Social security for the unemployed was not designed to cope either with large-scale or long-term unemployment and recent developments in the structure of unemployment and in social security policy give rise to concern for the living standards of the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed. This article draws on data from the Family Finances Survey to assess the living standards of the unemployed after various durations of unemployment and compare these with the living standards of families with low incomes from work. The measures of living standards used are income, expenditure and the availability of consumer durables. The implications of the findings for social security policy are discussed.

It is commonly argued that council housing in Britain is becoming a residual service. This paper explores the various dimensions of residualization such as the size of the council house sector, the quality of the service, the characteristics of tenants and the nature of the stock. Whilst changes in these areas are significant it is suggested that we must look beyond housing processes to fully understand the downgrading of council housing. Specifically it is argued that explanations must take account of questions of economic and political powerlessness, the marginalization of certain sections of the working class from the labour market and the uneven impact of the recession.

The social policy of the Thatcher government is characterized by an abrupt shift in the direction of the private sector. To what extent does this reflect what people want? The Institute of Economic Affairs conclude from the only suitable national opinion survey that such a move is strongly supported. Our reanalysis of their data shows that this strand in public opinion can coexist with, and need not contradict, an equal public enthusiasm for state welfare. Such results have important implications for our understanding of social policy. We conclude, therefore, with a discussion of contrasting marxist and liberal accounts which seeks to show that the evidence of ambivalence in popular attitudes about the welfare state supports particular developments in theory.

The academic study of social policies has long been characterized by sympathetic reception of descriptions of social policies which are the outcome of methods of analysis developed in the academic study of history, sociology, economics, philosophy, and so on. However, cosy as such sympathy may be, it is time to move on. We may all agree that each of these methods of analysis, and others, separately or in combination, has something to offer; it is remarkably difficult to say precisely what. Studies of the study of social policies are too rare. Culyer has offered an account of what the methods of economic analysis do and might further yield (1981). Here I discuss what might be expected from philosophical analysis. I describe the two main contending conceptions of philosophical analysis in the Western tradition, drawing out their implications for the relation between philosophical analysis and the study of social policies. The importance of such analysis of what may be called ‘the conceptual aspect’ of social policies is illustrated by reference to recent discussion of the welfare state and of social need.