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This chapter, which examines how well Social Security recipients are protected from inflation, shows that Social Security benefits may not be as safe from inflation as is commonly believed. Because medical costs have been rising over time, and because the elderly spend a larger fraction of their income on medical care than workers do, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers does not properly reflect the inflation experience of Social Security beneficiaries. A commentary is included at the end of the chapter.

This chapter reexamines the annuity offset model using more recent and better data than were available for the original empirical tests. The four empirical implications of the model tested are: that no individual would hold both term life insurance and private annuities; that the level of Social Security benefits and term life insurance ownership should be negatively correlated; that term life insurance should behave as an inferior good because it is a negative annuity and annuities are normal goods; and that individuals who hold term life insurance must have a Social Security benefit in excess of desired retirement consumption. The chapter presents results that are inconsistent with all four of these empirical implications, and thus concludes that life insurance coverage is not a good indicator of the extent of over-annuitization. A commentary is also included at the end of the chapter.

This chapter focuses on the rights and responsibilities of disabled people in the UK and the ways in which their rights to work and social security benefits have been subject to contestation and redefinition, particularly since the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance in 2008. In the past, both governments and citizens generally tended to support the claims of long-term sick and disabled people to social security benefits for two reasons. First, because disabled people fitted commonly held views about a legitimate need for provision of financial support and care through the public welfare system. Second, because the cause of their inactivity in the paid labour market was seen by many as being beyond their control. Disabled people have long challenged such discriminatory views and demanded the eradication of disabling attitudes and environments, so that they can realise effective rights to paid employment. Similarly, criticisms of the disabling welfare state and the role it has played in the systematic and entrenched social exclusion of disabled people in respect of their rights to work and welfare must be acknowledged.

This chapter shows the ambiguity of New Labour policies, which is reflected in its information provision for social security benefits. It determines that policy making itself is the result of compromises and is not a straightforward process. It also shows that there has been a lot of information activity from New Labour, which is a government with a reputation for some expertise in ‘spin’. The chapter reveals that the clearest shifts in policy are demonstrated in attitudes to citizens as workers and to those citizens who are no longer expected to work.

This chapter presents another case study that analyses the government policies to inform older people of their rights to means-tested benefits. It first describes briefly the social security benefits that are designed for older people, and the financial and demographic situation of older people in the UK. It then takes a short historic view of central government policies on information about means-tested financial assistance for older people. The case study investigates why concern about older people as a group led to more active and targeted information. The chapter is focused on the New Labour government's information policy for Income Support/Minimum Income Guarantee.

The Forfeiture Act 1982 originated in concern about a rule of law which seemed to have the effect that a woman who, under the grossest provocation, killed her husband would be disqualified from the social security benefits to which a widow would normally be entitled and would forfeit all right to succeed to his estate and to his interest in the family home. This draconian rule would be applied even if the woman's moral culpability were such that, in criminal proceedings, she had been held not to deserve any punishment at all. It has now become possible to piece together, from published and other sources, the story of how an Act which its sponsors never expected to see enacted, and which was undeniably technically defective, came to get onto the statute book. The story raises issues about law reform procedures, about the parliamentary process, and about the respective roles of the judiciary and the legislature, which in themselves justify an attempt to place the facts on record.

The Japanese government has instituted several modifications to the pension system to cope with the country's rapidly aging population. For example, whereas full social security benefits used to start at age sixty for men covered by the Employees' Pension program, reductions in benefits to be phased in between 2001 and 2013 mean that men aged sixty to sixty-four and covered by Employee Pension insurance (EP) will receive smaller pensions. Such reductions, as well as other changes in social security benefits and taxes, are likely to affect the number of older persons active in the labor market during the next few decades. This chapter is organized as follows. Section 9.2 presents an overview of the trend in the labor supply of Japanese men aged sixty to sixty-four. Section 9.3 explains the EP benefit rule for active workers and reviews its history from the 1980s to the present. Section 9.4 discusses the Survey on Employment Conditions of Older Persons (SECOP), which is the data set used in this chapter. Section 9.5 explains the descriptive statistics of work-mode choice and hours. Section 9.6 presents estimates from a reduced-form analysis. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.

This chapter studies Thomas Paine, who was the first major figure to argue for a rather comprehensive system of social security benefits to prevent and alleviate poverty. As a result, he has been described as a ‘prophet of the modern welfare state’. His views on welfare and politics were also influenced by his own beliefs on human nature, and he was the first major writer to clearly delineate the difference between government and society or society and the state. The discussion differentiates hereditary monarchy and elective monarchy, examines Paine's views on the common good, trade, and private property, as well as his ideas on the structure and culture of poverty. The chapter identifies three fundamental ideals that consist of Paine's legacy: the notion of universal rights, the notion of democracy and political representation as the best form of government and his stature as the ‘father of the welfare state’.

This chapter discusses how benefits vary with the age of retirement beyond the earliest eligibility age, including how retiring ahead of the normal retirement age reduces benefits by a certain percentage annually, particularly in the United States. It cites the need for a good and flexible retirement system to accommodate diversity in terms of life expectancy, income levels, and the degree of difficulty in continuing labor. It describes a pattern in the United States called delayed retirement credit (DRC), and actuarial reduction factor (ARF). It also argues that the system should be neutral in its approach to individual retirement decisions, assuming that the system would preserve optimal individual decisions on retirement.

The contribution of small firms in employment and earnings has been a significant concern for policymakers in developing countries. Many policy instruments have been employed to promote the growth of small firms in developing countries. India too has historically supported its small-scale sector and promotion of small-scale industrial sector gained significant importance as an element of industrial policy in India since Independence. These support policies and programmes have spawned considerable amount of literature documenting them and debating on the real effect of these policies, especially the protective measures on small firms. This chapter presents a thematic review of these studies and argues that there have been considerable changes in the policies and programmes supporting the small firms in the Indian manufacturing sector, especially since the onset of economic reforms of 1991.