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Criteria for Welfare: Needs or Earnings?
Author(s) -
Henderson Ronald F.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1977.tb00591.x
Subject(s) - earnings , commission , welfare , poverty , payment , compensation (psychology) , project commissioning , publishing , economics , business , actuarial science , labour economics , demographic economics , public economics , accounting , finance , economic growth , political science , law , psychology , psychoanalysis , market economy
The Report of the Poverty Commission followed Australian practice and recommended that payments to pensioners and beneficiaries be based on their needs. Two other recent reports, the Woodhouse Report on compensation for accidents and sickness, and the Hancock Report on National Superannuation, suggest an entirely different set of criteria—earnings and earnings‐related contributions. It is argued that the latter proposals would discriminate inequitably between different groups of beneficiaries and that Australia should continue on a needs basis moving forward to a guaranteed minimum income scheme.