Market failure, around credit provision, typically centres on adverse selection and moral hazard. We utilise a Diverse Economies Framework to distinguish between different types of lender (mainstream, alternative, and non-market) and neoclassical economic theory as an analytic framework to introduce three additional forms of market failure – diseconomies of small scale, externalities, and excess demand and oversupply. This suggests market failure in the UK sub-prime consumer credit market is more comprehensive than previously recognised, increases the argument for government intervention and points to four policy responses – public subsidies, patient capital, regulation, and taxation – to complement and supplement market responses. Without support, not-for-profit sub-prime lenders, such as Community Development Finance Institutions, will continue in their struggle to survive, further exposing an already-vulnerable group of borrowers to even greater debt and associated worse health and wellbeing.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need for inclusive risk governance to address systemic risks that extend beyond health crisis to encompass broader societal, economic, and political dimensions. This article examines the evolution of risk governance in the United Kingdom and South Korea, exploring the intersectionality between state capacity, risk governance, and critical human security. It investigates how different institutional and policy frameworks and political choices influence the evolution of risk governance in two countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It found that both countries adaptively restructured their institutions and broadened the involvement of diverse stakeholders to address the systemic risk. However, significant challenges persisted in fully integrating diverse perspectives due to the limited capacity of coordination across different actors and scales of government within risk governance. This research calls for a rearticulation of risk governance frameworks that integrate human security and inclusive participation, particularly as risks become increasingly complex and intersect across multiple dimensions of daily life.

The underlying logics of how welfare states redistribute financial resources to their citizens have been studied intensively. Researchers have focussed on redistribution based on the principles of work, residency or taxpaying. However, family as a redistributive principle in its own right has never systematically been studied neither for a wide range of welfare regulations, nor for welfare benefits and obligations. Hence we do not know in how far the redistributive logics based on other redistributive principles are also found for the redistributive principle of the family. In this paper we address this question, using EUROMOD to analyse the degree of legally stipulated, family-related redistribution for forty-two hypothetical family forms. In our findings, all EU member-states show family-related redistribution in line with the ‘Robin Hood’ logic, with special redistribution to families with several children, single-earner families, and single parents.

Grandparent childcare is important to support parents’ work/care reconciliation. Research has begun to identify relationships between grandparent childcare patterns and policy settings. However, this work is disparate and focused on childcare policy, with little engagement with the broader range of policies that shape grandparent childcare. A holistic approach to understanding the relationship between policies and grandparent childcare is important to capture the intergenerational dynamics of family decisions about childcare and the complementarities (or not) of policies in different domains. This scoping review identifies policies that directly aim to shape grandparents’ involvement in childcare and that indirectly shape configurations of care. Most literature focuses on childcare and parental leave policies’ impact on parental demand for grandparent childcare. But a wider, intergenerational, policy lens reveals that policies (such as retirement income policies) affect parents’ demand for, and grandparents’ supply of childcare, and that policies in different domains are not always aligned.

Some leading UK politicians have claimed that a culture of welfare dependency exists and that a sizeable number of unemployed benefit claimants lack an appropriate commitment to employment. Such claims were used to justify the 2012 Welfare Reform Act’s new measures to steer unemployed claimants towards applying for and retaining jobs they might not want. The statistical analysis presented here is the first to explore possible connections between people’s attitudes towards disliked/unattractive jobs, their parents’ employment status, and the total time they have spent in unemployment. Logistic regression analysis used Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)/Next Steps data on people born in 1989/90 to predict whether they spent an unusually long time unemployed between age eighteen and twenty-five; an attitude favouring joblessness over a disliked/unattractive job was a nonsignificant predictor in eleven of twelve multivariate models, and a weak predictor (OR = 1.32) in the other.

The article investigates the role and challenges of digital technology adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic through a critical human security lens and comparative analysis between South Korea and the United Kingdom. The pandemic served as motivation for the adoption of digital technology among vulnerable groups, either forcing or encouraging the necessity and utilisation of these technologies. This contributes to enhancing human security, but the persistent exclusion of certain individuals indicates the need for additional attention and policies. The case of both countries highlights the disparities in technology use due to factors like digital literacy and information security concerns, emphasising that rapid technological adoption by governments does not guarantee an effective pandemic response. The study also examines the dual role of digital technologies in enhancing and compromising human security, illustrating the importance of a balanced approach to digitalisation that includes policy support for vulnerable groups and public endorsement of new technologies.

