Welfare State
The welfare state has changed substantially since its inception and now faces many new challenges.
This policy area draws together Class's work on the ideas that inspired the creation of the welfare state and what the new role of the welfare state will be in 2015 Britain.
The core part of our work on this subject is the Social State project which looks at what we can learn from Beveridge's analysis of society seventy years ago and how can we use this to chart an alternative course for a welfare state - or Social State - fit for 2015 Britain. This policy area looks at a range of welfare state concerns from education to welfare, employment to housing and health and universalism. For more in depth information and to see the work published visit the project page.
Projects
- Election 2015: What’s at stake?
- What Britain Needs - Conference 2014
- In the public interest: the role of the modern state
- A Social State for 2015
Publications
- Fiscal Austerity to Economic Renewal
- Briefing: Spending Review 2015
- Briefing: The Queen’s Speech 2015
- Briefing: The Tax Lock
- The First 100 Days
- Election 2015: What’s at stake for social security?
- Election 2015: What’s at stake for the NHS?
- Tackling the housing crisis
- The Great British Rip Off
- The role of local government in a modern state
- In the public interest
- Public services
- Why immigration is good for all of us
- In Place of Fear
- Duty to care
- In Land Revenue
- Financing the Social State
- The Case for Universalism
- Exposing the Myths of Welfare
Blogs
- Without Rethinking Welfare, There Can Be No ‘Humane’ Universal Credit
- The Problem With In-Work Poverty
- Beyond Fire Regulations: Housing and Inequality After Grenfell
- Queen’s Speech: response
- What can we expect from today’s budget?
- Looking ahead: what Class did next
- Why the Lords’ defeat of the government’s attempt to redefine child poverty is important
- Spending Review 2015: Still failing to invest in women’s security
- Spending review 2015: Our Panel’s Reaction
- Spending review 2015: Your Guide
- The closure of Eaves charity is the tip of the iceberg in the crisis for women’s services
- Our study shows that economic recession leads to increased levels of suicide
- We need a fairer deal for members of the armed forces
- Benefit advisers in foodbanks: a backwards step
- Tax credit cuts and the Living Wage: Do the numbers stack up?
- Low-paid workers – worse off next year and even worse off in 2020
- Cutting vital income and stigmatising the low paid? The Conservatives are no workers’ party
- A £12bn cut in welfare will put huge pressure on the NHS
- With this budget, the Chancellor is taking us into unknown territory
- The latest cuts to legal aid are a further assault on access to justice
- Child benefit and the fight against poverty
- The Queen’s Speech: our panel’s reaction
- Cameron’s new crusade against criminal wage-workers
- Five ways to deal with a full blown Conservative Government
- First 100 Days - Investing in a Future for Young People
- First 100 Days - Implementing a Race Equalities Agenda
- First 100 Days - Ensuring Gender Equality
- First 100 days - Protecting Public Services
- First 100 Days - Eradicating Poverty
- First 100 Days - Restoring Access to Juctice
- Political action must be taken to eliminate food banks from the national landscape
- Labour and Conservatives: the manifestos
- The government’s evidence-free policy on benefit sanctions
- The worst thing about the Budget? The tax cuts
- Budget 2015: Our panellists give their reaction
- This election will decide whether the NHS will survive or perish
- The benefit sanctions system is harming single parents and their children
- Time for more working-class women in Parliament
- Conservative Party Conference: The view from the library next door
- The link between the rise of food banks and the rolling back of the welfare state
- Why we must close gaps in the law around domestic violence
- Low pay and increased job insecurity: the state of single parent employment
- Securing the future of our public services
- The Bedroom tax by numbers
- Fighting austerity: why we need to talk about human rights
- What to make of the IPPR report
- Sanctioning job seekers who refuse zero-hours contracts is counterproductive
- To tackle the Great British Rip Off, we must end zero-hours contracts
- Why Britain needs to end hunger fast
- Why immigration is good for all of us
- Paying the highest price: Austerity will accelerate area health inequalities
- Whose recovery is it?
- Trade unions must be at the heart of the debate on living standards
- UK: manifestly inadequate
- During Debt Awareness Week people are turning to payday lenders to stay afloat
- Where are the stories about in-work poverty?
- What would a further £25bn of spending cuts mean for child poverty?
- What Labour needs to do in 2014
- Our big challenge - Solidarity in the face of insecurity
- There are some things too important to be left to the market
- Momentum is moving in our direction - bold policies have popular support
- The market is broken
- Attacks on legal aid will mean access to justice is only for the rich
- No real economic change will be felt until income inequality is reduced
- How the Government is creating a climate of fear for migrants and ethnic minorities
- In place of fear: It’s time to tackle alarming health inequalities
- The case for a Land Value Tax
- Involuntary idleness represents a massive waste of economic resources
- We need to challenge the myths that poison attempts at progressive change
- Why we need a political campaign to reinstate the NHS
- It’s time for new priorities to tackle want
- Investment in social housing - the best way out of today’s squalor
- The bedroom tax - a prime example that class politics are still relevant
- Reviving the Beveridge vision of a Social State
- Stop pushing people into poverty and get serious about job creation
- Social State: Who are the real scroungers?
- Social State: The Most Important Part of the Welfare State: The NHS
- Social State: Austerity - An Exercise in Divide and Rule
- Social State: Exploding the scrounger myth
- Social State: The return of squalor
- Social State: Reclaiming Education for All
Events
- Class Conference 2013: Leading the Debate
- Post-Election Public Debate
- TUC Congress 2014: Challenging Power, Raising Living Standards
- Labour Party Conference 2013: Austerity and the Alternative
- TUC Congress 2013: Achieving a Social State
- Labour Party Conference 2013: Achieving a Social State
- A think tank for working people: Class Yorkshire Launch
- A think tank for working people: Class North West Launch
- GMB Congress 2013: Why is Class such an important GMB investment?
- Scottish Labour Party Conference 2013: Resisting cuts in welfare - the case for universalism
- Achieving a Social State
News and press releases
- Class announces Faiza Shaheen as new Director
- Leading progressives put forward far-reaching policies for the first 100 days of government
- Read all about the Class Election 2015 Series: What’s at stake?
- Class Conference 2014: The Film
- Class Conference 2014: The Photos
- Class Conference 2014: The Highlights
- Policy experts say housing must dominate Labour’s election manifesto
- Think tank calls for a radical rethink of the role of local government
- Think tank says privatisation of services has consistently led to lower outcomes
- We hear your views on the living standards crisis in advance of our regional tour of events
- Class at conference season: Submit your events for our Progressive Guide to Labour Party Conference
- Class launches new policy library resource for trade unions and researchers
- Class holds North West launch & commits to giving working people in the UK a strong political voice
- Health inequalities widen as rising mortality and falling life expectancy buck long-term trends
- It’s time for a political response to attacks on universal health care
- Class and Red Pepper launch first in a series of mythbusters: Exposing the myths of welfare
- Podcast now available - Achieving a Social State @ LSE
- Class and LSE Politics blog host lively debate on the Social State
- Class and Child Poverty Action Group call for new priorities to tackle poverty
