ALT Image shows page of text on a European Court of Human Rights case on the benefit cap for lone parents

ALT image shows first page of case law digest by Elliot Kent

ALT image shows the first page of a book review of 'key ideas in law: the concept of fairness'

ALT image shows the first page of a book review of 'language and justice: communication in legal practice'

ALT image shows the first page of an article by Tom Mullen and others on 'social security tribunals in the era of devolution'

ALT image shows the first page of an article by Ruth Friskney and others on 'the importance of assistance for disability benefits claiming: administrative burden, bureaucratic rationality and the false promise of equality'

ALT image shows first page of the 'News' section by Jed Meers, with the first article on the Timms review evidence and engagement programme

ALT Image shows the first page of the editorial, titled 'justice and fairness in social security? the removal of the 2 child limit'.

ALT Image shows the cover of the Journal of Social Security Law 2026, issue 2

ALT Abstract: This article is an edited version of an invited presentation to a round table in Belfast organised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2025. The subject of the round table was what can be learned from wider experience in response to the anti-poverty strategy that was published by the Northern Ireland Executive. The presentation concerned the work of the UK task force on child poverty which had not reported at the time of writing

ALT Abstract reads: Abstract The Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment (ADP) published in July 2025, followed over a year of engagement with disabled people in Scotland.1 Its publication marks a pivotal moment in Scotland’s journey toward a more inclusive and rights-based social security system. As Scotland continues to diverge from the UK’s reserved welfare framework, this review offers a blueprint for reforming disability support with a focus on fairness, transparency, and empowerment. This article explores the fiscal, legal, and economic implications of the review, analysing its recommendations and their potential impact on public finances, legal frameworks, and the UK’s broader socioeconomic landscape. It is important to note that none, some or all review’s recommendations may be implemented, and The Scottish Government published its response to the review on 19 February 2026.

ALT Abtract reads: This article provides the first empirical study of the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions’ Targeted Case Review (TCR) scheme—a fraud and error reduction programme to which millions of Universal Credit claimants will be subjected in the coming years. It traces the rapid expansion of the scheme since 2022 and maps out the law and administrative procedures of TCRs. Drawing on 22 original qualitative interviews with Universal Credit claimants who have undergone a TCR, the article further identifies emerging themes from claimant experiences of these new procedures. The account developed raises significant questions about how fair process can be maintained in the TCR scheme, particularly in a global context where similar programmes have led to systemic failures of administrative justice.

ALT Intro para reads: DWP-commissioned research into the behavioural impact of the penalties regime for benefit fraud and error has found that the threat of penalties had a 'limited' deterrent effect on those interviewed, with participants reporting low levels of awareness of the regime before receiving a penalty. The qualitative study, conducted by Verian Group Ltd between January and April 2025, involved 48 in-depth interviews with individuals who had received one of three types of penalty: a £50 Civil Penalty for error, an Administrative Penalty, or prosecution resulting in conviction.

ALT Introduction para reads: The year just ended marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), a registered charity with an annual budget (for 2024–25) of £5.5m1 which, as most readers will need no reminding, is Britain’s leading campaigning and support organisation for the welfare rights of the most economically disadvantaged families, especially those who are dependent on support from the state via the benefits system. CPAG’s proud history is well documented and several accounts highlight its advocacy on behalf of the poor not merely in the public policy arena but also in the courts and tribunals. As Lord Brown noted in the UK Supreme Court in CPAG v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, CPAG is “an organisation with a long history of bringing legal test cases on behalf of social security claimants”.

ALT Cover image of JSSL 2026 (1)

ALT image shows first page of the JSSL case law digest, beginning with the case of Fanning and Fanning v SSWP and the Scottish Ministers [2025]

ALT image shows the first page of the legislation digest by Elliot Kent, starting with the Universal Credit Act 2025

ALT image shows the first page of a book review by Michael Adler of the Research Handbook on European Social Security Law, 2nd edition, edited by Frans Pennings and Gijsbert Vonk

ALT image shows the abstract from an article by Lisa Scullion and colleagues on 'Complexity, duplication and mistrust: multi-stakeholder perspectives on benefits assessments for veterans

ALT image of the first paragraph of Philip Larkin's article on the limits of the legislative responsibilisation process: young citizens and reforms to UK disability benefits

ALT image shows the title and abstract of the article by Jed Meers and Michael Robinson on 'Working assumptions: the fate of the UK government's pathways to work agenda

