Cash for Care in Developed Welfare States

 Cash for Care in Developed Welfare States
 Edited by Clare Ungerson and Sue Yeandle,
 Ashgate
 ISBN 140391477X,
 £50

 Star rating: 4/5



Many practitioners working with cash payments for disabled and older people are uncertain as to whether they are right for achieving the balance between protecting vulnerable people and giving them choice and control over their support, writes Kirstein Rummery.

Also, many councils have become bogged down in issues of process and implementation, and have struggled to support disabled people to purchase their own services.

This book gives readers the opportunity to examine what is happening to cash payments for care internationally.

It draws on case studies from Austria, France, Italy, Holland, Germany and the United States. It shows how different countries have struggled with the same issues that practitioners and policy makers in the UK will recognise: should users be able to pay relatives, or not? Should the social rights of care workers be specifically protected, or is it more important to allow the flexibility and control to remain in the hands of users? What are the outcomes for disabled and older people in particular?

It is an expensive and research-based volume, but it is well-written and accessible and makes valuable reading for anyone willing to understand and explore these issues in depth.

Kirstein Rummery is professor of social policy, University of Stirling