The article aims to test the boundaries of traditional notions and understandings of citizenship ... more The article aims to test the boundaries of traditional notions and understandings of citizenship and security in transitional societies through the framing of a given question – should paramilitary ex-prisoners be allowed to join the police? The question, considered through an examination of the particular experience of Northern Ireland, acts as a springboard to the deconstruction of broader traditional and transitional assumptions around citizenship and the delivery of security in societies seeking ways out of violent conflict. The article is ultimately concerned, not so much to deliver a final answer to the specifics of the question posed in all contexts, but to problematise notions of citizenship and State to the point where broader questions need to be asked around accepted and preconceived notions of inclusivity, citizenship and security.
This report, jointly commissioned by The Legal Education Foundation and The Joseph Rowntree Found... more This report, jointly commissioned by The Legal Education Foundation and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is one of a number of parallel reports published alongside Fitzpatrick et al’s (2018) research “Destitution in the UK”. Fitzpatrick et al’s (2018) research estimates that: “approximately 1,550,000 people, 365,000 of them children, were destitute in UK at some point over the course of 2017” (Fitzpatrick et al. 2018:2). This report explores the role of the law and access to legal services (or lack thereof) in creating pathways into, and out of, destitution.
The key recommendations are as follows:
A statutory duty on destitution should be created: Primary legislation should establish a clear definition of destitution and a duty on public bodies to protect all persons lawfully present in the UK from destitution. Legal services should be co-located with other crisis and support services: Co-locating services would reduce referral fatigue and improve the ability of advisors to intervene earlier. The resourcing of legal services is vital in order to render any statutory duty to prevent destitution meaningful. Government should be placed under a positive duty to facilitate access to social security: The government should be placed under a positive duty to ensure that individuals are receiving the social security benefits they are entitled to. This would require government to address systemic issues in the administration of benefits.
To date, the primary concerns of European Union law in the field of social security have been the... more To date, the primary concerns of European Union law in the field of social security have been the elimination of discrimination and the extent to which EU citizens exercising their right to freedom of movement may access benefits on the same basis as host state nationals. Each member state otherwise controls its own social security system. The post-2007 financial crisis has brought renewed calls for the creation of a European Unemployment Benefit System (EUBS) as a manifestation of solidarity between citizens of different member states and an economic stabiliser in the event of future asymmetric shocks. The EU-wide benefit would operate in tandem with existing national unemployment benefits. This creates challenges of compatibility given the diversity of approaches to social security within the Union, based on at least four distinct philosophies of welfare: liberal, conservative, social democratic and southern European. This paper examines potential legal, operational and political difficulties associated with implementing a EUBS that is at heart a conservative system of social insurance in the UK, whose liberal welfare state has very different priorities. Few legal obstacles exist and although the addition of a new, earnings-related benefit to an already complex mix of social protection would raise significant operational issues, these need not be insurmountable. However, fundamental differences of ideology mean the EUBS as proposed is unlikely to gain political buy-in from the UK. Notably, a contributory income maintenance benefit is a poor fit with a residual, largely means-tested national system whose role is limited to offering protection against severe poverty while maintaining work incentives and minimising costs. The paper provides an overview of proposals for a EUBS, situating it and the UK’s national unemployment benefits within (respectively) Esping-Andersen’s conservative and liberal welfare state models before discussing the difficulties associated with the marriage, or collision, of the two systems.
The article aims to test the boundaries of traditional notions and understandings of citizenship ... more The article aims to test the boundaries of traditional notions and understandings of citizenship and security in transitional societies through the framing of a given question – should paramilitary ex-prisoners be allowed to join the police? The question, considered through an examination of the particular experience of Northern Ireland, acts as a springboard to the deconstruction of broader traditional and transitional assumptions around citizenship and the delivery of security in societies seeking ways out of violent conflict. The article is ultimately concerned, not so much to deliver a final answer to the specifics of the question posed in all contexts, but to problematise notions of citizenship and State to the point where broader questions need to be asked around accepted and preconceived notions of inclusivity, citizenship and security.
