The recommendations in the Commission of Audit’s report, which was released yesterday, would, if implemented, erode the fundamental building blocks of Australia’s social contract. The social contract…
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Welfare
Displaying 261 - 280 of 304 articles
There is now another slide in the UK towards American-style “workfare” programmes aimed at getting the unemployed back to work as quickly as possible. The evidence showing that workfare programmes actually…
As a tough federal budget round looms, there has been suggestions that the pension eligibility age could rise to 70, indexation of pensions could be changed, Family Tax Benefit Part B could be more tightly…
Treasurer Joe Hockey last night stepped up his rhetoric on the the need for heavy government spending cuts, singling out the A$40 billion age pension cost as “much more than we spend on defence, or hospitals…
Recent proposals for benefit reform have centred upon the argument that at present many people feel they get nothing for something from the welfare state, while those on benefits reap the rewards. The…
One of the bizarre bipartisan policy overlaps between the Coalition and Labor is in the area of income support known as welfare payments. Labor has been seen as the party that cared about the poor and…
The announcement of drought relief funding for farmers by an Australian prime minister would not normally be a cause for surprise. But last week’s A$324 million drought package comes amid a concerted push…
Cost-of-living pressures in Tasmania’s poorest households are intensifying, according to a new report. Researchers examined…
Social services minister Kevin Andrews says a concern that the system is unsustainable is driving his review of welfare. It’s true that Australia has a budget sustainability problem. It’s not true that…
The major missing factor in debates on cutting welfare spending – as has been flagged by social services minister Kevin Andrews – is the limited and falling demand for labour. Labour market figures give…
For all of the changes to the UK over the last century, the ideal of “fair play” still seems to be a pretty fundamental part of Britain’s national self-image. The concept that anyone – especially anyone…
The children of this country owe a debt of gratitude to Malcolm Wicks, who died last year. If you have ever benefited from child benefit, you have him to thank. While Wicks was dying he wrote a memoir…
George Osborne has warned that a further £25bn of spending cuts will be needed after the next election – with about half of those cuts to be made from the social security budget, largely from cuts in benefits…
George Osborne’s announcement this week that a Conservative government would implement £25 billion of cuts over two years after the next election is a bold statement of intent both economically and politically…
Stories about “population ageing” often have a number of things in common – it is bad, it is new, and it will overwhelm us all. The major fear is a burden of cost and caring that more older people will…
The Australian Government should tighten the welfare system for older Australians, adding the family home to the assets test for the age pension and limiting tax concessions on superannuation contributions…
George Osborne’s Help to Work scheme, announced in his keynote speech at the Conservative Party Conference, gives three options to the long-term unemployed – work placements, daily job centre visits, or…
There is still a year and a half to go, but the 2013 party conference season might be remembered as the moment the 2015 general election campaign unofficially got underway. Last week, Ed Miliband delivered…
Michael Gove’s recent suggestion that inadequate financial management skills among poor families are to blame for the increasing demand on food banks has, unsurprisingly, sparked an angry response. Critics…
Hard Evidence is a series of articles that looks at some of the trickiest public policy questions we face. Academic experts delve into available research evidence to provide informed analysis you won’t…
Top contributors
-
Peter Whiteford is a Friend of The Conversation.Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
-
Professorial Fellow, Jumbunna IHL, University of Technology Sydney
-
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
-
Research Associate, School of Social Sciences, Monash University
-
Professor, College of Business, Government & Law, Flinders University
-
Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance, The Open University
-
Associate Professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Australian National University
-
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
-
Associate professor, Australian National University
-
Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough University
-
Senior Lecturer in Economy and Society, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University
-
Associate Professor in International Macroeconomics, Cambridge Judge Business School
-
Professor of Economics, Queen's University Belfast
-
Professor of Social Policy, University of York
-
Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University
