The Concept Of Social Welfare - 3056 Words

Word Count (excluding, contents, bibliography) words. Contents Executive Summary 3 The Concept of Social Welfare 4 Supply Demand – The Labour Market 5 Forecasting 7 Research 9 Conclusion 11 References 12 Executive Summary This is the assignment submitted for subject 201 – Economic Decision Making. The basic premise for the assignment is unemployment and social security. The assignment has asked students to undertake the following tasks; firstly to provide some background on the concept of social welfare and ensure that the assignment contextualised accordingly. Following this, the assignment requires to demonstrate an understanding of the laws of supply and demand relevant to the labour market. In addition we asked to†¦show more content†¦I trust this document meets the requirement for assignment 1 of unit 201. The Concept of Social Welfare It is the author’s opinion that Social Welfare can be defined as a monetary compensation mechanism provided to those who are less fortunate or disadvantaged (in respect to the general population) to ensure that they are able to satisfy basic needs and wants. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014) defines the concept of social welfare as â€Å"any of a variety of governmental programs designed to protect citizens from the economic risks and insecurities of life†. This may be in the form of direct payments (for example an old age pension) or access to discounted or free services (for example Medicare). Federal government provided benefits have their origins in the constitution when the commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901, however federally funded â€Å"benefits† of any kind were not introduced until nearly a decade later in 1909 when a federal old pension was introduced to replace several state based initiatives in 1900. (ABS, 1988). In his 1910 Report (Report of the Commonwealth Statistician - Knibbs 1910) Knibbs noted that the following as a commentary towards the implementation of social welfare; â€Å"This law must be regarded as a social experiment, the success or otherwise of which has yet to be shown by experience. Its social and economic effects, both near and remote, are problematical, and it is not probable that they will be revealed even