Financial inclusion has arisen as an important social policy agenda over the past twenty years. A scholarly literature has emerged that is very critical of financial inclusion, seeing it as part of the financialisation of the everyday. Often, this theoretical literature makes little reference to how financial inclusion was developing in practice. Conversely, much of the policy literature does not refer to theoretical controversies about financial inclusion. The result is that the theoretical and policy literatures are developing in isolation from one another. This article suggests that it would be much better if there were greater mixing between these different literatures. The scholarly literature can inform the direction of policy and the applied literature can develop more nuanced versions of financialisation.
The design of tax systems is an important topic as governments reshape taxes to reduce public sector deficits following the global financial crisis. This article discusses findings from a focus group study on public attitudes to taxation in England. It uses rational choice and moral arguments to explore three questions: What do the public think of different taxes? How do people react to different combinations of taxes? What are public attitudes towards public spending? This article demonstrates that people’s stage in life affects attitudes to taxation. The most unpopular tax among older people is inheritance tax, whereas it is fuel duties for younger respondents. Taxes associated with personal choice (such as value added tax) attract more support than income tax. People also want greater transparency about the benefits of tax systems. The results show that principles are important for shaping public attitudes to taxation and that policy-makers should consider how diverse forms of taxation combine over the life cycle when designing a tax system.
Wealth taxes are currently high on the policy agenda in Britain. These taxes will not be political sustainable without public support. However, evidence exists that indicates substantial public opposition to wealth taxes. For example, inheritance tax appears to provoke hostility among the public. Some observers have suggested that the way that wealth taxes are presented ‐ particularly using stories and narratives ‐ could enhance public support. This paper summarises focus group evidence on this suggestion. I report that using narratives and stories can have an impact, although this should not be overstated and much depends on how the narratives are shaped.
The Labour government has recently introduced the Child Trust Fund. This pays all new babies a £250 or £500 capital endowment from government. This is locked into a special account until the child's 18 th birthday. Parents are key to the success of this policy as they will make many of the key decisions about savings and investment. Little is known, however, about what new parents think of this policy. This article addresses this question by providing original evidence on what parents think of the basic features of this policy; whether the Child Trust Fund will make them more likely to save; attitudes towards the responsible use of the Child Trust Fund; and whether parents would prefer money spent on different forms of assistance rather than the Child Trust Fund.
The assets agenda or asset-based welfare has provoked much interest in recent times. This approach insists that the stock of assets that a person owns is an important element of well-being. The assets agenda is not a unified body of thought. However, there is a common failure to distinguish between these different parts, and this clouds rather than clarifies debates. This article seeks to add analytical clarity to current debates about asset-based welfare. I distinguish between social policy and citizenship, and consider their implications for social policy. This discussion is important because analytical clarity is a precondition for a balanced assessment of asset-based welfare.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.