E F R

E FE

WHAT IS DISABILITY? A disability is a physical or mental condition which

bounds a person’s mobility , movement , senses and any other activities, it may also be a long- term condition which may affect them to carry out their daily tasks.

Having to live with a disability may come across very difficult in society however there are charities and government organisations which are working hard to improve access, funding and different resources for the disabled.

Support offered:

Emotional support

Financial support

Employment support

Education support

Practical and mobility aids

Social support

Is the term

‘disabled’

morally

acceptable?

In the UK the government provide a great amount of welfare support in order to help the disabled in terms of their personal and financial problems such as :

Employment & support allowance

Disability living allowance

Attendance allowance

Income support

Pension credit

Housing benefit etc…

However it is on recent news that their has been

some key changes to the disability welfare support

and benefit changes, such as ;

-Abolition of Severe Disability Premium (SDP- this is

support given to

Reduced disabled child additions

Abolition of the disability element of working tax

credits

Work capability assessments (WCA), in-work

conditionality and sanctions

People with a Disability may feel they are different from the rest of society which may cause lack of confidence in the workforce

There may not always be reasonable

adjustments made according to their

disability e.g. providing reasonable

equipment such as ramps

Many challenges may be set at a

workforce. This may prevent people with

a disability from working as the

challenges may result in less productive

performance than other workers.

Universal benefits system (2013)

TurntoUs (2015)- removal of benefits if a person missed their appointment

Lack of functional prerequisites- emotional destabilisation

Newstatesman (2015)- Suicide of disabled man after benefits was cut, Michael O’ Sullivan

Gp stated he was ‘unable’ to work, three doctors agreed he suffered from depression

Strengths:

1) Does not entirely scapegoat

those who are disabled.

Criticisms:

1) Misuse of benefits- Cheryl

Prudham and mom of 4

2) Some government support

provided- constant attendance

allowance

-Issue lies in those who are disabled

being mistreated in the workplace

*The Birmingham Mail (2015)- Case of

Mr P death*

*Alison and Rosalind (2005)- Three

stand research (mail shot, consultation

exercise and data base research) , Poor

communication

*Paula Clark*- Action Plan

Strengths

1) Silverman (2006)

Weaknesses

1) Paula’s action plan not

suited for everyone

2) Low response rate with

mail shot

3) Representativeness- Fails

to target disabled people in

segregated areas such as,

villages or campuses

Jobseekers allowance (Oct 2015)

New national wage (April 2016)

Carers (April 2016)

Reduction in support (Sept 2016)

New pension age (2028)

(1) DRILL is the four nation programme which delivers the

worlds first major research led by disabled people

Project one ‘Get yourself achieve’ = Aims to increase the

number of disabled people playing sport and examines ways

of using personal budgets to access spotting opportunities.

Project two ‘I can make it’ = Aims to long the gap in

employment between disabled people and non disabled

projects. This will be done using existing spending by

business and local government to make new jobs.

(2) Project three ‘Leadership academy’ = Aims to

empower capable confident disabled leaders in all

sectors of employment and provide employers with

access to a wider or higher quality talent.

Project four ‘In the making project’ = Aims to involve

disabilities people in developing commercial social and

creative benefits from new digital fabrication technology.

Project five ‘Stop disability hate crime’ = Aims to truly

tackle hate crime. There needs to be an increase in the

number of crimes and incidents that are reported.

SOCIAL EXCLUSION:

WELFARE

SOCIAL EXCLUSION IS A COMPLEX AND MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PROCESS. IT INVOLVES THE LACK OR DENIAL OF RESOURCES,

RIGHTS, GOODS AND SERVICES, AND THE INABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE NORMAL RELATIONSHIPS AND ACTIVITIES,

AVAILABLE TO THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN A SOCIETY, WHETHER IN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CULTURAL OR POLITICAL

AREAS. IT AFFECTS BOTH THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE EQUITY AND COHESION OF SOCIETY AS

A WHOLE.LEVITAS ET AL. (2007)

AN EXAMPLE IS THE EXCLUSION OF SINGLE MOTHERS FROM THE WELFARE SYSTEM PRIOR TO WELFARE REFORMS OF THE

1900S

A MORE RECENT EXAMPLE HTTP://WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM/HOUSING-

NETWORK/2015/NOV/04/HOMELESSNESS-GARY-NEVILLE-RYAN-GIGGS-HOTEL-SQUATTERS

What is social exclusion?

Statistics

■ In 2011: 22.7% of the UK population were thought to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion (around 14 million people). / This is lower than the EU average of 24.1%.

■ the annual review of homelessness support showed that 41% of services in England had their funding reduced in 2014.

