For too long, disabled people in Britain have been denied access to employment. Now paid work is being presented as the only route out of poverty and dependence on the state. What is the reality? Working for a living? asks: Does paid work bring disabled people the benefits they are led to expect, or does it have hidden disadvantages? Can disabled people who are not able to work expect to enjoy a good standard of living? The author compares the welfare states of Sweden, Germany and Britain on the basis of social policy provision for disabled people of working age, particularly in the area of income maintenance and employment policy, and uses survey data to analyse the living standards of disabled people both in and out of work. Working for a living? shows that both employment and welfare policies have a vital role to play in securing a good standard of living. The report brings together policy and outcomes in all three countries, and examines the implications for policy in Britain.

Disabled people and employment is a review of research and development initiatives intended to help disabled people get or stay in work, which takes the views of disabled people themselves as a yardstick by which to assess good practice. Drawing on broad-based consultation, it pinpoints gaps in existing research, and highlights the varying requirements of disabled people, employers and service providers as users of research. It also identifies a need for the wide variety of development initiatives which exist to be more effectively targeted, more systematically evaluated, and brought to the attention of a much wider audience. The report is divided into three main parts. The first part explains why the review was carried out and what it covers; the second part considers research to date and existing research and development initiatives; and the final part draws together the themes and evaluates the prospects for future research and development in the areas identified as a priority by disabled people themselves. This report is essential reading for employers, policy makers, service providers, and everyone concerned with getting more disabled people into work.

The detrimental impact of poverty on child development, educational outcomes, job prospects, health and behaviour is well known, and governments worldwide have committed themselves to eradicating child poverty as well as the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Yet more than 60% of South African children live in households with annual incomes below $1360 (2006 value) and mortality and maltreatment rates remain high. In order to realise the rights of all children and tackle child poverty, it is critical that robust measures are developed to quantify the nature and extent of social deprivation experienced by children at sub-national level and thereby accurately identify the areas of greatest need and the most deprived areas. It is also essential that these measures focus specifically on children; separating children out from household level data or data presented for the total population and foregrounding deprivation from a child perspective. This report is a first attempt to generate data of this nature, to map child deprivation at municipal level, in order to inform local level policy and intervention in South Africa. Making use of information available from the 2001 Census about different aspects of deprivation, such as income, employment, education, health and living environment, the authors have combined these domains to form an overall index of multiple deprivations. The model which emerges is of a series of uni-dimensional domains of deprivation which can be combined, with appropriate weighting, into a single child-focused measure of multiple deprivations. This title is a valuable resource for policymakers, NGOs, scholars and other stakeholders monitoring the situation of children in South Africa.