Drawing on the authors’ extensive experience as actuaries, this work, originally published in 1987, provides a thorough examination of the problems which had arisen, and those that seemed likely to arise, with regard to both public and private pension funds at the time. It ranges in scope from the realities of individual plans and schemes devised by employers and employees to the management of pension funds and investment portfolios. The concept of socially responsible investment is discussed. Reliable statistical information on the health, age and occupation of the population is an important tool in planning pension schemes for both the public and private sectors, and this book includes a careful analysis of the available data, leading to many useful projections for the thirty to forty years which followed. Although the statistical information is derived from UK sources, the problems it relates to, and its analysis was applicable to pension planning in all developed countries The breadth of the authors’ approach, fully embracing the apprehension at the time about the demands of an increasingly ageing population and a partially unemployed workforce, would give this book added interest to a wide range of academics and professionals in financial institutions, government and the social services. Today it can be read in its historical context.

This 1986 book examines why old-age saving became rooted in the employment contract.

The book identifies occupational welfare as a major component of personnel management. It identifies the long, still proceeding, evolutionary process of change which is leading to the harmonization of terms, benefits and employment conditions in British industry. It considers the traditional manual/non-manual workplace divide and the gradual change to a new core/peripheral workplace division in the modern industrial world. It is within core employment that harmonized conditions are becoming prevalent. British practice has evolved in response to prevailing economic, technological and labour market pressures rather than in emulation of American and Japanese companies in Britain.

In 2011, the 'Baby Boom' generation will begin to retire. Bythen, the stark reality of the 'greying' of the population inNorth America and Western Europe will have brought the inadequacies ofthe state and private pension systems home to all levels of society,and the pension crisis will be actual rather than impending. In The Political Economy of Pensions, Richard Deatonexplores the factors involved in this high-profile issue of publicpolicy and shows the insufficiency of recent reform initiatives inCanada, the United States, and Britain. Four converging considerations explain the imminence of the pensioncrisis. First, while it is commonly assumed that 70 percent ofpre-retirement income will be sufficient for a one-earner couple tomaintain its standard of living, few pensioners receive this amount,and polls show that those not yet retired expect or want full incomereplacement. Second, the proportion of elderly people in the populationwill dramatically increase in coming decades; the number of employedworkers for each retired person will fall from seven to three, whilethe costs for elderly dependants rise. Third, the majority of workersin all three countries have no coverage under employer-sponsoredprivate pension schemes, the percentage of those covered has beendropping in recent years, and many of those who do have privatepensions receive only partial or unindexed payments. Finally, thecorporate sector and the state have been appropriating pension funds asa source of investment and social capital to meet their financialrequirements. The pension system now occupies a strategic economic position inadvanced market economies. Consequently, the conflicting interestsunderlying the pension crisis could generate a heightened awareness ofpower and politics in capitalist countries and increase social tensionsmanifesting themselves through intergenerational, sectoral, political,and industrial relations conflicts. The Political Economy of Pensions identifies personalproblems and structural issues which may have significance in terms ofpower, politics, and social change in the future. This timely andprovocative comparative, interdisciplinary study will be of interest tothose involved in social policy, gerontology, economics, industrialrelations, or social work, and others concerned with pensions and agingor with the social impact of public policies.

In the early 1980s, the welfare state, for too long regarded as a notable contribution to the establishment of a humane social order, had over the previous decade come under increasing attack. Some of its critics, especially in the UK and the USA, maintained that it had failed to deal satisfactorily with the problem of poverty. Others held that it was over-elaborate, created a psychology of dependence and imposed costs that needed to be reduced as part of a policy of general economic recovery. In a number of countries, cuts had already been imposed or were now contemplated. In this situation it was crucially important to direct attention once more to the basic objectives of the various welfare services from a systematic and comparative standpoint. Originally published in 1982, the authors of this book, one an economist and the other a specialist in social administration, subjected these aims to rigorous analysis and discuss the underlying issues of social philosophy. They then attempt to assess the various methods adopted for their attainment in Britain and comment on those adopted in the USA and in some continental European countries. Although the authors reject the more extreme assertion that the welfare state has been a failure, they point to the need to relate some of the policies followed more clearly to the basic objectives. A number of proposals for reform are put forward which would imply some change of emphasis and should permit a simplification of existing over-complex arrangements.

This long awaited sequel to The Origins of Modern English Societyexplores the rise of 'the forgotten middle class' to show a new principle of social organization.

A stimulating and controversial framework for the study of British society, challenging accepted paradigms based on class analysis. Perkins argues that the non-capitalist "professional class" represents a new principle of social organization.