Welfare spending
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance programs which provide support only to those who have previously contributed, as opposed to social assistance programs which provide support on the basis of need alone. The International Labour Organization defines social security as covering support for those in old age, support for the maintenance of children, medical treatment, parental and sick leave, unemployment and disability benefits, and support for sufferers of occupational injury.
More broadly, welfare may also encompass efforts to provide a basic level of well-being through subsidized social services such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, vocational training, and public housing. In a welfare state, the state assumes responsibility for the health, education, infrastructure and welfare of society, providing a range of social services such as those described.
Some historians view systems of codified almsgiving, like the zakat policy of the seventh century Rashidun caliph Umar, as early examples of universal government welfare. The first welfare state was Imperial Germany, where the Bismarck government introduced social security in 1889. In the early 20th century, the United Kingdom introduced social security around 1913, and adopted the welfare state with the National Insurance Act 1946, during the Attlee government. In the countries of western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, social welfare is mainly provided by the government out of the national tax revenues, and to a lesser extent by non-government organizations, and charities. A right to social security and an adequate standard of living is asserted in Articles 22 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
History
In the Roman Empire, the first emperor Augustus provided the Cura Annonae or grain dole for citizens who could not afford to buy food every month. Social welfare was enlarged by the Emperor Trajan. Trajan's program brought acclaim from many, including Pliny the Younger. Other provisions for the poor were introduced during the history of Ancient Rome, such as the Alimenta.The Song dynasty government supported multiple programs which could be classified as social welfare, including the state hospitals, low-interest loans for peasants, state orphanages, free pharmacies for the poor, filled state granaries, fire stations and libraries in the large cities, retirement homes, public clinics, and paupers' graveyards. According to economist Robert Henry Nelson, "the medieval Roman Catholic Church operated a far-reaching and comprehensive welfare system for the poor...". Ancient Greek city-states provided free medical services for the poor and slaves. From the 14th century onward, the governments of the Italian city-states began to partner with the church to provide welfare and education to the lower classes. In the 18th Century, according to one study, the Qing Dynasty had "the most elaborate relief system in world history, based on state and local granaries that were used in times of shortage to stabilize food prices and provide relief to the urban and rural poor." This system, however, was weakened after imperialism entered China following the 1840 Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion, which resulted in a crisis in the Qing Dynasty. Following the foundation of the Republic in 1912 and the following years of civil wars and warlordism, "the state granary system became almost non-existent."
Throughout the history of the Byzantine Empire, various social welfare services and institutions were established. Provision was also made for the State to provide food and clothing for children that parents were unable to bring up due to indigence.
In later Protestant European nations such as the Dutch Republic, welfare was managed by local guilds until the abolition of the guild system in the early 19th century. In the free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire, the city governments in cities like Nuremberg could take control of the collection and distribution of public welfare. In 1520, Martin Luther called for the abolition of begging and provisions for those in need. In 1523, following a request by the citizens of Leisnig, in Saxony, Luther devised a plan for a "Common Chest," under which "There shall be ordered for God's house and kept in place for all time, two casks or council chests in which bread, cheese, eggs, meat and other food and provisions shall be placed; and there shall also be a box or two wherein money may be put for the upkeep of the common chest."
Reflecting Luther's views, in 1522 the Wittenberg Church order set up a "common chest" for welfare work which provided various means of support for the poor. In France in 1536, as noted by one study, "Francis I ordered each parish to register its poor and provide for the impotent from contributed funds." Prior to this, systems of organized relief had been set up in Rouen, Lyons, and Paris. Also in regards to Europe, one historian has argued that "The Dutch were also renowned for their support of the virtuous poor and the young in need."
Various forms of social welfare were also established in the Inca Empire, the Aztec Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and in precolonial Africa.
The seventh century caliph Umar implemented a form of zakat, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, as a codified universal social security tax. Traditionally estimated at 2.5% of an individual's assets, government zakat funds were distributed to various groups of Muslims, including impoverished people and those in severe debt. The collection of zakat increased during the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, though the zakat system was frequently inefficient and corrupt; Islamic jurists often instructed Muslims to distribute money to the needy directly instead to maximize its impact.
Likewise, in Jewish tradition, charity is a matter of religious obligation rather than benevolence. Contemporary charity is regarded as a continuation of the Biblical Maaser Ani, or poor-tithe, as well as Biblical practices, such as permitting the poor to glean the corners of a field and harvest during the Shmita.
There is relatively little statistical data on transfer payments before the High Middle Ages. In the medieval period and until the Industrial Revolution, the function of welfare payments in Europe was achieved through private giving or charity, through numerous confraternities and activities of different religious orders. Early welfare programs in Europe included the English Poor Relief Act 1601, which gave parishes the responsibility for providing welfare payments to the poor. This system was substantially modified by the 19th-century Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which introduced the system of workhouses.
File:Vsi na ulice Protest v Ljubljani 3 12 12 SAM 1671.JPG|thumb|Anarchist protest against welfare cuts and austerity, Slovenia 2012
It was predominantly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that an organized system of state welfare provision was introduced in many countries. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, introduced one of the first welfare systems for the working classes. In Great Britain the Liberal government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and David Lloyd George introduced the National Insurance system in 1911, a system later expanded by Clement Attlee.
Modern welfare states include Germany, France, the Netherlands, as well as the Nordic countries, such as Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland which employ a system known as the Nordic model. Esping-Andersen classified the most developed welfare state systems into three categories; Social Democratic, Conservative, and Liberal.
A report published by the ILO in 2014 estimated only 27% of the world population has access to comprehensive social security. The World Bank's 2019 World Development Report argues that the traditional payroll-based model of many kinds of social insurance are "increasingly challenged by working arrangements outside standard employment contracts".
Forms
Welfare can take a variety of forms, such as monetary payments, subsidies and vouchers, or housing assistance. Welfare systems differ from country to country, but welfare is commonly provided to individuals who are unemployed, those with illness or disability, the elderly, those with dependent children, and veterans. Programs may have a variety of conditions for a person to receive welfare:- Social insurance, state-sponsored programs based partly on individual and employer contributions paid towards benefits such as healthcare, unemployment payments, and old-age pensions.
- Means-tested benefits, financial assistance provided for those who are unable to cover basic needs, such as food, clothing and housing, due to poverty or lack of income because of unemployment, sickness, disability, or caring for children. While assistance is often in the form of financial payments, those eligible for social welfare can usually access health and educational services free of charge. The amount of support is enough to cover basic needs and eligibility is often subject to a comprehensive and complex assessment of an applicant's social and financial situation. See also Income Support.
- Non-contributory benefits. Several countries have special schemes, administered with no requirement for contributions and no means test, for people in certain categories of need, such as veterans of armed forces, people with disabilities, and very old people.
- Discretionary benefits. Some schemes are based on the decision of an official, such as a social worker.
- Universal or categorical benefits, also known as demogrants. These are non-contributory benefits given for whole sections of the population without a means test, such as family allowances or the public pension in New Zealand. See also the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend.
- Welfare to work: This is when the government provides welfare benefits to the recipient while the recipient is required to take paid work or in some cases compulsory education. The idea is to assist welfare recipients in moving from government assistance to employment and achieving self-sufficiency.