■ June 2014: 33% of the UK population suffer from deprivation, compared to 14% in 1983.

Approaches to social exclusion

■ Blames individuals for lack of motivation. Believes the Welfare State are responsible for creating a ‘dependency culture’. (Murray, 1984)

■ Failure of the system. Jobs are not provided and the capacity or motivation to find work is lost.

■ Active rejection. Stereotyping of the underclass leads to prejudice. (Bauman, 1998)

Social exclusion theory has been subject to various criticisms such as:

Loss of dimension of class

Assumes the group excluded are homogenous

High focus on poverty and deprivation

Presumption of a static underclass is misleading (Hills, 2002)

Criticisms of social exclusion

Headlines and tones of articles tend to be shaming towards those on benefits.

The intention of articles is to cause outrage amongst taxpayers – a term used heavily in reference.

High emphasis on the amount of children benefit claimers have and the extent of their spending – portrayed to be living out of their means or even over privileged.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv

/tv-news/mum-12-cheryl-

prudham-who-6681287

CLASS

The media tries to portray an ‘underclass’ (Murray, 1984) which may be to disengage the taxpaying, middle class.

Minimal coverage of white collar crime which reflects the recording of such crimes. As Reiman (2001) notes these crimes are under-policed and under-punished. This is the case despite the fact these crimes take more away from the economy

Such coverage on class may have been influential in austerity measures by government e.g. ‘Bedroom Tax’.

High representation of White British people on benefits, in the media

On Channel 5 documentaries, ‘Life on the dole’ and ‘Benefits Britain’, these groups often blamed European migrants for ‘taking our jobs’.

YET Channel 4’s documentary ‘Benefit Street’ showed a diverse group of people claiming benefits, including Eastern Europeans

This may be to create a moral panic on immigration in the UK, in order to support the demand for social change in this area.

There tends to be a lot more sensitivity around welfare issues surrounding those with a disability.

However, there is still recognition in the media, that the system is exploited

Only 6% of claimants have a face to face assessment with a medic (The department of work and pensions, 2013)

The focus on the eligibility for disability benefits addresses the exploiters as folk devils (Cohen) while upholding an empathetic tone towards the recent cuts.

FAMILIES AND

WELFAREIs enough support provided to families in the UK?

Families or individuals on low income (20.3 million families in the U.K receive some kind of benefit, that’s 64% of all families).

For 9.6 million families benefits make up more than half of their income (30% of all families).

Single parents (single parents account for 40% of Housing Benefit claims made by under-25s).

Pensioners (8.7 million).

Those who are sick or have a disability.

Carers.

Unemployed.

Migrants.

Statistics taken from the Department of work and pensions.

Who are the recipients of

welfare?

Most non-EU nationals who are subject to immigration control cannot access “public funds” like jobseekers’ allowance or tax credits.

EU citizens with jobs have similar access to the benefits as UK citizens.

Asylum seekers can become eligible for welfare benefits once they are granted refugee status.

In 2013 various measures were introduced to restrict welfare access for EEA citizens who are not working.

EEA jobseekers:

Cannot claim JSA, child benefit, or child tax credit within the first three months of arriving.

Lose eligibility for JSA if they are still looking for work after three months.

Cannot claim housing benefit.

Free School Meals (If the family are on benefits such as universal credits or income support).

Free medical care (NHS is free to all permanent residents of the united kingdom).

Unemployment benefits (JSA, income support)

Sick Pay

Maternity Pay

Disability allowances

Tax credits (universal credit)

Housing benefit

PUBLIC SPENDING

Between 2001/02 and 2011/12, public spending on benefits increased from £156bn to £210bn.

The increase in public spending makes it easier for the government to introduce new policies.

For example in 2013 a new welfare system was introduced which saw millions of households across the country affected. Universal credit replaced benefits such as Income support, jobseeker's allowance, Housing benefit, Child tax credit and working tax credit

Support benefits for single parents

Most women do not want to be single parents but may have left abusive or empty shell marriages and should be supported by the state

Reducing benefits- makes children suffer

Divorce laws enable women to free themselves of patriarchal control

Welcome laws on civil partnership and alaws against domestic violence

Many social policies are sexist and stereotypical.

New Right policies reinforce traditional family values. Nuclear family as an ideal family type.

Theorists are critical of other family types, this is shown in some of their initiatives:

1998 changes in taxation prevented cohabiting couples from benefitting from better tax allowances than married couples.

New Right takes a negative view on many other social policies; in particular the welfare benefits which are given to single parent families.

The New Right sees the welfare state as overly generous.

However, some New Right policies were criticised, such as the introduction of the Child Support Agency in 1993.