ALT image shows the first paragraph of the editorial on Disability and Trust in Social Security

ALT image of the front cover of JSSL 2025 volume 3

ALT text of discussion of CC v Department for Communities (ESA) [2025] NICom 5, with the heading 'Don’t count your chickens (even after they hatch)—on overpayments from maladministration and legitimate expectations

ALT Image of text outlining issues of note with the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Act 2025 and highlighting the Statutory Instruments that the Digest will review

ALT Image of the first paragraph of a book review by Mark Simpson of the book edited by Sine Piilgaard Porner Nielson and Ole Hammeslev on 'Transformation of European Welfare States and Social Rights'

ALT Image of text of book review of Fortin’s Children’s Rights and the Developing Law, 4th edn, by Rachel E. Taylor, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024),

ALT Image shows text of abstract of article on Universal Credit debt deductions that reads: Nearly half of households receiving Universal Credit (UC) are experiencing a ‘deduction’ from their award. These 2.7 million households lose a portion of their benefits to pay costs owed to the government and/or a third party. Despite its widespread application, the law underpinning this regime has not been closely examined. Drawing on an analysis of the underpinning legislation, case law and decision-maker guidance, this article identifies and analyses a six-fold typology of “deductions” in social security law: loans, corrective, punitive, essentials, renting, and duties deductions. In doing so, it provides a framework for future research and legal analysis of the UC deductions regime.

ALT Image of text on article examining EU social security coordination rules that reads: This article discusses the recent Simkova judgments from the UK Upper Tribunal and Court of Appeal. Particularly, it considers whether EU law provides adequate guidance for the classification of blended benefits systems like Universal Credit under the Social Security Coordination regime (Regulation 883/2004). Although EU jurisprudence has tackled the issue of ‘hybrid’ benefits that include elements of social assistance and social security—as well as general social assistance benefits and severable social security benefits—the classification of mixed benefits remains complex. There may still be questions as to the proper handling of blended benefits that are not severable, but which have subsumed entitlements that were previously part of social security law into the granting of social assistance ...this article argues that EU law has not yet provided any answers

ALT text shows Abstract of an article that reads: Drawing on qualitative longitudinal research with low-earning working people, this article presents new empirical insights into the interaction between Universal Credit, earnings and entitlement for other sources of means-tested help, exploring the ways in which changes in reported earnings can affect household incomes and decisions around work. Suggestions for improving work incentives and reducing “cliff edges”—where the value of entitlements lost can be more than the gains from additional net earnings—are explored.

ALT text shows the first page of the 'news' section beginning with the 'pathways to work' green paper

ALT text shows introductory paragraph on the editorial on 'Consultation: Getting it Right?'

ALT Image of the contents page of Journal of Social Security Law issue 2 of 2025, showing Editorial by Neville Harris and Grainne McKeever, Articles by Rita Griffiths and Marsha Wood on 'Cliff Edges and Precipitous Inclines: Exploring the Interaction between Universal Credit and Passported Support for Working Claimants in the UK'; by Victoria Hooton and 'Severance and Deference: the classification of blended benefits systems for EU social security coordination'; and Izzie Salter on 'The Social Security System as a debt recovery took: A typology of debt deductions from universal Credit'. Also shown are book reviews by Neville Harris and Mark Simpson and the Digest section on legislation and case law

ALT Image shows first page of a case law digest section by Charlotte O'Brien and Tom Royston

ALT Image shows the first page of a Digest section on social security legislation, as compiled by Elliot Kent

ALT Image of book review on Kate Andersen's book on Welfare that Works for Women? Mothers’ Experiences of the Conditionality within Universal Credit, published by Bristol Policy Press, 2024

ALT Image is of the text of a book review of Jonathan Parker's book on Analysing the History of British Social Welfare: Compassion, Coercion and Beyond, published by Bristol Policy Press 2024

ALT Image shows the first page of an article on "Exploring the Feasibility of Unemployment Insurance Implementation in Georgia: An Explorative Multi-Stream Analysis" by Audrius Bitinas and Heikki Hiilamo, with an abstract that states: Unemployment insurance (UI) is crucial for robust social protection systems, ensuring financial security, stability, formalisation of the employment and human capital preservation. This article explores introducing UI in Georgia, a former Soviet Union country with evolving social protection dynamics. Using the multiple streams theory, we assess UI prospects in Georgia. The problem stream highlights urban unemployment, formalisation needs and expanded social protection. Financing barriers exist due to constitutional constraints. The policy stream supports UI, drawing on global models and Georgian suggestions. Political backing lags, despite public preference. Potential lies in European Union (EU) accession, aligning streams for long-term UI implementation.

