Abstract
This chapter argues that aggregate expenditure is an imprecise measure of social security; it also argues that, suitably decomposed, it can be analysed to discern patterns and direction of welfare state change. The chapter sets out an arithmetical framework to analyse expenditure and then applies it to the major areas of Irish social security spending, such as pensions, Child Benefit and disability-related payments. The results show evidence of cost containment in the 1980s and outright retrenchment from 2008 to 2016. The analysis records trends in replacement rates and the value of benefits and reveals strikingly cyclical patterns of change.
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- 1.
Published data on lone parenthood needs to be treated with caution, because of differences in definition and measurement across various data sources. For example, the censuses prior to 2006 significantly undercounted lone parent families because of the method of identifying family units in the census instrument (McCashin 1993). The 2006 census altered the way in which family units were identified and this gave rise to an overestimate of the change in the numbers of lone parent families between the 2006 and 2002 censuses.
- 2.
The data do not allow an exact distinction between the absence from work and disability categories. Payments to carers and the disablement pensions are identified separately, but the Disability Allowance beneficiaries include some employees absent from work when ill, but whose social insurance profile does not entitle them to receive the insurance based Illness Benefit or Invalidity Pension. This leads to an over statement of the numbers in this long-term disability sub-category. It should also be noted that the data on the Domiciliary Care Allowance is not included, as the annual data series only commences in 2009.
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McCashin, A. (2019). Social Security: Expenditure and Benefits. In: Continuity and Change in the Welfare State. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96779-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96779-0_5
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