Jonathan Bradshaw - Children and Social Security

CHILDREN AND SOCIAL SECURITY

International Studies on Social Security

Volume 8

Edited by
Jonathan Bradshaw
University of York, UK

First published 2003 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2002018641

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-72228-6 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-19367-0 (ebk)

Laura Adelman
Loughborough University, UK

James Banks
Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK

Tobias Bauer
Bureau for Studies in Labour and Social Policy, Switzerland

Steen Bengtsson
University of Roskilde, Denmark

Anne Benson
US Office of Child Support Enforcement, USA

Jonathan Bradshaw
University of York, UK

Mike Brewer
Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK

Bea Cantillon
University of Antwerp and Centre for Social Policy, Belgium

Sheldon Danziger
University of Michigan, USA

Bjrn Gustafsson
University of Gteborg and Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, Sweden

Mats Johansson
Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, Sweden

Michael Mendelson
Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Ottawa, Canada

Nina Middelboe
University of Odense, Denmark

Sue Middleton
Loughborough University, UK

Karin Mller Kucera
Service de Recherche en Education, Switzerland

Edward Palmer
University of Uppsla and National Insurance Board, Stockholm, Sweden

Hester Rossouw
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Peter Scherer
OECD

Robert Stephens
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Rudi Van Dam
University of Antwerp, Belgium

Karel Van Den Bosch
University of Antwerp, Belgium

Bart Van Hoorebeeck
University of Antwerp, Belgium

Jan Vorster
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Martin Werding
Ifo Institute of Economic Research, Germany

Jonathan Bradshaw

In recent years there has been growing anxiety from national governments, but more especially from some international bodies, about the consequences of social and economic change for children in industrial countries.

It was in this context that the Foundation for International Studies in Social Security chose Children and Social Security as the theme of its conference held in June 2001.

The proceedings of previous FISS conferences have been published as follows:

The first volume was based on papers presented at a FISS conference in Rotterdam in 1992, All the other volumes are based on a selection of papers presented at the small annual international conference in Sigtuna - the Sigtuna seminars. They bring together scholars from all over the world, though predominantly from Europe, Asia and North America to present and discuss findings on economic, legal and social aspects of social security and its relationships with other aspects of society.

FISS would like to thank the members of the Editorial Board; Jennifer Shervington in Birmingham for her work in administering the seminar; sa Almerud, Emese Pallagi Mayhew at the University of York for proof reading the chapters for this collection; and Sally Pulleyn in the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York for preparing the manuscript for printing.

The 2001 Sigtuna seminar was the last to be organised by our joint General Secretary and founder, Han Emanuel, and we all owe him a terrific debt of gratitude for the work he has undertaken in establishing FISS and organising these occasions.

Jonathan Bradshaw

Concerned about the impact of social and economic change on children in richer countries UNICEF, for the first time in its history, launched a study of the well-being of children in industrialised countries (Cornia and Danziger, 1996). It has since begun to publish a Report Card series, the first devoted to Child Poverty in Rich Nations (UNICEF 2000), based largely on the analysis of the Luxembourg Income Survey by Bradbury and Jantti (1999). In the European Union the European Community Household Panel Survey has been used to monitor the well-being of children (Eurostat, 1999) and this effort has been redoubled since the Lisbon Summit, and continuing with the Nice Summit, Member States are now required to develop priorities for the combating of poverty and social exclusion. Under the Belgian Presidency Atkinson et al. (2001) have established a set of Indicators of Social Inclusion which will be used in future within the EU. Even OECD have recently applied their minds to comparisons of child poverty in a selection of member countries (Oxley, 2001). From this interest and activity has emerged a body of good international comparative research on child poverty (see for example Gordon and Townsend, 2000; Bradbury, Jenkins and Micklewright, 2001; Vleminckz and Smeeding, 2001).