ALT Image shows the cover page of an article and abstract on 'The Professional Diversity Deficit: The UK Supreme Court’s Social Security Law Blind Spot' by Charlotte O’Brien. Abstract states: This article highlights the hitherto under-explored evidence of a professional deficit on the Court, and argues that this cannot help but have an influence upon judicial perspectives. One such possible influence is the “alegalisation” of social security law—the treatment of it as not-law but as a matter of pure politics. Here, the article analyses how the line is drawn in key cases, in which it seems the Court feels responsible for defending some “pure law” human rights, while defending the courtroom from other human rights claims—those relating to social security. But poverty is a human rights issue, and human rights are (still) a matter of law. We need to bring social security expertise and claimant perspectives to the bench if we are to reassert the legal nature of social security rights.

ALT Image of the first page of the News edit by Jed Meers, beginning with the Get Britain Working White paper, which states: "The DWP, HM Treasury and the Department for Education have published a new White Paper outlining the UK Government’s plans for wide-ranging reforms to employment, health and skills support to “tackle economic inactivity and support people into good work” (HM Government, “Get Britain Working White Paper” (26 November 2024)."

ALT The title and first paragraph of the editorial on 'Protecting Claimants from Serious Harm within the Social Security System'. It states: In 2023, the Work and Pensions Committee opened an inquiry into safeguarding, with a view to determining whether the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should have a statutory duty of care towards individuals who use the social security system. Case law has long established that a departmental decision maker does not owe a common law duty of care to a claimant for the decision that they make, since there is a public remedy available to the claimant through the statutory right of appeal. What the Committee inquiry was set up to examine, however, was not whether a duty of care is owed in relation to the outcome of a decision, but whether it should exist in relation to how claimants are treated within the system which determines that outcome.

ALT Cover image of Journal of Social Security Law, Issue 1 of 2025

ALT Image shows text with the heading "Fantasy welfare is not enough: people with pre-settled status are entitled to actually live in dignified conditions". The introductory para of the text shows the case being discussed in Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v AT [2023] EWCA Civ 1307 (King, Green, Dingemans LJJ) (8 November 2023). The text reads: As the Supreme Court has now refused permission to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to appeal this case, this judgment of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales confirms that people with pre-settled status, under the EU Settlement Scheme, who fall within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, are entitled to protection afforded by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR)—in particular, the right within the CFR to live in dignified conditions.

ALT The image shows the description of the National Insurance Contributions (Reduction in Rates) Act 2024 whichreceived Royal Assent on 20 March 2024 and makes amendments to the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (SSCBA) and Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (SSCB(NI)A) to further reduce the level of National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid by employed and self-employed persons. The image also includes the statutory instruments the editor highlights including Legislation introduced to prevent further tax credit renewals from 2024/25 onward & dealing with the migration of pension age claimants to UC or SPC; an increase in the level of the UC Administrative Earnings Threshold requiring many claimants to do more work before work search requirements are “switched off”; Reversal of the effect of the Court of Appeal’s decision in R. (on the application of Bui) v SSWP on the need for a National Insurance Number before an advance payment

ALT Image shows the introductory paragraphs of the review, which state: In this book, Michael McGann diligently traces the unfolding of key welfare state reforms in Ireland, documenting not only the shift from protective to corrective welfare but also the ratchetting of marketisation logics in the delivery of employment support. As a notable “laggard” in its introduction of more activating forms of a labour market programme, Ireland initially makes for an unlikely case study. But since the watershed of the financial crisis, the Irish Government has reduced spending on social protection and elevated conditionality as key obligations in the bailout terms with the European Troika. McGann takes the opportunity to observe the implementation of reforms in real time and this brings an urgency and freshness to the analysis.

ALT Image shows introductory paragraph which states: Conditionality is a fascinating topic for philosophical inquiry, a controversial paradigm for social policy and questionable in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness. For present purposes, the book reviewed is a culmination of a five year, ESRC funded project (WelCond) that set out to study welfare conditionality in the UK. Uniquely, whilst it offers a theoretical exposition of familiar (to the initiated) arguments for and against welfare conditionality, it goes beyond them, to engage in an empirical inquiry, through interviews with participants who are subject to such conditionality in the realms of welfare to work and antisocial behaviour. Moreover, when they could be contacted, participants were interviewed over a series of three “waves”, a few years apart, to assess their experience of conditionality, the consequences that it had on their decision making and their perception towards it.

