Timeline Of Social Policy - Family Flashcards
Describe the divorce act?
The divorce act (1969) allowed a divorce to be granted when no partners are “at fault”. They only needed to prove that the marriage has irreversibly broken down.
The limit of the policy is that if only one partner wants a divorce, the partner will have to wait five years before filing one if they cant prove the other partner is “at fault”. This was changed in 1984 when another divorce policy was put in place.
What is the employment protection act?
The employment protection act (1975) introduced maternity leave. This policy is limiting as only half of women qualify, due to long qualifying periods of employment.
When was the Paternity act and what did it do?
Paternity act (2010) extended the pay leave fathers where entitled to from earlier acts in 2003.
What policies enabled gay marriage and unions?
The civil partnerships act (2004) gave gay couples the rights and responsibilities, similar to those in a civil marriage. This gave gay couples same property rights, the same exemptions on inheritance tax, social security and pension benefits. Also gave parental responsibility for partners children.
The Marriage act (2013) allowed gay couples to get marriages and convert civil partnerships to marriages.
What is the Adoption act?
Adoption act (2002) caused the law on adoption to change, giving unmarried couples, including gay couples, the right to adopt on the same basis as married couples.
What policy gave out child benefits?
The Child Benefit Bill (1975) introduced for the first time a universal payment, paid for each child. The rate payable was £1/week for the first and £1.50 for each subsequent child. An additional 50p was payable to lone-parent families.
Child Benefits increased (1998) in line with inflation, until 1998, when the new Labour government increased the first child rate by more than 20%, and abolished the Lone Parent rate. Rates increased again in line with inflation until 2010, since which time they have been frozen.
Effective from 7 January 2013, Child Benefit became means tested – those earning more than £50,000 per year would have part of their benefit withdrawn, and if earning over £60,000, would receive nothing at all.
