Understanding the finance of welfare : what welfare costs and how to pay for it / Howard Glennerster.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-236) and index.

one Meeting basic human needs 1
Summary
1
Basic human need
2
Someone has to pay
5
Need and the life cycle
6
The market as need provider
7
The distinction between finance and provision
7
The social division of welfare
10
Choice and agency
11
Overview
14
Questions for discussion
15
Further reading
15
two Market failure and government failure 17
Summary
17
Why markets work �� sometimes
18
Market failure
20
Government failure
28
Privatisation and quasi-markets
33
The voluntary sector and mutuality
34
Overview
36
Questions for discussion
36
Further reading
36
three How to pay for social programmes? The tax constraint 37
Summary
37
Consent
38
Improving the popularity of taxes
42
Equity
46
Efficiency
47
Overview
54
Questions for discussion
55
Further reading
55
four Financing healthcare 57
Summary
57
The cost of healthcare
58
Where the money comes from
63
How the NHS funds are allocated
63
Raising the money: alternative ways
69
Improving choice and efficiency
74
Overview
78
Questions for discussion
78
Further reading
78
five Financing social care 81
Summary
81
The cost of social care
82
How social care funds are allocated
87
Improving choice and efficiency
92
The funding and organisation of long-term care in the UK
95
Funding long-term care in other countries
101
Overview
106
Questions for discussion
106
Further reading
107
six Financing education 109
Summary
109
What is education?
110
The cost of education
111
How education funds are allocated
114
Improving choice and efficiency
124
The finance of education in other countries
128
Overview
133
Questions for discussion
134
Further reading
134
seven Financing income security 135
Summary
135
The state's role: income replacement or poverty relief?
137
The case for insurance markets
138
The cost of income maintenance
138
How social security funds are allocated in the UK
142
Improving choice and efficiency
145
Reforming UK pensions
151
International pension models
154
Overview
161
Questions for discussion
161
Further reading
162
eight Financing housing 163
Summary
163
Housing policy evolves
164
From producer subsidies to consumer subsidies
166
Rent control and regulation
166
A subsidy to the rich
167
The costs of housing
169
The organisation of state finance
172
Improving choice and efficiency
177
The finance of housing in other countries
181
Overview
183
Questions for discussion
184
Further reading
184
nine Rationing scarce resources: managing rising expectations 185
Summary
185
Rationing
186
Containing public expenditure
190
Treasury control
191
Comprehensive plans
193
Self-imposed prudence?
195
A more proactive role for the Treasury
195
Territorial rationing
196
The place of local authority spending
198
The Private Finance Initiative
201
The 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review and the next
202
Overview
203
Questions for discussion
204
Further reading
204
ten Do welfare states have a future? 205
Summary
205
A fiscal crisis averted or to come?
206
Growing demographic pressure
208
Slimming costs?
211
Raising more revenue
212
Overview
215
Questions for discussion
216
Further reading
216

"Much has happened to the funding of social policy and the economy since the first edition of this book, especially in pensions and social care. In response, much of the book has been revised and all the figures and tables have been updated." "Understanding the Finance of Welfare has been designed to fit the needs of social policy student syllabuses where it has become an essential text. It is also important to students of public policy and economics and those training as teachers, medical students and social workers. But it will also be of interest to the general public because there is no more important political topic today than how social services are funded."--Jacket