Suchergebnisse

In 2001, George Bush repealed estate tax in America. This was a shock to many in the US as inherited privilege had never been popular in a country where individuals were supposed to secure the American Dream through their own efforts. The tax had existed for over a century and only 2 per cent of the richest Americans paid it. But the repeal lobby managed to build an unlikely and broad alliance against the 'Death Tax' (as they managed to rename it). The key to their campaign was a moral case against the tax, illustrated with a few well‐chosen narratives. The opposition fought back, ineffectively, with pragmatic arguments and statistics. This paper will apply lessons from America to the UK politics of taxation. It will focus on the role of lobby groups and the power of moral arguments and narrative evidence over more pragmatic arguments and 'scientific' forms of evidence.

Research Round-Up aims to highlight new research in the field of benefits, poverty, social exclusion and inequality. Regular contributions come from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) but we are keen to welcome contributions from anyone carrying out research in these areas.

Research Round-Up aims to highlight new research in the field of benefits, poverty, social exclusion and inequality. Regular contributions come from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), but we are keen to welcome contributions from anyone carrying out research in these areas. Alongside DWP and JRF in this issue we are highlighting research from the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and Political Science and also from Pete Dwyer at the University of Leeds.

Three research projects from the Department for Work and Pensions kick off this issue's research round-up. They aim to answer the following questions:

What makes for a good Housing Benefit manager?
How well did Jobcentre Plus deliver the New Tax Credits policy?
What can the UK learn from Australia about providing financial support for young people?

Following these reports we have four summaries of working papers from the University of Hull. These cover a range of issues of relevance to social security: the local impact of international migration; young parenthood; minority ethnic groups in rural labour markets; and 'race' and social research.

As usual, this issue's Research Round-up includes a wide variety of benefitsrelated issues: from the experience of people who are refused Community Care Grants to the experiences of young men who are familiar with longterm unemployment; and from using participatory approaches in research on poverty to whether or not people are choosing to invest in property for their retirement rather than pensions.