Social Inequality Flashcards
Relative Poverty
When people cannot afford to meet the general standard of most people in their society. Examples include people on benefits.
- Living on the breadline
- Can afford basics but no luxuries
Subjective Poverty
Whether or not a person feels poor by their own standards - not necessarily seen poor by the rest of society.
Environmental Poverty
When your local area impacts your quality of life in terms of access to services like education, healthcare etc. Examples include poorer schools in certain boroughs (Newham).
Welfare State
A system in which the state takes responsibility for protecting the health and welfare of its citizens, whilst meeting their social needs.
Organised through taxation and state benefits.
- Free schooling
- State benefits
- National Health Service (NHS)
- Council Housing
Established by Labour in 1945.
Universalism
When welfare benefits are availed to all, regardless of their wealth and income.
Poor Law
16th Century
- Parishes and rate payers would care for the sick, disabled and elderly by providing them with work.
New Poor Law
- Introduced during the Industrial Revolution
- Workhouses created with poor conditions for poor to work and earn their living (employers assumed they were lazy and could get work elsewhere if they wanted to).
Old Age Pensions Act (1908)
Excluded criminals, people who had not worked continuously or could support themselves.
National Insurance Act (1911)
Workers, employers and government made to pay contributions into a fund which workers could use to support themselves if sick or unemployed.
Dole (1920)
Means tested benefit to support unemployed people whose insurance had run out. Only handed to people with no savings or income - children considered liable for their elderly parents.
Criticisms of Welfare State
Too expensive - especially with longer life expectancy so benefit cuts in some areas, e.g. healthcare (NHS costs £100 billion a year).
Welfare ‘scroungers’ get away with lying about their situation and take up tax payers money.
Encourages development of a dependency culture.
Income Support
State benefit for people (over 25) with low incomes:
- eligible to approx £60 a week
- can claim child tax credits
Maternity Allowance
Only applies to women not eligible for Maternity Leave (must have worked 6 months for this) - entitled to weekly payments which work out less than employers would pay.
Bereavement Benefits Allowance
Claimed 52 week from death of partner - must be married or in a civil partnership to claim and over 45.
Child Maintenance
Financial support towards a child’s everyday living costs to the primary carer after divorce. Either deducted from partner’s wages or payed by government.
Housing Benefit
Means-tested benefit for people on low incomes which helps them pay their rent - cannot be used to buy a house.
Means Tested Benefits
Benefit gives based on circumstances of individual
- considers their capital, i.e. savings, investments and property
Deprivation
Damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in society.
Reasons pension age has increased
- Ageing population
- Longer life expectancy
- Economic recession
Absolute Poverty
When income is insufficient to provide the minimum needed to survive, i.e. food, clothes. Examples include homeless and people in the poor world.
Privatisation of NHS
Privatisation involves selling state owned assets to the private sector.
Advantage(s)
- Improves efficiency (pressure from stakeholders to make profit)
- Less political influence (so decisions made for long term - not just next election)
Disadvantage(s)
- Seek to achieve short term profits not long terms projects
- Quality of service declines with businesses motivated by profits
Culture of Poverty
Immediate Gratification
Fatalism
Poverty Cycle/Trap
Social Exclusion
When certain groups of people are marginalised by being made to feel like they do not belong in society.
Stratification
When society is divided into different groups (stratas) based on shared characteristic traits. There is a hierarchy within these groups:
- Age
- Social class
- Ethnicity
- Gender
Benefits of Welfare State
- Prevents absolute poverty
- Keeps money in circulation (benefits are spent)
- Lowers crime rates
- Supports people to find work
Social Mobility
Refers to people moving up or down society’s hierarchy (between classes in UK). Measures how meritocratic a society is by showing whether success is based on achievement or ascription.
Intragenerational Social Mobility
Movement of an individual over the course their life, from one occupation to another, e.g. through promotions.
Intergenerational Social Mobility
Movement between generations of a family - children enter different occupations to their families.
Long Range Social Mobility
Moving from high to low status, or vice versa.
Short Range Social Mobility
Moving between jobs from skilled to unskilled, or vice versa.
Self-recruitment
When children remain in the same social class as their parents.
Reasons for social mobility
- Education
- Marriage
- Windfalls, e.g. winning the lottery or inheritance
Ways the gap between rich and poor is growing
- Benefits cuts and lower taxes on high earners
- Numerical System Education
- Increased tuition fees (£3,000 to £9,000)
Government Policies to reduce gap between rich and poor
- Pupil Premium (2011)
- EBacc (2010)
- Aim Higher (2004)
- EMA
- Improving access to education in later life - part time students entitled to loans on same basis as full time students
Functionalist View Stratification
Top professions:
- are vital for society to function (not everyone can do them)
- must be desirable (require lengthy education and training)
- are meritocratic
Marx and Weber View on Stratification
- conflict between classes
- ownership vs non ownership
- Bourgeoisie exploit Proletariat
- Unequal life chances (not meritocratic )
- minority will be overthrown (revolution)
Life chances
Opportunities we have available to better our lives in terms of:
- Education
- Health
- Housing/Area
- Income
Social Class (LC)
- Kings Fund found that middle class are healthier because they eat healthy, exercise and avoid drinking and smoking.
- Material Deprivation
- Berstein’s Language Codes
- Three quarters of top judges were privately educated (Guardian)
Disabled (LC)
- Paralympics and Steven Hawkings ‘Theory of Everything’
- Portrayed as ‘benefit scroungers’ in media
- British Social Attitudes Survey shows society has changed bu prejudice still exists, even if unintentional
Age (LC)
- Over 6 million people aged over 65 have never used the internet so tend to be pushed out of jobs
- Have low incomes (state pension) so have a poor standard of living - 75,000 elderly people choose between food and heating (Guardian)
- 1 in 10 young people suffer mental health issues (Young Minds)
- Minimum wage is lower for those under 21
Gender (LC)
- Glass ceiling created by patriarchal society, where women have few role models - only 30% of MPs are female
- Men hold 78% of top managerial positions, with women having the few remaining
- Criticisms of Symmetrical Families (women have double/triple burden)
Ethnicity (LC)
- Never been a black prime minister
- Afro-Caribbean children are three time more likely to be excluded and half of all people unemployed were black in 2012
- Only 6.7% of Head Teachers are ethnic minority (Guardian)
- Bhatti (1999)
Asylum Seekers
A person who has left their home country as a political refugee and is seeking asylum in another.
Glass ceiling
An unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities.
Social Security
Monetary assistance from the state for people with an inadequate or no income.
Socio-economic class
Social position of an individual or group, often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation.
