Welfare to Work: Conditional Rights in Social Policy (Oxford Monographs on Labour Law)

Welfare to work programs aim to assist the long-term unemployed in finding work; increasing labor market flexibility, eliminating dependency, and tackling social exclusion. They have been implemented in many Western countries. This book focuses on an important and novel feature of these programs: they replace the rights-based entitlements that have characterized the welfare state for decades with conditional rights dependent on the fulfillment of obligations: conditions are attached to the benefits received. This new type of social contract between the claimant and the State carries with it a new construction of the relationship between rights and responsibilities, and a new interpretation of citizenship. Paz-Fuchs examines the theoretical underpinnings of welfare-to-work programs, incorporating a comparative analysis of the UK and USA, where the ideal of social citizenship is being curtailed through welfare reforms. He argues that when the rhetoric of the social contract is used to imply a continuous contract between citizens and the state, a vast array of conditions on welfare can be legitimated, including workfare; the obligation to accept any job offer; and moral and social preconditions that are based on a vague notion of reciprocity. Paz-Fuchs argues, by contrast, that conditional welfare undermines civil rights such as the right to privacy and family life by requiring welfare claimants to change their behavior. He contends that strengthening welfare rights and relaxing preconditions on entitlement would better serve the objectives that welfare to work programs are supposed to advance. Table of Contents Table of Treatises and Statutes Table of Cases Introduction 1. The Social Contract of the Modern Welfare State A: Welfare-to-Work Programmes in Modern Welfare States B: Welfare Rights? 1 Co-dependence 2 A True Divide? C: Social Contract: Tradition and Manipulation 1 Social Contract Objectives and Typology 2 Rights, Obligations and Welfare in Social Contract Theory 3 Two Different Intersections of Social Contract and Welfare State 4 Manipulation D: Conditioning Welfare 1 The Theoretical Background 2 Rights, Reciprocity and Collective Interests 3 Constructing Welfare Rights as Conditional 4 The Consequences of Conditionality E: Conclusion 2. Welfare-to-Work Programmes Under the Poor Laws A: Antecedent Themes in Welfare-to-Work Programmes 1 The Administration of Relief 2 The Beneficiaries B: Setting the Poor to Work—The Conditionality of Welfare 1 Conditioning for Deterrence 2 Conditioning for Social Control 3 Conditioning for Effciency 4 The Narrow Contract—Quid pro Quo C: Conclusion 3. Contemporary Welfare-to-Work Programmes A: Legislative Background 1 The American Programmes: AFDC—Operation and Termination 2 The British Programmes: Beveridge and Beyond B: Themes and Provisions in Current Welfare-to-Work Programmes 1 United States: PRWORA and TANF 2 New Deal, New Ambitions, New Contract for Britain C: Conclusion 4. From Equality to the Right to Welfare A: Equality—A Very Short Introduction B: Equality, Choice and Responsibility 1 The Incentive Role of Responsibility 2 The Agency Approach to Responsibility 3 Reasonable Responsibility C: Conditioning Rights—the Case of Welfare Benefits 1 Substantive Equality 2 Germaneness 3 Fundamental Rights 4 Conditioning Rights and Reasonable Responsibility D: Deriving the Right to Welfare from Equality E: Conclusion 5. Welfare, Work and Social Inclusion A: Why Social Inclusion? B: Social Inclusion Between Equality, Choice and Responsibility C: Social Inclusion, Social Contract and the Duty to Work D: Social Inclusion, Poverty and Welfare Rights 1 Basic Needs and Social Inclusion 2 Welfare Rights as Strategies Towards Social Inclusion E: Conclusion: Social Inclusion and Conditionality in Welfare-to-Work 6. Conclusion Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N P Q R S T U W Welfare to work programmes aim to assist the long-term unemployed in finding work; increasing labour market flexibility, eliminating dependency, and tackling social exclusion. They have been implemented in many Western countries. This book focuses on an important and novel feature of these programmes: they replace the rights-based entitlements that have characterized the welfare state for decades with conditional rights dependent on the fulfilment of obligations: conditions are attached to the benefits received. This new type of social contract between the claimant and the State carries with it a new construction of the relationship between rights and responsibilities, and a new interpretation of citizenship. Paz-Fuchs examines the theoretical underpinnings of welfare-to-work programmes, incorporating a comparative analysis of the UK and USA, where the ideal of social citizenship is being curtailed through welfare reforms. He argues that when the rhetoric of the social contract is used to imply a continuous contract between citizens and the state, a vast array of conditions on welfare can be legitimated, including workfare; the obligation to accept any job offer; and moral and social preconditions that are based on a vague notion of reciprocity. Paz-Fuchs argues, by contrast, that conditional welfare undermines civil rights such as the right to privacy and family life by requiring welfare claimants to change their behaviour. He contends that strengthening welfare rights and relaxing preconditions on entitlement would better serve the objectives that welfare to work programmes are supposed to advance. "Welfare-to-work programmes aim to assist the long-term unemployed in finding work, to increase labour market flexibility, to eliminate dependency, and to tackle social exclusion. They have been implemented in many Western countries. This book focuses on an important and novel feature of these programmes: replacing the rights-based entitlements that have characterized the welfare state for decades with conditional rights dependent on the fulfilment of obligations." "This new type of social contract between the claimant and the state carries with it a new construction of the relationship between rights and responsibilities, and a new interpretation of citizenship. Paz-Fuchs examines the theoretical underpinnings of welfare-to-work programmes, incorporating a comparative analysis of the UK and USA, where the ideal of social citizenship is being curtailed through welfare reforms. He argues that when the rhetoric of the social contract is used to imply a continuous contract between citizens and the state, a vast array of conditions on welfare can be legitimated. These conditions include workfare, the obligation to accept any job offer, and moral and social preconditions that are based on a vague notion of reciprocity. Paz-Fuchs argues, by contrast, that conditional welfare undermines civil rights such as the right to privacy and family life by requiring welfare claimants to change their behaviour. He contends that strengthening welfare rights and relaxing preconditions on entitlement would better serve the objectives that welfare-to-work programmes are supposed to advance."--Jacket Welfare to work programmes that apply conditions to benefits constitute a new type of social contract. This book argues that conditional welfare undermines civil rights and that strengthening welfare rights and relaxing rules of entitlement would better achieve the ends that welfare to work programmes should advance