This report, jointly commissioned by The Legal Education Foundation and The Joseph Rowntree Found... more This report, jointly commissioned by The Legal Education Foundation and The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is one of a number of parallel reports published alongside Fitzpatrick et al’s (2018) research “Destitution in the UK”. Fitzpatrick et al’s (2018) research estimates that: “approximately 1,550,000 people, 365,000 of them children, were destitute in UK at some point over the course of 2017” (Fitzpatrick et al. 2018:2). This report explores the role of the law and access to legal services (or lack thereof) in creating pathways into, and out of, destitution.
The key recommendations are as follows:
A statutory duty on destitution should be created: Primary legislation should establish a clear definition of destitution and a duty on public bodies to protect all persons lawfully present in the UK from destitution. Legal services should be co-located with other crisis and support services: Co-locating services would reduce referral fatigue and improve the ability of advisors to intervene earlier. The resourcing of legal services is vital in order to render any statutory duty to prevent destitution meaningful. Government should be placed under a positive duty to facilitate access to social security: The government should be placed under a positive duty to ensure that individuals are receiving the social security benefits they are entitled to. This would require government to address systemic issues in the administration of benefits.
To date, the primary concerns of European Union law in the field of social security have been the... more To date, the primary concerns of European Union law in the field of social security have been the elimination of discrimination and the extent to which EU citizens exercising their right to freedom of movement may access benefits on the same basis as host state nationals. Each member state otherwise controls its own social security system. The post-2007 financial crisis has brought renewed calls for the creation of a European Unemployment Benefit System (EUBS) as a manifestation of solidarity between citizens of different member states and an economic stabiliser in the event of future asymmetric shocks. The EU-wide benefit would operate in tandem with existing national unemployment benefits. This creates challenges of compatibility given the diversity of approaches to social security within the Union, based on at least four distinct philosophies of welfare: liberal, conservative, social democratic and southern European. This paper examines potential legal, operational and political difficulties associated with implementing a EUBS that is at heart a conservative system of social insurance in the UK, whose liberal welfare state has very different priorities. Few legal obstacles exist and although the addition of a new, earnings-related benefit to an already complex mix of social protection would raise significant operational issues, these need not be insurmountable. However, fundamental differences of ideology mean the EUBS as proposed is unlikely to gain political buy-in from the UK. Notably, a contributory income maintenance benefit is a poor fit with a residual, largely means-tested national system whose role is limited to offering protection against severe poverty while maintaining work incentives and minimising costs. The paper provides an overview of proposals for a EUBS, situating it and the UK’s national unemployment benefits within (respectively) Esping-Andersen’s conservative and liberal welfare state models before discussing the difficulties associated with the marriage, or collision, of the two systems.
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The key recommendations are as follows:
A statutory duty on destitution should be created: Primary legislation should establish a clear definition of destitution and a duty on public bodies to protect all persons lawfully present in the UK from destitution.
Legal services should be co-located with other crisis and support services: Co-locating services would reduce referral fatigue and improve the ability of advisors to intervene earlier. The resourcing of legal services is vital in order to render any statutory duty to prevent destitution meaningful.
Government should be placed under a positive duty to facilitate access to social security: The government should be placed under a positive duty to ensure that individuals are receiving the social security benefits they are entitled to. This would require government to address systemic issues in the administration of benefits.
The key recommendations are as follows:
A statutory duty on destitution should be created: Primary legislation should establish a clear definition of destitution and a duty on public bodies to protect all persons lawfully present in the UK from destitution.
Legal services should be co-located with other crisis and support services: Co-locating services would reduce referral fatigue and improve the ability of advisors to intervene earlier. The resourcing of legal services is vital in order to render any statutory duty to prevent destitution meaningful.
Government should be placed under a positive duty to facilitate access to social security: The government should be placed under a positive duty to ensure that individuals are receiving the social security benefits they are entitled to. This would require government to address systemic issues in the administration of benefits.