ALT Text: In this important decision, the Court of Appeal upheld the decisions below that a destitute Romanian mother of a young child with a right of residence in the United Kingdom was entitled to universal credit (UC) which had been refused by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) because she only had a limited right to reside in the UK granted by virtue of Appendix EU to the Immigration Rules. The Court of Appeal held that the right to dignity under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter) art.1,1 and the right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment under art.4, continued to apply in UK law so that a person with a subsisting right of residence could enjoy those rights in a manner that was dignified, in the sense of meeting a minimum level of viability. The Court held that, on the facts, the lower tribunals were entitled to conclude that the UK authorities failed to ensure that the mother and child were able to enjoy the Charter right.

ALT Image shows the article abstract which states: This article considers the inter-relationship between the National Insurance Local Tribunal (NILT) and the National Insurance Commissioner in the context of the system of precedent. This is explored through an in-depth case study of the judicial career of Mr G.L. Haggen, then Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Leeds, whose part-time appointment as a NILT chairman was not renewed by the Government in 1951. The reason given for this non-renewal was, according to the Minister of National Insurance, that Haggen had “persistently ignored rulings given by the Commissioner” on the subject of “good cause” (for a late claim). This leads to a discussion of the emergence of a contested notion of the judicial independence of tribunal chairmen.

ALT Image shows article abstract which states: 2024 marks both the 30th anniversary of the JSSL and the 75th anniversary of TH Marshall’s landmark essays on “Citizenship and Social Class”. Marshall’s writing on citizenship remains a key point of reference for welfare state researchers, yet his theory has been widely critiqued. Meanwhile, 21st century developments in UK social security law, policy and practice—and in the state’s constitutional arrangements—can appear difficult to reconcile with his vision of a right to “a modicum of economic welfare and security” for all. This article considers the continued value of the Marshallian perspective as an empirical explanation of developments in social security and a normative statement of the social minimum citizens should be able to count on. In doing so, it focuses mainly on the adequacy of low-income benefits, conditions associated with their receipt and the responsibility for social protection of different tiers of government.

ALT Image shows article abstract which states: Trauma-informed care (TIC) applies trauma theory to the design of social and health services, to promote client engagement and avoid inadvertently harming clients with trauma histories. Various services across the UK have been increasingly embracing TIC, with the Department for Work and Pensions recently expressing enthusiasm. We apply principles of TIC to qualitative data from a study of veterans’ experiences of the UK benefits system to identify ways of moving towards a trauma-informed social security system. Through this analysis we explore the potential benefits for claimants and staff, while also reflecting on some of the challenges of TIC within the context of a system with punitive features.

ALT article abstract states: The introduction of Universal Credit in the Welfare Reform Act 2012 represents the most significant single reform to the UK social security system since the post-World War II era. A central aim of the reform was to intensify the longstanding policy of using welfare benefits as a mechanism for both obliging & incentivising citizen entry, retention and progress in the labour market. Indeed, UC itself represents a fusion between two discrete historic traditions in British welfare law. This article will analyse the extent to which the Welfare Reform Act 2012 has achieved the results which legislators desired for it in relation to facilitating citizens into paid employment. The possibility that Universal Credit may actually be serving to continue welfare dependency among claimants will be evaluated. Another question which will be examined is whether there is actually a contradiction at the core of the policies underlying UC which undermines its successful operation

ALT The image shows the introductory para to the editorial, which states: This is the second of our anniversary editions to celebrate 30 years of the Journal of Social Security Law (JSSL) and its contribution to understanding how the law has developed and offering potential insight into what the future might hold. In our last editorial, we reminded ourselves why the JSSL came into being and the significance of social security law as a discipline that merited specialist research and analysis. This justification has proved to be solid, with social security generating significant public discourse that does not always match the reality of claimant experiences or indeed social security provision. Governments have always attempted to control the narrative on how public money should be spent and in a high-expenditure area such as social security, public perception has been a critical contribution to pushing through reform. The JSSL provides some ballast against the misinformation

ALT The second edition celebrating our 30th anniversary has landed, with articles covering the past, present and future of #SocialSecurity law, as a case review, book reviews, legislation review and case digest. What more could anyone want?! 🧵

ALT Image shows photo of the Journal of Social Security Law, in dark blue with a gold banner and badge stating 30th anniversary 1994-2024