This research is focused on investigating the efficiency of Active Labor Market Policies (ALMP) expenditures of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries including institutional quality of governance. The emphasis is on the quality of governance that affects the supply and demand of employment and the ability of governments to master public spending. Using the general method of moments (GMM) for sixteen OECD countries over the 2005/2018 period, we show that Corruption Perception Index (CPI) reduced significantly the efficiency of ALMP on unemployment rate. This result is found consistent using another corruption proxy, Corruption Kaufmann Index (CKI). Moreover, our estimation suggest that the effectiveness of governance reinforces the effectiveness of ALMP.

This study explored the social policy context for international students in the UK and its implications for social exclusion (an inability to fully participate in society). Within a rapid review policy literature addressing international student experience, forty-two articles from the Web of Science and Social Science Research Network (SSRN) were selected through multiple screenings. Migration and education were the most explored policy areas, followed by inequalities, work, health and wellbeing, security, and housing. Results demonstrated that policy both creates barriers to inclusion (e.g. hostile environment migration/bordering practices) and supports inclusion/adaption to social exclusion-related challenges (e.g. sanctuary scholarships for forced migrants, Graduate visas). All international students to some degree lack equitable participation in wellbeing-relevant provision. Overall, policies are constructed so the state and universities can extract value from internationals without fully including them in British society. Policies abdicate responsibility for students’ inclusion, making it expensive and complicated to build a life there.

The global health crisis prompted Arabian Gulf states to implement extensive social protection measures to address public health and economic challenges. This study critically examines welfare reforms enacted by six Gulf countries – Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman – through the theoretical lenses of Welfare Regime Theory and Punctuated Equilibrium Theory. Initially, governments temporarily expanded exclusion-based welfare systems, primarily benefiting citizens, to support broader populations, including migrant workers. However, the long-term sustainability of these expansions remains uncertain. The findings suggest that although the crisis created a temporary policy window for welfare expansion, there was no fundamental reconfiguration of these exclusionary welfare regimes. This study enhances the understanding of the adaptability of Gulf welfare states during global crises and the potential for future policy shifts.

This study attempted to determine whether or not the educational curriculum is adjusted in state primary schools to meet the educational needs of Syrian refugee children, whether in-service training related to refugee children’s education was provided, and what the educational needs of refugee students were. The sample was composed of 294 primary school teachers and 372 Syrian refugee students in Türkiye. The data were analysed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24 and converted to percentage and frequency tables. The results indicated that the central curriculum and the teacher competencies were inadequate to meet the educational needs of the refugee children. It was also concluded that refugee students typically came from low socio-economic and educational backgrounds, however these students maintained a positive perspective toward education and were dedicated to fulfilling their student responsibilities such as attending school regularly and completing their homework. Some recommendations for future research and practices are presented.

In Canada in 2021, people with non-life-limiting health conditions and disabilities became eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAiD). New legislative safeguards include a ninety-day assessment period and a requirement that health professionals engage with the person requesting MAiD about ‘means available to relieve their suffering’ (MARS). Government communications about the MARS safeguards emphasise distinct policy objectives, that we illustrate by analysing two texts. We then report on an ongoing study with health professionals involved in MAiD. In interviews, participants described supporting patients to imagine possibilities for feeling differently, creatively devising interventions, and actively connecting patients with (and in some cases bringing about) services and resources. Drawing on literature on front-line policy making we show how discourses of expert communication, care, and advocacy animate a specific translation of the MARS safeguards, one that recognises social and relational as well as deliberative autonomy, and reflects a range of MAiD policy goals.

Current social assistance programmes in Canada and beyond have been criticised for normalising the dehumanisation of recipients through policy design and implementation. In this article we look at how exposure to a form of basic income through the Ontario Basic Income Pilot (OBIP) allowed recipients to imagine a different kind of support. We report on the findings from a study in OBIP from Hamilton, Canada, thematically analysing a subset of interviews with forty OBIP participants. We find that the higher levels of support, fewer behavioural conditions compared to social assistance, and reduced surveillance under OBIP-nurtured feelings of trust and confidence. Participants felt rehumanised as full members of society in reciprocal relationships with community and government that had been strained under previous forms of social assistance. We consider how the OBIP model provided a transformative framework for participants’ expectations for income support programmes and discuss implications for future research.

