Wealth Poverty and Welfare aqa

Defining and measuring poverty
1. Absolute
  1. lacking the minimum requirements to maintain human health
    1. Roundtree- poverty line
      1. Government agreed dividing point between poverty and not in poverty
        + Clear +Can compare -not good for MEDC's -Everyone's needs are different
2. Relative
  1. Generally accepted standard af living in a specific place at a certain time.
    1. Townsend- Deprivation index
      1. List of 12 items he came up with in order not to be in poverty
        - Biased, his own cultural ideas. - not clear what some of the items have to do with poverty. - out dated. - doesn't account for peoples choices
Who are in poverty?
1. Ethnicity
  1. almost half of ethnic minority children live in low income houses. Low education=lack of qualifications for better jobs. Racism= unable to get better paid jobs. family type. Unemployment=higher in minority ethnic groups. low pay.
2. Age
  1. lone parent= higher number of kids in poverty. lack of work= unless all adults in the family are in work children are likely to be poor. disability= I/4 of kids in poverty have at least one diabled parent. there is inadequet help and polices supporting childcare. elderly likely yto be in poverty because of inadequet pensions.
3. Disability
  1. unable to undertake paid employment. 4x more likely to be unemployed. likely to be low paid- employer discrimination.
4. working class
  1. low pay, minimum wage. immediate gratification= no savings to fall back on. temporary/unstable jobs. low education/ qualifications= low paid jobe.
5. Women
  1. More likely to be lone parents . low paid part time work, ,miss out on work place benefits. home workers = tied to home by kids and low paid piece work. likely to sacrifice standard of living for kids. greater proportion in retirement age.
Cultural and material explanations,
1. Cultural
  1. Oscar Lewis, culture of poverty. own norms and values, sense of fatalism, accept they will always be poor so don't do anything about it. immediate gratification. children grew up with these values and it got passed along.
  2. Marsland, dependency culture. poor are lazy inadequate who don't work and rely on the welfare sate. the welfare sate is too generous and universal benefits take money away from the economy and undermine the production of wealth.
  3. Murray, new right underclass. marked out by: high levels of drunkenness, illegitimacy, school exclusion, lone parenthood, crime& work shy attitude. women only had children they couldn't afford because of the benefits they would get.
2. Material
  1. Material constraints suggest its the situation they are in which makes them behave the way they do not they other way round. the welfare sate isn't generous enough and with low paid or even know jobs they cant save for the future. if they were given the materials such as decent housing, good job ect any apparent dependency culture would disappear.
  2. Cycle of deprivation, coates and silburn. Poverty can lead to further poverty. this builds up into a vicious circle form which it is hard to escape from and then it carries on with their children
  3. Inadequecy of the welfare state poverty trap. benefit levels are to low to lift people out of poverty.
  4. Underclass, social democratic. Frank Field, says it consists of disadvantaged groups such as elderly or diabled who are forced to rely on state benefits which are to low to give them an acceptable standard of living. its a lack of opportunities and jobs not their attitudes that's the problem.
Approaches to poverty.
1. Functionalist
  1. the most needed and valuable jobs get higher pay. poverty creates jobs eg social workers. threat of poverty make people do the undesirable jobs. wouldn't function without it.
    1. criticisms, doesn't explain inherited wealth. who decides the most valuable jobs?
2. weberian
  1. diff skills diff market position. rare skills= high market position& high pay. poor = low market position& low pay. therefore unfair pay.
    1. doesn't explain inherited wealth. assumes poor have no skills.
3. Marxist
  1. conflict between bourgeoisie& proletariat. bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat and keep wages down because plenty of other people are willing to take their job. capitalist approach.
    1. not all bourgeoisie exploit proletariat eg. government give benefits. not all conflict.
Redistribution of wealth
1. inheritance tax. capital gains tax=intended to resduce profits when dealing with proertys or shares. income tax=payable on all income, progressive. social welfare benefits from the state.
  1. why it failed. tax relief, tax avoidance(legal) and evasion(illegal). failure to claim benefits.
Welfare state
1. began with the berverage report in 1942. 'cradle to grave' . aimed to get rid of the five giants: idleness, squalor, ignorance, disease & want. came into effect on 5 july 1948 with the NHS.
providers.
1. informal
  1. family and friends ect. for free. don't get any recognition from the government.
2. state/ statitory
  1. provided by law usually through the government.
3. voluntary
  1. charities, salvation army ect. rely on donations and usually provide a cheeper service for those in need. not everyone can get it and they are not everyehwer.
4. Private
  1. profit making who charge for welfare eg spire, bupa. expensive so not everyone can get it.
Government polices
1. Minimum wage- new labour 1997-2010
2. introduced social housing for poor.
3. made taxing more progressive
4. provided extra support for the poor eg. sure start.
Govenment
1. 1979-1997 new right and conservative- roll back the welfare state by cutting benefits and privatisation. income tax reduced and more means testing. highest poverty in Europe.
2. 1997-2010 new labour. hand up not hand out. increase benefit and introduce minimum wage. child care, sure start. help for most deprived areas= reduction in child poverty.
3. 2010-2015 condem coalition. cut benefits. introduced universal credits to simplify benefit system. got rid of EMA. cut shore start.
4. before 1979- beverage report 1942. NHS and wealfare state set up 1948.
Means testing and universal.
1. Means tested.
  1. have to pass an income test in order to get benefits. only get them if income is low enough.
    1. don't cost state too much. stigma. complicated.
2. universal
  1. everyone can get them.
    1. some people don't need but still get.
Social democratic model(welfare model.
1. Government should be responsible for welfare. social inequalities threatens the stability of society, there should be progressive taxation. universal benefits. neeed for more social cohesion
  1. Newright or market libral
    1. Generosisty of the 'nanny state' undermines personal responsibility and self help. taxation should bew kepted to the minimum. benefits should be means testd and kept to the very poor .
Inverse care law
1. LeGrand, argues most welfare spending is either universal benefits or spent in a way where the middle class gains the most.
  1. They receive more spending per head on health. make better use of services as they are more confident. get more spending per head on education as they are more likely to stay on after school leaving age. benefit more from spending n roads and transport and they are more likely to be commuters. benefit more from tax relief on private pensions and business expenses.
gap between rich an poor.
1. Tax: tax avoidance, inheritance tax, foreign bank accounts.
  1. Benefits cut in 2013, bedroom tax, disability allowance cut. stricter means testing.
    1. pay:minimum wage cut and mployers don't pay higher. some jobs get paid more.
      1. concepts: cycle of deprivation coatses and silburn- familie cant get out of poverty. culture of poverty Oscar lewis- valus passed on.
        Theories: marxist

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Wealth Poverty and Welfare aqa

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