Guiding principles for social security policy: outcomes from a bottom-up approach

Orton, Michael, Summers, Kate ORCID: 0000-0001-9964-0259 and Morris, Rosa (2022) Guiding principles for social security policy: outcomes from a bottom-up approach. Social Policy and Administration, 56 (3). 485 - 501. ISSN 0144-5596

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Abstract

Covid-19 has highlighted the inadequacy of UK social security but also the lack of consensus among progressive actors about what would be a better system. One way forward is to focus on the principles that should underpin social security. We present outcomes from a project in which principles were considered by a panel of Expert by Experience benefit claimants. We argue that while scholars often engage in descriptively identifying social security principles in existing policy, the bottom-up approach presented here offers a way of generating normative principles to guide an improved future system. We identify key contributions of this bottom-up approach relating to: the critical importance of principles as a guide to the fundamental purpose of social security, and policy making; the relationship between the treatment of claimants and benefit levels as co-dependent; and how a bottom-up process can produce results that engage with and contribute holistically to the debate.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679515
Additional Information:	© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Date Deposited:	04 Feb 2022 12:30
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 19:00
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/113617

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