welfare rights


welfare rights

the legal entitlement to services provided for in SOCIAL POLICY. Welfare rights stand in contrast to those arrangements where GATEKEEPERS have the discretion to determine which people will receive a service and who will be denied. An examination of the British social-security system shows that, historically, both welfare rights and welfare discretion have been promoted at different times. Supporters of welfare rights argue that having legal entitlements is a means of ensuring that claimants are not at the mercy of the subjective value-judgements of the people who have control over welfare resources, such as social-security officers and housing managers. Critics of welfare rights have argued that claimants often do not know their rights and are placed in a demeaning situation by having to find advocates, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau. They also argue that the legal definition of entitlement cannot foresee all the circumstances when a need may arise and this may lead to some needy people being excluded from help when they could have been afforded support in a discretionary system.