This article examines street-level bureaucrats’ positions between the institutional system and their clients with a forced migration background in their sensemaking of trust. Situated at the frontline of the institution, street-level bureaucrats are crucial agents for forced migrants settling in Nordic welfare states. Drawing on individual interviews with street-level bureaucrats in Finland and Sweden and theoretically leaning on street-level bureaucracy, positioning theory, and trust, this article explores how street-level bureaucrats navigate these encounters. By identifying five non-exclusionary ways in which street-level bureaucrats position themselves between the migrant client and the institutional system through their sensemaking of trust, I propose a typology of positions: resisting warrior, empathic carer, neutral mediator, pushing steerer, and critical questioner. Further, these positions reflect ambiguous narratives of being simultaneously an agent of the citizen and an agent of the state.

As pressures build, this study can serve as a guidepost for scholars and policymakers to learn from global trends in social inclusion and social inclusion policy. Our systematic review of global trends in social inclusion and social inclusion policy points to the general expansion and retrenchment of social inclusion policy amid increasing social exclusion associated with trends such as globalisation and neoliberalism. In the absence of recent, detailed case descriptions of social inclusion policy at the national level, we call for a renewed scholarly focus on case studies of social inclusion policy. We also discuss the likelihood that persistent climate change, migration, ageing populations, and technological innovations are poised to dramatically influence global social inclusion and suggest that future research should seek to understand the relationship between these developments and social inclusion. As we look to the future and the growing needs of excluded populations, we aim to use this study to learn from and build on these global trends to promote the inclusion of excluded groups around the world.

This article contributes to the growing research field investigating intensive intervention programmes aimed at families with complex needs, focusing on the experiences of long-term poor families in Norway. There is a growing public concern about social inequalities in Norway, especially regarding child poverty and the negative effects of social and economic exclusion. The innovation project New Patterns is a means to compensate for the present silo-organised social welfare system, opting to develop holistic services targeting poor families with diverse challenges. Based on interviews and observation, the article examines how parents experience being subjected to extensive but voluntary family intervention by a designated family coordinator. We analyse what forms of change they are identifying as happening after working with the family coordinator. We find that the changes they identify can be labelled both as small moments and turning points and argue that small moments can instigate decisive changes.

This paper investigates an encounter in a multilingual welfare setting where a child with migration experiences is the rights holder. The empirical basis is a story told by the interpreter Nour, about an encounter at a youth clinic. The analysis is guided by the concept of linguistic (in)justice. Findings show that linguistic injustices are a result of the reproduction of monolingual mindsets and linguistic paternalism in the intersection of layers of power asymmetries when welfare professionals do not let the child client talk, when adults talk on the child’s behalf, and the speakers give priority to the majority language on behalf of the language that the child speak. These findings suggest that professionals and policymakers must recognise the special conditions of a multilingual setting and children as a particular group of language rights holders.

Meeting social need is usually associated in social policy with the provision of benefits and public services, and the role of taxation often confined to an acknowledgement of its revenue-raising function for the purpose of funding them. Against a backdrop of multiple concurrent challenges shared by many high-income societies, including inadequate social care for an ageing population and unprecedented waiting lists for health care, the UK’s experience of the short-lived Health and Social Care Levy is used as a case study to reveal how the relationship between taxation and social need is complex, mediated by a range of factors, and how these contributed to its abolition. The article proposes five different relationships between taxation and social need evident in the story of the rise and fall of the Levy.

This study investigated the caregiving capacity of older Chinese carers and discussed whether the Chinese government needs to offer more support to them. In-depth interviews were conducted with forty older respondents aged sixty years or over caring for frail or sick family members. It was found that most respondents demonstrated firm traditional Chinese values by treating relatives bound by blood or marriage as family members and exhibiting a strong obligation towards them. However, the older carers bore a considerable burden and suffered from deteriorating physical and mental health. The Chinese government needs to introduce a nationwide policy for carers, defining its main support and providing clear guidelines for the local government to tackle the caregiving pressures of older carers. Moreover, the concept of ‘common prosperity’ can be adopted as an empowerment strategy by encouraging poor older carers to seek external support without feeling ashamed or dependent on others.

Reducing loneliness amongst older people is an international public health and policy priority, with signs of decreasing importance in the UK. A growing body of research on tackling loneliness indicates it is a complex challenge. Most interventions imply they address loneliness, when in fact they offer social connectedness to address social isolation and can inadvertently responsibilise the individual for the causes and solutions for loneliness. This article presents research that explored loneliness in an underprivileged community in South Wales through interviews and focus groups with nineteen older people and eighteen local service providers. Their perspective supports a growing body of evidence that loneliness amongst older people is driven by wider structural and socio-cultural exclusion. Interventions to build social connections will be more effective if coupled with policies that reverse the reduction in public services (including transport and healthcare), and challenge socio-cultural norms, including a culture of self-reliance and ageism.