In a forward looking appraisal of the welfare state, this text examines such issues as: the current dynamics of poverty in Britain, drawing on similar developments in Europe and the US; and the major areas of social policy within which the abandonment and demonization of the poor is taking place; the historical antecendents to this relationship between the state and the poor; the creation and expansion of a "welfare" state that characterized the era of social democracy until the mid-1970s and from the point of view of the poor, was limited and conditional; the ideology and organization of the New Right; and the new terrain on which the struggle over the future of welfare and social policy must take place.

Series Information:
The State of Welfare

Neoliberalism and austerity have led to a growing inequality gap and increasing levels of poverty and social harm. In this short form book, part of the Critical and Radical Debates in Social Work series, Chris Jones and Tony Novak look at consequences of poverty and inequality and the challenge they pose to the engaged social work academic and practitioner. There are many studies of poverty that look at competing definitions (and some of the consequences) of poverty in modern society. Here the authors argue that, especially for a profession with a claimed commitment to values based on equality, social justice and meeting human need, poverty and immiserisation impose a requirement on social workers to speak out and not to collude with social policies that make the plight of the impoverished even harder and their lives even worse.