Whatever happened to Cameron’s Big Society?
April 10, 2015
by Simon Roberts and Bruce Stafford Much was hung by Cameron on the ‘Big Society’. His notion of which involved citizens and service providers cooperating to co-produce, and in some cases citizens to provide their own, public services. Co-production, an idea that dates back to the 1970s, was presented by the in-coming Coalition government as …
Isn’t spending on welfare meant to be falling?
March 18, 2015
By Bruce Stafford, Simon Roberts and Joe Sempik For all the talk of austerity and welfare cuts, it might be presupposed that spending by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has fallen and will continue to fall in the future. However, the Department’s own figures present a more nuanced and possibly unexpected picture. Source: …
Why the UK Government doesn’t know if its welfare reforms are discriminating against the most vulnerable people in Britain
February 27, 2015
by Simon Roberts and Bruce Stafford In his blog earlier this week Bruce showed that austerity is significantly underpinned by cuts to social security and as a consequence the most vulnerable are making the largest contribution to the public expenditure cuts. The targeted cuts have affected most non-pensioners in receipt of benefits notably the long …
The most vulnerable are making the largest contribution to the public expenditure cuts
February 23, 2015
By Bruce Stafford Shortly after the Coalition Government was formed it introduced an Emergence Budget, and since then it has held 5 Budgets and 5 Autumn Statements. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has used these to announce a series of cuts to public expenditure. These announcements have affected a number of public services, notably social …
What is the impact of austerity on individual attitudes and ‘lived experience’?
February 16, 2015
By Ruth Read On 16 January 2015 the Social Policy Association ran a workshop at the University of Leeds entitled “Austerity, Welfare and Citizenship”. The workshop highlighted some complex, troublesome and neglected aspects of the austerity story. Ruth Patrick described findings from her qualitative research tracking 15 claimants from three groups (young, lone parents, disabled …
