Social Policy and Society



Social Policy and Society

1) What is meant by the term 'the welfare state' today in contemporary Britain?

Welfare State is a general term which is applied to the state which is concern for the safety and welfare of its citizen. These States consider it as their basic responsibility to safeguard the rights of their citizen, and provide them all the faculties of life which include health, education, employment and other facilities of life. Wincott (2011) also discussed the concept of welfare state and analyze it under the law and social context.

In Britain there are various changes that occur in its society for the system of providing safety and welfare of their citizens. In the beginning the concept of welfare for the society was very important and there were various measures to provide the basic rights of these citizens. With the passage of time changes kept occurring and in today's contemporary Britain the concepts of welfare are completely changed. In the beginning it was considered only State's responsibility to concern for the welfare of the people, but with the increase in awareness there are a large number of organizations and NGO's working for the welfare and human rights. There are a large number of volunteer's and other individuals working for the improvement in the welfare system of the contemporary Britain.

A report by BBC (2002) divides the society intro three dimensions on the basis of social, economical and cultural background. This provides assistance to the British Government to allocate the proper system for the welfare of citizens. The citizens in contemporary Britain are more aware about their rights and States policies for the nation. Contemporary Brutish government is also looking for bringing more improvement in these strategies and implementations.

Social Policy and Society

2) How has the level of relative income poverty in Britain changed since 1979?

Since 1979 there are various changes in the level of relative income poverty in Britain. It is also recorded the rate of relative income poverty has increased due to the lack of employment and increase in inflation rate (Milbourne, 2004). The main reason for this is the changes in the society which directly affect the economic conditions of the State. Most of these people do not work, which includes housewives, children and old people. Another reason for the increase in poverty is that there is increase in single parenting and most of these single parents do not work and live on the benefits of the state.

One major reason which is also related to this problem of increase in poverty rate is that, every year with the increase in childbirth there is problem with the increase in population. This provides that since 1970s there is more increase in the number of consumers but the means and workforce to produce more for the State are limited and with the passage of time there are more people entering in the old houses. Therefore, these situations resulted in more consumers and less ...