Welfare: Needs, Rights and Risks addresses the question of how people get access to social welfare in the UK today. It explores the public, political and professional definitions, constructions and conflicts about who should receive social welfare and under what conditions. In a period during which the rationing, targeting and selective provision of welfare have become more significant, more visible and more disputed, this book examines how individuals and groups come to be defined as in need, at risk or deserving of welfare.

Welfare: Needs, Rights and Risks addresses the question of how people get access to social welfare in the UK today. It explores the public, political and professional definitions, constructions and conflicts about who should receive social welfare and under what conditions. In a period during which the rationing, targeting and selective provision of welfare have become more significant, more visible and more disputed, this book examines how individuals and groups come to be defined as in need, at risk or deserving of welfare.

By drawing on current social policy developments and case examples from health, the personal social services and mental health, this book examines how risk is replacing need as the key principle of welfare organization and state provision of services. It explores the growing role of risk-based allocation and rationing systems in a climate of welfare retrenchment, and the implications for users and providers of welfare.

Government is currently committed to radical reform of the welfare system underpinning social citizenship in Britain. Welfare rights and responsibilities is a response to this, focusing on welfare reform and citizenship. Specifically it explores three issues central to citizenship's social element: provision, membership and the link between welfare rights and responsibilities(conditionality). Part 1 discusses competing philosophical, political and academic perspectives on citizenship and welfare. Part 2 then moves discussions about social citizenship away from the purely theoretical level, allowing the practical concerns of citizens (particularly those at the sharp end of public provision) to become an integral part of current debates concerning citizenship and welfare. The author gives voice to the 'ordinary' citizens who actually make use of welfare services. The book offers an accessible overview of contemporary debates about the contested concepts of citizenship and welfare, linking them to recent developments and discussions about the new welfare settlement and values that underpin it. It combines relevant debates within political philosophy, social policy and sociology that relate to social citizenship with recent policy developments. Welfare rights and responsibilities allows the presently marginalised voices of welfare service users to become a valued element in contemporary debates about the extent of social citizenship and the reform of the welfare state. It is therefore important reading for students and teachers of social policy, sociology and politics. It will further appeal to a wider audience of policy makers and professional social workers with an interest in welfare reform/service users accounts.

This unique and forward-thinking book explores how we understand needs in relation to the welfare state and to what extent we can, if at all, measure need.

This spirited and informed collection of papers by leading analysts addresses key questions related to welfare, citizenship and risk.

Unsettling Welfare addresses the changing relationship between social welfare, its 'recipients' and the state. In particular, the book explores the direction and the impact of the reforms of the welfare state that took place during the 1980s and 1990s. By focusing on specific fields of social welfare and social control, including health, education, housing, income maintenance, social services and criminal justice, Unsettling Welfare identifies general trends and the ways in which these are manifested.