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This case study gives an example of a well‐established direct payments service, managed by Hampshire County Council in partnership with users of direct payments, carers and voluntary sector support agencies.

The article reports on research on the variable take‐up of direct payments. Direct payments offer huge potential for people with learning disabilities, but implementation has been patchy. Care managers are crucial to getting more people on to direct payments, but many feel ill‐equipped to help people take advantage of direct payments, and also doubt their usefulness, either to their clients or to the development of services. Creative solutions, such as an active peer‐support group and using circles of support or trusts, coupled with user‐friendly systems backed up with training and managerial support, can result in greater take‐up and more success stories.

Common Agriculture Police in the EU, direct payments, solvency and income

We employ agriculture data for all twenty-eight EU Member States. The data comes from the public Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the EU. In terms of methodology we employ panel regression and panel Vector Autoregression analysis (panel VAR) to take into account possible endogeneity issues.

The reported panel regressions, impulse response functions (IRFs) and variance decompositions (VDCs) show that agriculture income has been subdued due to negative shocks in direct payments and solvency. Our results do not support the hypothesis that higher direct payments would increase agriculture income. In addition, whilst solvency subdues agriculture income, investment asserts a positive impact on agriculture income.

Further research on the impact of direct payments of CAP on EU agriculture is warranted at a disaggregate level so as to examine whether there is variability in the underlying interlinkages at regional level

As a policy implication, and in light of the ongoing reform of the EU's CAP, we would propose to raise net value added in agriculture using targeted income support to small and medium-sized farms. The European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) would be also supportive. In addition, further enhancing financial integration across the EU would provide funds for investment in agriculture.

As social implication, one would propose to raise investment in agriculture, that is through the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP). The EERP is designed as a stimulus package set up to mitigate the consequences of the global financial crisis in the EU. Also, a way to boost agriculture income is through the credit channel of the on-going quantitative easing of the ECB, where unconventional monetary policy is aiming to support the growth prospect of the Euro area.

This study examines the impact of direct payments, which include all subsidies, of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) on agriculture income as measured by the net value added. We also control for solvency. Despite the magnitude of CAP on the EU budget, few studies investigate the impact of direct payments on income in the aftermath of the financial crisis. This is surprising given the importance of agriculture for the economic recovery of the EU that remains anaemic more than a decade after the crisis.

US decoupled direct payments, paid to farm operators based on historic yields and base acreage under the 2002 Farm Bill, may alter a farmer's access to credit or his ability to meet debt servicing obligations. More specifically, direct payments might improve the farmer's liquidity position or repayment capacity enabling the farmer to obtain more favorable credit terms. In turn, more favorable credit terms might allow a farm to remain in business or expand production, leading to current production distortions. Since direct payments are based on historic production, beginning farmers tend to receive lower levels of direct payments and hence these payments might impact beginning farmers differently than more experienced farmers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of direct payments on liquidity and repayment capacity for experienced and beginning farmers.

Given the manner in which direct payments are calculated and administered, it is likely that direct payments affect beginning farmers and more experienced farmers differently; hence the authors analyze the impacts of direct payments on the current and term debt coverage ratios for these two groups separately. In the analysis, the authors control for farm financial characteristics, farm operator characteristics, and other factors. Data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) for the years 2005, 2006, and 2007 were used in the weighted regression analysis and jackknifed standard errors computed.

A positive significant relationship was found between the level of direct payments (in dollars) and the term debt coverage ratio for experienced farmers, suggesting that direct payments improve repayment capacity. However, this relationship is not significant for beginning farmers. Also, a negative significant relationship was found between the number of base acres and the current ratio for experienced farmers, while this relationship lacks significance for beginning farmers.

The paper provides evidence that decoupled direct payments impact a farmer's liquidity and repayment capacity. Furthermore, direct payments impact beginning and experienced farmers differently. This paper also contributes to the growing body of research investigating the mechanisms by which decoupled payments have the potential to distort current production.

This paper presents the findings from an evaluation of a direct payment pilot project for parents of disabled children in Staffordshire. The study found that, for a variety of reasons, parents accessing direct payments did not report any greater benefits than those using traditional services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of direct government payments on agricultural production and exports in the USA.

Alternative regression models are estimated using the time‐series data of 1960 to 2010 from ERS/USDA to address the research questions.

Regression results suggest that current direct government payments had negative influences on US agricultural production and exports, and the lagged influences were positive, but as a whole the impacts of direct government payments were very limited.

Findings from this study provide useful information to agricultural policymakers in the USA, as well as other nations such as China. China may learn from the US experience in developing agricultural subsidies that are effective and allowed under WTO.

While many agricultural trade disputes under WTO are related to the question of whether domestic government supports have boosted agricultural production and exports or reduced imports, this paper addresses the question based on empirical analysis.

The legal column looks at the new duty to make direct payments and the associated regulations and guidance, and considers the implications in relation to Best Value, mental capacity and employer's liability.

An independent disability equality consultant examines the wider context in which the innovative Wiltshire user‐controlled Best Value review of direct payments should be perceived, and directly challenges some current policy and practice.