ALT Image show a list of papers that are being presented at the Social Rights stream, which are all focused on housing and homelessness

ALT Titles of the papers being presented at the administrative justice stream focused on welfare administration and welfare assistance

ALT The image shows the introductory text for the casenote on Revenue and Customs Commissioners v Arrbab [2024] EWCA Civ 16 (Baker, Snowden, Falk LJJ) (19 January 2024). It states: The Finance Act 2008 (FA 2008) s.124 authorises the Treasury to make Orders with provisions for and in connection with reviews and appeals of HMRC decisions. The section contains a Henry VIII power, enabling secondary legislation to amend primary legislation. Pursuant to this section, the tax credit review procedure was introduced by Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Reviews and Appeal Order 2014 (SI 2014/886); this amended the Tax Credit Act 2002 s.38(1A), to mandate a review of HMRC decisions about tax credit in advance of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (FtT). The key issue was whether an appeal to the tribunal can be brought where a review request is not submitted in time and HMRC refuse to extend time.

ALT Image shows introductory text to explain the National Insurance Contributions (Reduction in Rates) Act 2023 c.57: This Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2023 and makes amendments to the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (SSCBA) and Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (SSCB(NI)A) to reduce the level of National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid by employed and self-employed persons.

ALT The image shows the introductory text to the book review by Ciara Fitzpatrick, stating: The erosion of Beveridge’s blueprint for the Welfare State has been well documented in this Journal over the years. With every passing Budget Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it appears that the notion that social security should “enable a man to live his life without fear of poverty and family disaster” has become a relic of the past rather than a “totem for the future”.

ALT The image shows the introductory text for the book review by Anja Eleveld: In this book, Sharon Wright analyses how welfare conditionality affects the lives of female benefit recipients, especially of those aged 55+. She uses Dorothy Smith’s feminist sociology to adapt insights from the street-level bureaucracy literature which—due to its rational choice perspective—insufficiently considers the lived experiences of women with diverse care responsibilities during their life course.

ALT Perceptions of human beings have played a significant role in the development of social security schemes in the Netherlands; in particular, in periods when it wanted to introduce or change legislation, the Government explicitly refers to the perception it adheres to. Throughout time, a development can be seen from a change of a perception in which human beings are members of their communitie to a perception in which the State has responsibility to protect its citizens from want and has to ensure the right to benefit and income certainty, to a perception in which human beings have to be responsible for themselves and be guided by financial incentives in order to comply with the benefit rules. This article reviews the role of perception in Dutch social security, concluding with a discussion on how this analysis in terms of perceptions on human nature relates to the typology of welfare states as developed by Esping-Andersen and others.

ALT This chapter engages with the conceptual, normative and institutional facets of privatisation of social security. Doing so demands an acknowledgment of the historical starting points and trajectories of social security institutions and dynamics, which relied on private individuals and institutions well before the state nationalised significant segments of the provision. The resurgence of private agents into the welfare mix cannot be seen, however, as simply a reversion to past practices, let alone solely as an administrative or bureaucratic shift. First and foremost, we show that privatisation of social security includes a change in the understanding of role of the state, and the allocation of responsibility across the social-individual continuum. Secondly, the push towards further privatisation rests on the introduction of market rationales into the design and operation of social security systems.

ALT One of the most profound shifts seen in governments around the world in recent years is the emergence of the digital welfare state. This transformation has seen the welfare state increasingly dependent on digitalised, automated and data-driven forms of public administration, which are altering the nature of welfare provision itself. This transition raises a fundamental question: what does a legitimate process look like in this new welfare state? Using new qualitative datasets, this article explores how public officials, welfare claimants and welfare rights advisors reason about the processes of the UK’s flagship social security programme, Universal Credit (UC)—one of the most prominent digital welfare systems anywhere in the world.

ALT The Editorial in the first issue of the Journal of Social Security Law noted the plan to equalise state retirement pension age for men and women at age 65 (now 66, moving soon to 67). The changes in pension age since 1993 have perhaps been the most noticed by the general public and the media but there have been other less headline hitting changes to benefit entitlement based on age in the last 30 years, including those which define entitlement to benefits for young people, changes to entitlements for lone parents based on their children’s ages and new age based conditionalities for older couples, where one has reached pension age and the other has not. Although these changes may appear to be technicalities, entitlement to benefits based on age criteria send important messages regarding who is, or is not, entitled to state support and under what other conditions.

