish between them. For example, in the area of education and training, citizens rarely differentiate training for employment and training for skills. There is also controversy on authority on matters between UK and devolved administration as actions of both administrations have a tendency to impact on each other. Despite these shortcomings, devolution is also beneficial to the respective countries and the citizens. A unitary social policy may not take care of the needs of the whole population due to diversity and large population. Devolving some responsibilities to respective countries is essential since the assembly is aware of the problems faced by its electorates thus is able to formulate policies that can offer solutions to their problems (Trench, 2007). There is also efficient allocation of resources as the assembly enjoys power over most areas of social policy depending on how they affect the citizens. There are also improvements in service delivery as services are brought near to the people and due to effective administration. The different programmes designed by different countries for the government show that the respective assemblies are more concerned with social policy issues. For example, out of 100 targets and actions for achievement by the Wales programme “A better Wales,’ 50 of them are social policy actions (Birrell 2009: 10). This leads to improvement in welfare provision and improvement in wellbeing of the society hence a healthy nation ready to propel the nation to greater heights. The devolution of some welfare matters also enable large volumes of legislation to be passed. This reduces the workload for the Westminster and allows it to concentrate on more important welfare issues. It also enables the respective countries to engage fully in legislative issues concerning social policy which they would have otherwise ignored or not taken care of. According to McEwen and Parry (2005), flexible structures also facilitate political management of system of central administration and reflect the aims of Scottish and Welsh governments. Besides, devolution creates a lot of jobs for civil servants as they engage in various programmes and in delivery of the devolved services thus improving their wellbeing and reducing unemployment. In future we expect to see more developments in devolution of social welfare policies in UK. Gibb (2004) notes that countries are seeking for fiscal autonomy to be able to control the economy and welfare services. By having fiscal autonomy, countries can better manage capital expenditure and be able to deal with economic shocks that have effect on welfare system. It can also be able to help citizens in times of recession such as by focusing expenditure on affordable housing or freeze local taxes. Countries are also seeking an increase in devolved powers by having sovereign powers and being enabled to collect and manage taxes, and get involved with more aspects such as asylum and immigration and transport which are reserved for UK government. The Wales government is already conducting a referendum on fully devolved legislative power hence tackle more of social policy areas (Birrell 2009). Conclusion Social welfare system is concerned with the various mechanisms put in place by governments to promote human wellbeing by providing assistance to the needy individuals and families without having to subject them to the stigma of charity. People need basic needs to survive and it is the duty of the government and the society as a whole to ensure that these needs are taken care of. The market system cannot be able to correct market inefficiencies and provide essential services needed for human wellbeing such as health care, education, adequate housing and security. The government in collaboration with the private sector thus engages in provision of such services. The UK social welfare system is Universal in nature in that every citizen has a right to services such as health hence has various mechanisms to ensure such benefits are accessible. However, eligibility to some benefits is based on means-test. The National Health Insurance is a scheme aimed at ensuring a healthy nation whereby individuals contribute to the fund and get benefits. However, treatment is free for all at point of use without prior contributory conditions. The social security insurance scheme provides benefits to citizens especially to the elderly through pension schemes and also offers security in times of turmoil such as loss of job or disablement. Other benefits include; housing benefits, tax credits, income support among others. The UK government prior to 1999 had sole responsibility of administering social welfare services but after the various government Acts passed in 1998, the UK government devolved some social policy matters to respective governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and reserved some matters such as employment and social security, housing benefits, child benefits, retirement pensions. Those matters devolved include; housing support, health, education, criminal justice, and social care among others. This consequently brought about many controversies as well as benefits to the concerned parties. The controversies surround issues such as allocation of funds, lack of uniformity, cash-related matters and lengthy process of legislative competence in Wales. Benefits derived from devolution on the other hand include; passing of large volume of legislations, commitment to social policy initiatives by various governments, creation of jobs, better management and delivery of services and the ability of services to address the specific needs of citizens of each country. In the future, there will be increased devolution of powers, fiscal autonomy and independence. References Birrell, D. 2009. The Impact of Devolution on Social Policy. UK: Policy Press. Daly, M. (2011) Welfare. 3 edn. Cambridge: Polity Press Gibb, K. 2004. ‘At the Margins of Devolution: Fiscal Autonomy, Housing Policy, and Housing Benefit.’ Scottish Affairs, 48: 130-151. Holden, H. 2007. The UK Devolved Legislatures: Some Comparisons between their Powers and Work. House of Commons. Lavalette, M., Pratt, A. 2006. Social Policy: Theories, Concepts and Issues. 3 edn. London: Sage Publications McEwen, N., Parry, R. 2005. ‘Devolution and the Preservation of the United Kingdom Welfare State.’ In: Nicola, M., Luis, M. (eds). The Territorial Politics of Welfare. London: Routledge Parry, R. 2012. ‘Social Security Under Devolution in the United Kingdom.’ School of Social and Political Studies. http://www.socialpolicy.ed.ac.uk/ (Accessed January 20, 2012). Rubery, J. 2010. ‘The UK Welfare State: More than Residual but Still Insufficient,’ In: Dominique, A., Gerhard, B., Jill, R. eds. The Welfare State and Life Transitions: A European Perspective. UK: Edward Elgar. Smith, C. 2008. ‘Devolution in the UK: Powers of Structures in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.’ Briefing, Number 1 June, 2008. Spicker, P. 2008. Social Policy: Themes and Approaches. UK: Polity Press. Trench, A. 2007. Devolution and Power in UK. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Wood, D. 2006. Intergovernmental Relations Post-Devolution: The Case of Welfare to Work in Scotland. Paper Presented to the PSA Territorial Politics Group. Belfast. Read More