Participation Income .In this intriguing essay Carey Oppenheim outlines the philosophies guiding New Labour's approach to welfare reform in the UK. She then opens up the possibility of an alternative: participation income. Participation income would be a flat rate benefit paid to all those contributing to society: people working, carers, volunteers, retired people and those unable to work through disability. The end product would be a reform of the tax and benefit system to produce a type of basic income restricted to those participating in society. After briskly outlining the advantages, disadvantages and risks of such an approach she also raises the possibility of a couple of less ambitious alternatives such as extending the current UK tax credits system to include other activities such as caring is published by the Policy Network.

By Policy Network ,UK.

Welfare and Social Security Policy Resource.

Social Mobility .Usually when measuring the level of inter- generational social mobility in a society researchers measure the social class status of the parents and their children. This paper uses a new way of measuring the social and human capabilities: a composite of education, recent work experience and occupational attainment. Preliminary results using this new technique can be found in "A New Measure of Social Position: Social Mobility and Human Capital in Britain" by Jonathan Gershuny is published by the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

By Institute for Social and Economic Research ,UK.

Welfare and Social Security Policy Resource.