3. Does the social welfare regime, including benefits and the support available through social services, do enough to support disabled people including older citizens with a disability? How far does the Human Rights Act 1998 go in assisting users of the s

Order Description
Assessment Guidance
Here are some guidance points about the Social Welfare Law assignment.
Let’s start with some ‘do’s and ‘don’ts’!
Word Limits, Referencing etc.
Please ensure that you comply with the word limits and regulations on plagiarism and academic dishonesty before submission. Please state the words you have used at the top or end of the assignment. Eg Words Used 2997. Note: if you use footnotes these should not exceed 3 lines. If it is necessary to exceed this, eg because of long titles of reports, cases, etc, then you can go up to 7 lines – but do not do this in more than 8 cases maximum.
After that the words will count!
Work should have a bibliography that lists the sources you have researched and looked at while preparing your assignment. You must also, of course, provide an accurate record of sources you have relied on through effective referencing. Compliance with referencing guidelines is essential in SWL essays, as with other modules. Most of the rules and principles are just common sense. Ie you want readers to know about your sources, and to be able to look at them – perhaps in more detail. Eg a newspaper article, journal article, item on the news about welfare issues, etc. So you do need to signpost them accurately to that source!
So please get familiar with referencing requirements, and make sure you comply with them. We are happy with Harvard or pager or end-notes.
Please ensure that you comply with the regulations on plagiarism and academic dishonesty before submission. Above all it is essential to reference the sources you refer to, complying referencing protocols (enabling the reader to see very clearly the source (title of the publication, report, etc, author, publication details, dates, etc).
At Level 7 is it is expected that you are familiar with referencing requirements (Harvard or footnotes/end-notes if you use these) and comply with them; and ensure you have acted on those requirements, having made yourself familiar with the university’s regulations, including the University’s Academic Misconduct Regulations (accessible on the SU site). Among other things these define academic misconduct, plagiarism, etc:
Your SWL Assignment’s Structure
Try to ensure that you have an effective structure for your essay, ie an introduction outlining the issues and points you intend to discuss.
Effective sub-headings at the start of each section of your work are very helpful, starting with something like ‘Introduction’ or ‘Introduction & Overview’, and ending with a section headed ‘Conclusions’.
Apart from helping you with the structure they also help to remind you to focus on the particular stage you are at! Not essential or mandatory, but something you may wish to consider.
For the assignment you are doing about five or six such sub-headings are helpful.
So you should organise your structure in a way that enable you to deal with this effectively.
At the end of the assignment bring the key points together in a ‘Conclusions’ section.
Depending on what you want to focus on, an effective structure might be based on six or seven headings like this:
• Introduction
• Overview of Sources of Assistance
• Pensions
• Benefits
• Community care Services & Assessment of Needs
• Conclusions
• Bibliography
Content & Topicality
Clearly, the first priority is to include material that is relevant to the question, and which demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of relevant topics. So if you opt to write about issues around family welfare, then you will no doubt wish to look at support from relevant benefits social services, and other sources – you will also comment on changes affecting that area. You should consider the support provided by key sources of welfare such as support from within the family itself, in some cases reinforced by legal interventions, as well as assistance through the benefits and community care systems.
In the case of employment-related and in-work welfare you will need to bring into your commentary discussion of up-to-date sources like in-work benefits, the impact of the NMW/NLW, and discussion of the inter-action of minimum wage requirements and means-tested support.
Similarly, with employment-related welfare you will be bringing into your commentary discussion of sources like in-work benefits and changes like the introduction of the new NLW given how overall levels of support depend on the inter-action of minimum wage requirements and means-tested support. There are plenty of topical issues, of course.
If your topic is older citizens’ and disabled peoples’ welfare then you will need to consider changes to benefits and pensions as well as the impact of community care services (and limitations to support as a result of local authorities’ reliance on the Barry principle). As this question encompasses human rights, it will be helpful to identify relevant cases including any up-to-date cases showing how the Human Rights Act may (or may not!) assist users of the welfare system.

Use the Research You Have Done
You should, of course, make full use of the research and reading you have undertaken before making your DB contributions.
NB This underlines the importance of ensuring that you have completed all your DB contributions by the time you have completed and submitted your assignment.
Don’t be afraid to write about current issues in the subject, including legal issues and aspects that you think are impacting on advisers’ work.
A critical perspective of the subject and the issues is also very welcome, particularly as you are operating at Level 7/Masters level. The essay is an assessment of your knowledge and understanding of SWL and the particular subject/s you are writing about.
It is an opportunity to show off your research, reading, and enquiry into the subjects you are interested in!
For those of you with practical experience of advising on the subjects, it is OK to be a little bit anecdotal about your experiences (in small amounts!) – but obviously link it to the wider sources you have read about, and which are important in this module.
Effective communication matters a lot, so before you submit it’s a good idea to get someone else to read it for sense and meaning – or else read it back to someone, and then ask for their comments and assessment of ‘sense’ and whether what you are saying is being readily understood.
You must also check to ensure you have complied with referencing and academic honesty requirements before submission.
If in doubt, re-work the assignment before you submit!