ALT The image shows the article abstract which states: This article explores the implications of Australia’s early adoption for working age social security payments of both an expanded disciplinary form of welfare conditionality and deployment of new technology for benefit administration such as digitisation and automated decision-making. It argues that the combination compounds the risk of harm for vulnerable welfare recipients by rendering financial support more “virtual” than real and welfare administration more “virtual” than human, risks heightened by its occurrence within a welfare state designed as an austere “social assistance” model serving as a backstop to welfare through work. Consequently, Australia and Britain should exercise caution when adopting policy ideas from each other, or other international trends.

ALT The image shows the abstract of an article by Michael Adler on Benefit Sanctions. The abstract states: This article focuses on changes in the scope and severity of benefit sanctions over the last 25 years. It draws on an account of the historical development of benefit sanctions that appears in my book, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment? Benefit Sanctions in the UK, which was published five years ago,1 and brings this account up to date by covering the period since 2017. Thus, it covers the suspension of benefit sanctions for three months during the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, their gradual reinstatement three months later, and the subsequent increase in the number of sanctions which, in 2022, reached the highest level recorded since Universal Credit (UC) was introduced in 2015.2 By way of conclusion, the article identifies the policy options that a future government will need to consider.

ALT Image shows the introduction to the Journal's editorial entitled "Whence we came and where we have been"

ALT Image shows the content page of the Journal with the following articles listed: Do Benefit Sanctions Have a Future? by Michael Adler Automation and Conditionality: Towards “Virtual” Social Security? by Terry Carney Age as a Condition of Entitlement to Social Security: Changing Ideas Over 30 Years by Jackie Gulland Procedural Legitimacy Logics within the Digital Welfare State by Simon Halliday, Jed Meers and Joe Tomlinson Privatising Social Security by Amir Paz-Fuchs and Avishai Benish The Changing Perceptions on Benefit Recipients in Dutch Social Security Policy in the Past 30 Years by Frans Pennings

ALT The image is of the first page of a Case Digest that starts with a Court of Appeal (England and Wales) decision in the case of Celik v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2023)

ALT The image is of the first page of a legislation digest that provides brief outlines of new legislation that impacts on social security

ALT An image of the first page of a book review on 'Social Security Law in Small Jurisdictions' by Danny Pieters

ALT An image of the first page of a book review on 'Framing Welfare Recipients in Political Discourse: Political Farming Through Material Need Assistance' by Lenka Kissová

ALT The image shows the first page of a case analysis of two cases: (1) Domenech Aradilla and Rodríguez González v Spain and (2) Valverde Digon v Spain. The analysis argued that the European Court of Human Rights’ approach to the concept of “legitimate expectation” in the field of social security has done more to confuse rather than to clarify the law. The Court has recently considered the concept again in two pension cases but once more the outcome has shown that the Court is both split on its approach and lacks a coherent approach to the concept.

ALT The image shows a title and abstract of an article on 'Perceptions of Sweden's Welfare State'/ The abstract notes that: This article critically explores perceptions of the Swedish welfare state, three decades after the much-documented Choice Revolution fundamentally altered the traditional model. This research examines qualitative data from focus group interviews conducted in Sweden in 2021 and 2022. This paper investigates the current status of folkhemmet (the people’s home) according to those who experience it. From its peak in the decades following the Second World War to the introduction of privatisation in the 1990s, this article will investigate if Sweden’s welfare state is undergoing another transformation.

ALT The image shows the title and abstract for an article by Mears and Howes on 'Universal Credit Implementation: Lawfulness, Transparency and Procedural Fairness?' The abstract notes that: 'As the UK’s first digital-by-design benefit, universal credit (UC) marks a major change in the administration of social security. This article considers whether the digital design and implementation of UC aligns with the social security legislation that underpins it, and wider rule of law principles of lawfulness, transparency, and procedural fairness. The evidence comes from Child Poverty Action Group’s research report, “You Reap What You Code: universal credit, digitalisation and the rule of law.” '

ALT The image shows the title and abstract of an article on 'The Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman’s Report into Personal Independence Payment and Collective Administrative Justice (Pt 1)' by Robert Thomas. The abstract notes that: "This article evaluates the first own-initiative investigation undertaken by a UK ombudsman—that of the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman into Personal Independence Payments. It does so by examining the Ombudsman’s investigation, the contexts in which it arose, its significance and the response of government to it."

ALT Image of the first page of the news section, with a headline 'DWP's artificial intelligence with a human touch'

ALT Image of the opening paragraph of an editorial article, entitled 'Improving outcomes for the sick and disabled'