Allan and Crow (2001, cited in Waugh et al. 2008) highlight this policy’s lack of success

What are austerity measures and what do they hope to achieve?

Who does it affect?

How is it linked to welfare?

Austerity measures refer to official actions taken by the government, during a period of adverse economic conditions

These measures include cuts on government spending to save money and rises in income to gain money

The stated aim of austerity was to reduce the deficit in the UK to give confidence to the markets and thus deliver growth to the economy

While austerity measures have had some impact on reducing the deficit, they have delivered little growth

Everybody but in different ways

People claiming benefits are affected by cuts and changes to entitlement

People that work are affected by the increase in taxes and other increases imposed by the government

The austerity measures are very closely linked to welfare

Majority of cuts made by the government are surrounding benefits and welfare spends

These austerity measures have been directly linked to a rise in homelessness and a rise in the use of food banks

Provides emergency food, help and support in the UK to thousands of people in crisis. Launched in 2004 and the trust is now a fast-growing foodbank network.

Statistics for adults and child who had received emergency food as a result of being in crisis.

From the 1st April 2012 – 31st March 2013, 364,992 people

220,103 adults

126,889 children

1st April 2013 – 31st March 2014, 913,138 people

582,933 adults

330,205 children

1st April 2014 – 31st March 2015, 1,084,604 people

687,607 were adults

396,997 were children

(The Trusell Trust, 2015)

In 2009, there were 41,000 people that were given three days food with only 56 food banks acknowledges at the time. Today there are over 445 food banks distributing emergency food to almost 1.1 million people.

Drumchapel foodbank -Glasgow

Out of 350 people

28% said they have mental health

21% long term ill health

14% physical impairment

3% learning disability

4000 disabled people were hit with benefit changes leaving 12% of those individuals to rely on food banks to feed themselves and their families. (BBC News, 2015)

29.58% of primary referral causes to Trussell Trust foodbanks were due to Benefit delays.

Other issues related to the use of foodbanks are

22.36% - Low income

13.83% - Benefit changes

7.17% - Debt

4.57% - Homeless

4.39 - Unemployed

1.49% - Domestic violence

1.08% - Delayed wage

(The Trusell Trust,

2015)

Figure 1. Number of people accessing Wandsworth foodbank by ethnicity

Started in 1930

Was federal but is now state run.

Basic health care

food stamps

child care assistance

Unemployment

cash aid

housing assistance.

13.4% without healthcare for the whole year.

53% employment based insurance.

9.8% Under 19 years old in poverty uninsured.

7.0% under 19 years old not in poverty uninsured.

9.8% of non-Hispanic Whites were uninsured.

15.9% Blacks were uninsured

Levitas et al. (2007) in their report The Multi-dimensional Analysis of Social Exclusion retrieved 5th October 2015 from: www.poverty.ac.uk/definitions-poverty/social-exclusion

Henderson, Rick. (2015). The Guardian. Retrieved 7th October 2015 from http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2015/nov/04/homelessness-gary-neville-ryan-giggs-hotel-squatters

Jock Young. Social Exclusion essay. Retrieved 5th October 2015 from: http://www.malcolmread.co.uk/JockYoung/social_exclusion.pdf

Alan Buckingham. Is there an underclass in Britain? PDF. Retrieved 5th October 2015.

Morris. (1994) retrieved 5th October from http://jakeg.co.uk/essays/underclass/

Office of National Statistics. (2013). Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK and EU (2005-20011), pg 1&2. retrieved November, 15, 2015 from http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171776_295020.pdf

Benefit’s in Britain: separating the facts from fiction 2013, staff reporter. Retrieved on 6th November 2015 from

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/06/welfare-britain-facts-myths

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https://fullfact.org/factchecks/under_25s_single_parents_housing_benefit-29225

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https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/compensation-social-security-benefits-and-lump-sum-payments-technical-guide/compensation-social-security-benefits-and-lump-sum-payments-technical-guide-html-version

BBC News. (2015, November 14). Disability payments delay 'forced claimants to use food banks'. Retrieved from bbc: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32738655

Butler, P. (2015, November 15). Food bank use tops million mark over the past year. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/22/food-bank-users-uk-low-paid-workers-poverty

The Trusell Trust. (2015, Niovember 20). Stats. Retrieved from Trussell Trust: http://www.trusselltrust.org/stats

Wandswoth Foodbank. (2014). Experiences of Food Poverty in the London Borough of Wandswortt. Retrieved November, 20, 2015 from http://wandsworth.foodbank.org.uk/resources/documents/foodbank/Experiences-of-food-poverty-in-the-London-Borough-of-Wandsworth.pdf

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