4.2.4.3 Responses and solutions to poverty Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. In the Beveridge Report of 1942, what were the 'five giant evils' that the welfare state was intended to tackle?

   • Want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness
   • Poverty, unemployment, crime, inequality and homelessness, which were listed as the main social problems of 1942
   • Hunger, war, illiteracy, poor housing and low wages, which were listed as the chief obstacles to national recovery
   • Ill health, poverty, bad housing, lack of education and debt, which were listed as the causes of national decline

2. Which of the following is an example of means-tested benefit used in the UK to respond to poverty?

   • Child Benefit, which is paid to all families with children regardless of their income or savings
   • Free school meals provided universally to every child in primary schools, whatever their family income
   • The State Pension, which is paid to all people who reach state pension age regardless of other income
   • Universal Credit, which is paid according to a household's income, savings and circumstances

3. According to Richard Titmuss, what is the difference between 'residual' and 'institutional' welfare?

   • Residual welfare is provided only by private charities and voluntary bodies, while institutional welfare is provided only by local councils
   • Residual welfare is funded by employers, while institutional welfare is funded entirely by income tax on the rich
   • Residual welfare is paid only to older people, while institutional welfare is paid only to young people in education
   • Residual welfare helps only when the market and family fail, while institutional welfare is a regular universal service for all

4. Which typology of welfare states was developed by Gosta Esping-Andersen?

   • Public, private and voluntary welfare sectors, which were proposed to describe the providers of social services
   • Liberal, conservative and social democratic welfare regimes
   • Centralised, decentralised and mixed welfare systems, which were proposed to describe administrative structures
   • Residual, institutional and universal welfare models, which were proposed to describe the funding of welfare services

5. Which approach to welfare do New Right thinkers generally favour?

   • Expanding state provision to all areas of life, so that the state guarantees income and services to every citizen
   • Reducing state provision, encouraging self-reliance and relying on markets, families and voluntary bodies to meet need
   • Creating a single national fund for all benefits, which would be managed directly by the trade unions
   • Abolishing all private and voluntary provision, so that welfare is delivered only by central government

6. What is meant by 'workfare' in debates about responses to poverty?

   • Linking the receipt of benefits to a requirement to look for work or take part in work-related activity
   • A system in which employers are required to pay every worker a state pension, regardless of how long they work
   • A system in which benefits are paid as cash grants with no conditions, so that claimants are free to decide what to do
   • A system in which the government employs all people in poverty directly in public sector jobs with guaranteed wages

7. Which response to poverty is provided by voluntary charities such as food banks?

   • Compulsory savings schemes that are run by the state to build up wealth for every household in the country
   • Long-term housing provision that is guaranteed by law and funded through local council rates and taxation
   • Statutory income support that is paid directly by central government to every household in the poorest deciles
   • Emergency food and short-term support provided by voluntary organisations to people who cannot meet basic needs

8. What is the main argument of the New Right against the welfare state?

   • State welfare removes all incentives for people to save, so families are forced to rely on private charity alone
   • State welfare creates dependency and disincentives to work, so it can trap people in poverty rather than lifting them out
   • State welfare fails to provide enough income to cover housing costs, so the welfare state should be abolished entirely
   • State welfare favours employers over employees, so it should be replaced by a system of direct wage subsidies

9. From a Marxist perspective, what is the main purpose of the welfare state?

   • To maintain social order and a healthy, compliant workforce, which helps to sustain the capitalist economy
   • To abolish capitalism by giving workers direct ownership of the means of production through state benefits
   • To provide charity that is entirely separate from the economy, so that welfare has no link to the labour market
   • To remove all class differences in society by providing equal incomes for all workers regardless of their jobs

10. Which informal response to poverty is most significant in many households, according to sociological research?

    • Support from employers, who provide full pensions and benefits to all their employees regardless of pay levels
    • Support from local councils, which pay the rent of every household that falls below the relative poverty line
    • Support from family and kin, including money, childcare and goods exchanged between relatives
    • Support from private banks, which lend money to every household at low interest rates regardless of credit history

11. Which type of welfare state is characterised by a strong emphasis on universal services and high levels of redistribution, as in Scandinavian countries?

