Rethinking self-sufficiency: employment, families and welfare

Full employment has re-emerged on the UI( policy agenda and is now interpreted as a higher percentage of men and women employed than previously recorded. The changing interconnections between employment, family structures and welfare systems need to be taken into account if full employment is to become a meaningful policy tool and a realisable policy goal. Self-sufficiency is interpreted as the ability of individuals to sustain a customary minimum standard of living, through a combination of waged work, family care, welfare transfers and the public and private provision of goods and services, over the life course. A number of types of employment and family care pathways, currently in evidence, are identified and evaluated in terms of the opportunities they provide for individuals to achieve self-sufficiency, in the context of gender and class relations.