Book Description










The Social Fund 20 Years On


Book Description

In 2008 the Social Fund had been in operation for 20 years. This has provided a timely opportunity to not only critically reflect upon its introduction in 1988 and its operation in the past two decades, but also to place it within its historical context. There is a particular need to engage with the argument that was made in the 1980s that relieving need by way of loan was new in social security policy. In this groundbreaking study, Chris Grover provides the reader with evidence that this is not the case by locating Social Fund loans in a lengthy history of debate about, and practice in, loaning poor relief and social security. Using primary data hitherto unused in social policy research, Grover shows that there is a long history embedded in British systems of poor relief of authorities having the power to loan applicants either cash that had to be repaid or providing food and items, the value of which then had to be repaid. Understanding this history will give a greater depth to our understanding of the state's purposes in relieving the financial needs of the poorest people as well as to our knowledge of contemporary social security policy.










Seeking a Better Future


Book Description

Most emigration from England was voluntary, self-financed, and pursued by people who, while expecting to improve their economic prospects, were also critical of the areas in which they first settled. The exodus from England that gathered pace during the 19th century accounted for the greatest part of the total emigration from Britain to Canada. And yet, while copious emigration studies have been undertaken on the Scots and the Irish, very little has been written about the English in Canada. Drawing on wide-ranging data collected from English record offices and Canadian archives, Lucille Campey considers why people left England and traces their destinations in Ontario and Quebec. A mass of detailed information relating to pioneer settlements and ship crossings has been distilled to provide new insights on how, why, and when Ontario and Quebec acquired their English settlers. Challenging the widely held assumption that emigration was primarily a flight from poverty, Campey reveals how the ambitious and resourceful English were strongly attracted by the greater freedoms and better livelihoods that could be achieved by relocating to Canada’s central provinces.