    • The residual regime, which emphasises help only in emergencies and only after the market and family have failed
    • The social democratic regime
    • The corporatist or conservative regime, which emphasises social insurance linked to employment status
    • The liberal regime, which emphasises means-tested assistance and market provision over state services

12. What is the purpose of the National Minimum Wage in responding to poverty?

    • To guarantee every household a fixed income, regardless of whether any member of the household is in work
    • To provide free childcare for low-paid parents, so that they can enter the labour market with fewer costs
    • To set a legal floor on hourly pay so that low-paid workers receive a minimum level of earnings from work
    • To reduce the cost of housing for low-paid workers by setting a maximum rent that landlords can charge

13. Which criticism is most often made of means-tested benefits as a response to poverty?

    • They can create a poverty trap, where earning more reduces benefits so that the net gain from work is small
    • They are paid to everyone in the population, so they fail to target the poorest households who need support most
    • They provide too much income to every household, which discourages people from saving and reduces national investment
    • They are funded entirely by private insurers, which means that governments cannot control how much is paid out

14. Which policy would best address in-work poverty, where a person in employment still has an income below the poverty threshold?

    • Removing all support for childcare, so that parents are forced to take full-time work and increase their income
    • Abolishing all benefits for people in work, so that workers are encouraged to seek higher-paid jobs in the market
    • Reducing the minimum wage so that employers can hire more workers and so reduce the number of people in poverty
    • Raising pay through a higher minimum wage or living wage, combined with support for childcare costs

15. Which claim about private pensions is consistent with sociological analysis of responses to poverty?

    • Private pensions are equally available to every worker, so they remove any link between income and retirement security
    • Private pensions are always provided by the state, so they cannot be affected by employment or income levels
    • Private pensions guarantee an income above the poverty line for all retirees, whatever their career history
    • Private pension saving depends on income and employment, so it tends to benefit those who were already more secure

16. Evaluate the claim that the welfare state is the most effective response to poverty.

    • The claim is fully proven, because every welfare state in history has eliminated poverty completely in every period and region of the world
    • The claim is partly supported by evidence of redistribution, but effectiveness depends on design, conditionality and benefit levels
    • The claim is confirmed by the fact that welfare spending is always the largest single cause of poverty in any society
    • The claim is irrelevant, because welfare has no effect on poverty whatever its design, level or conditions

17. Which conclusion best follows from the view that poverty can be reduced through both state and informal responses?

    • Effective responses to poverty may combine formal state provision, employment policies and informal support networks
    • Neither state nor informal responses have any effect, so poverty can only be addressed by changing individual character
    • Only state provision is effective, so informal support networks should be discouraged in every case to avoid dependency
    • Only informal support is effective, so state provision should be withdrawn entirely from all areas of social policy

18. A government replaces several means-tested benefits with a single payment that is withdrawn gradually as earnings rise. What is the main aim of this type of reform?

    • To remove all conditions from payments, so that claimants have no requirement to look for work or report earnings
    • To increase the number of people who claim benefits, so that more households receive state support at the same time
    • To simplify the system and reduce the poverty trap by making work pay more than it does under separate benefits
    • To transfer welfare responsibility entirely to employers, who will decide the level of each worker's payment

19. Which principle underpins the Beveridge model of social insurance, in which entitlement to some benefits depends on prior contributions?

    • Private insurance, in which individuals buy policies from companies that set the level of benefit they will receive
    • Charitable giving, in which voluntary donations from the public fund support for people in poverty in each local area
    • Means testing, in which benefits are paid only after a full assessment of household income, savings and other resources
    • National insurance, in which contributions build entitlement to benefits such as pensions and unemployment support

20. What is the main argument of critics who say universal benefits waste public money?

    • They are funded entirely by employers, which discourages firms from creating new jobs in the wider economy each year
    • They pay people who do not need them, which reduces the resources available for those in greatest poverty
    • They require every claimant to undergo a medical examination, which delays payments for many weeks at a time in practice
    • They are paid only to the poorest households, which stigmatises claimants and reduces take-up among eligible families in practice

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