ABSTRACT
Welfare provision is about catering for certain basic needs, and minimally ensuring survival, and so raises questions about acceptable minimum standards of living. However, it is also about identifying those groups whose needs should be met and it is this question of ‘inclusion’ or ‘membership’ which will be the main concern of this chapter. We will be asking you to consider the position of certain key groups in our society in terms of the claim they can make on public funds, and also to address political debates about the moral foundation for their claims. Can the long-term unemployed, single mothers and migrant groups reasonably expect the welfare state to meet their most basic needs or are they to be excluded from the collective community of mutual responsibility?
