This is a third edition of a successful textbook that provides a contemporary account of how social services in the UK are paid for. The new edition brings the textbook up-to-date with its fast-moving subject area, explaining the finance of human services - health care, education, housing, social security a nd social care-through a review of the economic literature. It also gives an account of how the cash to pay for the services actually reaches schools, hospitals and social service departments, right from the start of the process, examining how government raises taxes, through to allocation of the funds. Both comprehensive and expertly written, this textbook will continue to feature as key reading for a variety of Social and Policy related courses.

This is a third edition of a successful textbook that provides a contemporary account of how social services in the UK are paid for. The new edition brings the textbook up-to-date with its fast-moving subject area, explaining the finance of human services - health care, education, housing, social security a nd social care-through a review of the economic literature. It also gives an account of how the cash to pay for the services actually reaches schools, hospitals and social service departments, right from the start of the process, examining how government raises taxes, through to allocation of the funds. Both comprehensive and expertly written, this textbook will continue to feature as key reading for a variety of Social and Policy related courses.

The challenge of meeting the growing cost of welfare is one of the most pressing issues facing governments of our time. Glennerster's authoritative Understanding the cost of welfare assesses what welfare costs and how it is funded sector-by-sector. The book is written in a clear, accessible style, ideally suited to both teaching and study, and the general reader. This substantially revised third edition includes: * Discussion of the many funding issues now facing welfare states, such as demographic change, tax resistance, slow growth and austerity programmes * The theory and practice of devolved tax and budgetary responsibilities between UK nations and in comparison with other countries * New chapters on pensions and post-16 education * More regular and extensive comparative analysis Divided into 3 sections, covering Principles, Service funding, and The Future, the book Includes questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading, making it an easy-to-use, essential resource for both undergraduate and post-graduate students of Social Policy, Sociology, Politics and Public Administration.

The challenge of meeting the growing cost of welfare is one of the most pressing issues facing governments of our time. Glennerster's authoritative Understanding the cost of welfare assesses what welfare costs and how it is funded sector-by-sector. The book is written in a clear, accessible style, ideally suited to both teaching and study, and the general reader. This substantially revised third edition includes: * Discussion of the many funding issues now facing welfare states, such as demographic change, tax resistance, slow growth and austerity programmes * The theory and practice of devolved tax and budgetary responsibilities between UK nations and in comparison with other countries * New chapters on pensions and post-16 education * More regular and extensive comparative analysis Divided into 3 sections, covering Principles, Service funding, and The Future, the book Includes questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading, making it an easy-to-use, essential resource for both undergraduate and post-graduate students of Social Policy, Sociology, Politics and Public Administration.

Richard Titmuss was Professor of Social Administration at the London School of Economics from 1950 until his death in 1973. His publications on welfare and social policy were radical and wide-ranging, spanning fields such as demography, class inequalities in health, social work, and altruism. Titmuss's work played a critical role in establishing the study of social policy as a scientific discipline; it helped to shape the development of the British Welfare State and influenced thinking about social policy worldwide.Despite its continuing relevance to current social policy issues both in the UK and internationally, much of Titmuss's work is now out of print. This new book brings together a selection of his most important writings on a range of key social policy issues, together with commentary on these from contemporary experts in the field. The book should be read by undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy and sociology, for many of whom Titmuss remains compulsory reading. It will be of interest to academics and other policy analysts as well as students and academics in political science and social work.

This study is in response to a growth of public interest in the size and structure of education facilities and their relation to economic and social policy. It determines the scope of educational services, both public and private, and traces the sources of educational finance through the various spending agencies and allocators of finance back to the eventual suppliers of funds. With detailed analysis based on careful observation, the study provides a wealth of statistical information on this neglected aspect of education.

England is unusual in relying so heavily on central government to finance its social services. Citizens expect to be able to access services of similar standards wherever they live. This raises difficult theoretical and practical issues. How are the needs of different areas to be measured? How are the different costs of providing services in very different parts of the country to be assessed? This book reviews the economic theory that underpins thinking about the problem. It then traces the way governments have distributed resources from the end of the last century until today. It critically analyzes current methods for three services - the National Health Service, schools, and housing. This book is intended for scholars and students of political science, British politics, public policy and administration, public management, development management, and policy-makers and analysts interested in government and public service spending.

This book examines key issues connected with the distribution of personal wealth in the UK. It examines why wealth is now such an important factor in social differences and public policy. It presents the most recent information on current wealth inequalities and a detailed discussion of trends in the distribution of wealth. It uses newly available data to compare wealth inequalities in the UK with the USA, Canada and Sweden. It uses longitudinal data, which track the same people over time, to examine trajectories in wealth accumulation over the decade to 2005 and inequalities in inheritances over the same period. It looks at how parental wealth levels and people's asset-holdings early in adulthood affect outcomes later in their lives. The final part looks at the way in which policies towards wealth-holding developed historically, and the contradictory ways in which a wide range of public policies relate to people's wealth levels, including through taxation, means-testing, and the encouragement of saving, and discusses what the key issues for policy towards wealth and wealth inequalities now are. Personal wealth in the UK totalled GBP5.5 trillion by 2010 (GBP9-10 trillion if occupational pension rights are included). Inheritance flows are now equivalent to 4 per cent of national income each year. All households in the wealthiest tenth have more than 75 times the wealth of any of those in the bottom tenth. Absolute differences in wealth levels have increased substantially over the last 15 years, so wealth differences represent many more years of income than in the past. This makes them of great importance to life chances. This makes the book highly relevant for public policy, but also for academic and student understanding of a crucial dimension of social difference. As well as bringing together existing information on the area, the book contains considerable new analysis on wealth inequality, inheritance and their impacts, drawing on work which is at the forefront of recent research.

The Beveridge Report of 1942 captured the public imagination with its principle of universal social insurance in Britain; it became, and remained a benchmark for social security planning and its influence has been international. Beveridge's idea was to use universal benefits to remove the poverty caused by certain contingencies, such as unemployment, or retirement. This book considers the influence of Beveridge's ideas on social security, and argues that the reality, over the subsequent fifty years, has been very different from the principles and from the vision he expressed. The first part of this volume outlines the context within which the wartime report was written, the concessions that were made before implementation was possible, and the history of the postwar social insurance system. The important aspects of the social insurance system are considered in depth, such as the state pension, and the principle of flat- rather than means-tested benefits. The second part deals with the diverse responses to Beveridge's recommendations in several countries: Germany, Poland, Holland, Israel, Sweden, and Australia. Despite a move away from universally available benefits to means-tested income support, the editors argue that Beveridge's important legacy has been the notion of a national minimum income: a safety net covering all, and they assess the continuing relevance of Beveridge's thinking for the future of social security.