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This chapter considers how far political devolution has enabled the government in Wales to develop a distinctive approach to student funding. It examines in particular claims that policy choices in Wales on student funding reflect a commitment to ‘progressive universalism’, a term sometimes used by policy-makers in Wales and elsewhere to describe combining means-tested and non-means-tested benefits. The chapter also explores the growing use of income-contingent loans, arguing that such loans complicate debates about targeting and universalism.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss trends in demographic ageing in West Africa and asks the question of what policy challenges are posed by the increasing presence of older persons in the subregion. We explore the unique dimensions of population ageing in the subregion, including its rural‐urban and gendered distributions, the occupational history of older persons, among others with the view to identifying the health, housing, and income security implications of ageing. The paper discovers and reviews what policy initiatives are being pursued in respect of older persons and suggests ways for their improvement.

The paper draws on the existing literature on ageing and policy in both published and grey sources, including national and international policy documents. The discussion looks at policy responses in Ghana as a case example for the West African context. Policy information pertaining to Ghana is interpreted in light of the first author's personal familiarity with the context as a national of that country. The age of adults in this context is hard to determine due to low birth registration. In this paper older persons are defined as those 60 plus in chronological years, the age of retirement in Ghana.

It is established that older persons are concentrated in the rural areas of West Africa and a higher proportion of this demographic group is female. Further, the majority of older persons in West Africa has low formal literacy, is in the informal economy, and has no income security in old age. Yet, older persons continue to play the significant role of grandparenting. This examination of Ghana's policy on ageing revealed inadequacies which need to be addressed. A key recommendation is a policy of universal non‐means‐tested old age security to provide basic income for persons aged 60 years and above.

A recommended policy of universal non‐means‐tested old age security to provide basic income for persons aged 60 years and above in Ghana is the original contribution of this paper.

Whether welfare provision should be broad-based or selectively targeted at the poor is one of the most common themes in social policy discourse. However, empirical evidence concerning people's preferences about these distributive justice principles is very limited. The current paper aims to bridge this gap, by analyzing Europeans' opinions about a hypothetical transformation of the welfare state that would provide social transfers and services only to people on low incomes.

The analysis draws on data from the 2016 European Social Survey and covers 21 countries. In order to understand what would motivate people to support the complete means testing of welfare provision, we use multilevel models with individual-level and contextual predictors.

The results show that the upper and middle classes are the most opposed to the idea, presumably as they would be the net losers from such a reform. Furthermore, our results indicate that more-egalitarian people show a higher level of support for means testing, even though the political left has traditionally promoted universalism. Some key characteristics of the welfare state also matter: People are more likely to endorse complete means testing in countries with less-generous provision and a higher incidence of poverty. However, the extent to which the existing welfare state relies on means testing has no influence on people's opinions about implementing a fully means-tested welfare model.

Some of the key findings are likely to be of interest to activists advocating on behalf of the poor and the socially vulnerable. Although it is generally assumed that universal provision is the best strategy to address the needs of disadvantaged people, our results suggest that from an electoral point of view, targeting within universalism may be a more appealing welfare strategy.

This paper details one of the very few studies to examine preferences for means-tested welfare provision in a comparative context. In addition, one of the contextual variables used in the analysis – the proportion of means-tested social benefits out of the total expenditure on social benefits – is unique to this study.

Could an alternative system of income maintenance overcome the existing inequitable and inefficient situation, which effectively limits women′s options in the labour market in The Netherlands? This question is approached by describing an alternative system of income maintenance in the form of a negative income tax. Both prospects and limitations of a negative income tax system for Dutch society, from the point of view of this society in general and from an emancipatory point of view in particular, are explored.

In the social policy literature, it is often assumed that universal policies are more popular than selective ones among the public, because they supposedly generate broader self-interested coalitions and are considered morally superior. The present article revisits and challenges this assumption.

The article critically reviews the existing empirical literature on public support for universal and means-tested welfare schemes.

The main conclusion is that the popularity of universal vis-à-vis selective welfare remains very much an open question. First, the studies that are typically cited to support the claim that universalism is indeed more popular are inconclusive because they conflate the institutional design of welfare programs with their respective target groups. Second, there is considerable variation in public support for universal and selective welfare across countries, time and policy domains.

The findings suggest that future research should focus on scrutinizing under which circumstances – when, where and why – universal social policies are more popular than selective ones.

The article makes an original case for considering perceived welfare deservingness of social policies' target groups alongside the policy design when studying popular support for differently targeted welfare schemes.

Provides a framework for analysing the financing of state pensions with a wide range of policy options. Special attention is given, however, to two special cases: the first involves a means‐tested pension similar to the Australian scheme, while the second is similar to the basic pension (the first tier) in the UK. Emphasis is given to the implications of population ageing for pension finance in each scheme; a range of policies can be considered using specially designed computer programs.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the main elements of the existing framework of the UK welfare benefit system and the key changes that will be implemented under the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and its socio‐economic effects.

This paper outlines the structure of the key welfare benefits likely to be encountered by those with a neurological disability, the broad qualifying criteria and the interaction between various types of benefit. By comparison, it examines the elements of key significance that will take effect under Welfare Reform and the resulting impact on the various demographics of benefit claimants.

Since the merging of the UK's social security system with unemployment services, welfare legislation has seen countless changes, although the core underlying principles have remained largely the same along the way. The Government has committed to overhauling a complex benefit regime whilst counterbalancing the task of addressing the issues of budget deficit. In principle, the Government aims to deliver a more streamlined, cost‐effective benefit system, which will focus the greatest attention on the most vulnerable elements of our society. The most detrimental affect will be on unemployed, working‐age families; those that are perceived to have a greater advantage in the labour market.

The objective of this paper to raise awareness amongst professionals as to the benefits available to their clients to improve their financial and social position and to go some way to prepare for the potential impact of Welfare Reform.

The United States adopted a new welfare regime in 1996. The centerpiece of this legislation is a notion of personal responsibility that redefines the relation between individuals and the state. I use this law as a foil to outline a new paradigm of legal research. We must understand welfare, I argue, as part of a self-referential legal system. Law is legitimated by particular kinds of fair, democratic political agreement. When material inequalities undermine political participation, however, the law must insure the bases of its own legitimacy through welfare. Welfare law is thus vital to a nation’s legal system as a whole. Seen from this perspective, the current American welfare system fails to fulfill the basic presuppositions of legal legitimacy.

Income in later life is an important factor in ensuring good health, quality of life, social engagement and subjective well‐being, yet it is now well known that women in later life are much poorer than men. In this article, data from the General Household Surveys 2001 and 2002 is used to show that this is largely the result of women's individual, and hidden, poverty within marriage. Dependency on men for income during the working life combines with the structure of the UK system to leave married men and married women with very unequal incomes after retirement. The median income of married and cohabiting women was only £53 per week, compared with men's £172; only 27% of married women had any private pension provision at all, compared with 75% of married men. Even among this 27% of women, half receive less than £35 a week from their pensions. Apart from the implications of this for potentially unequal access to money when cohabiting, the vast majority of women live alone for at least part of their retirement. When women become divorcees or widows, they cannot make up for lost income from their partners. Widows are thus relatively poor when compared with older women who have never married, but divorced women are on average the poorest of all. Social policies improving basic pension provision to all women in later life are urgently needed.