Newcastle University

Background

Member of first national UK survey of poverty research team in 1964 and founder member of Child Poverty Action Group 1965. Active in poverty research and policy field since then. Before that, management training and services in CDC, FBI and CEGB, 1959-1964.

Qualifications

MA Cantab;
Dip. Soc. Sci., University of Stockholm;
Emeritus Professor of Social Policy of Northumbria University.

Previous Positions

Head of sociology at Newcastle Polytechnic [Northumbria University]1974-87. Taught social policy there 1967-92.

Memberships

Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Social Policy Association.
Previously office holder in many professional and voluntary sector organisations.

Honours and Awards

Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, 2007.
Honorary Fellow, Joint University Council, 2003.

Languages

German; Swedish.

Research Interests

Poverty, inequality, deprivation, social exclusion, minimum income standards.

Poverty and deprivation concepts, standards, measures and research methods. Governmental minimum income standards in the UK and other countries. Standards and methods for establishing income adequacy for minimum wage rates and social security.

Other Expertise

Social policy, income maintenance, social security.

Social policy theory; concepts of income maintenance and social security and the history of social policy making in these fields.

Current Work

Human rights to an adequate income according to human rights conventions and charters, sufficient for human dignity, decency and full social participation. The meaning of income adequacy in this human rights context. The juridification and justiciability of adequate incomes by governments to meet convention and charter obligations and responsibilities. The concept and implementation of governmental minimum income standards in Germany and Sweden [2009-2011].

Postgraduate Supervision

Any aspect of sociology or social policy which involves ideas of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion.

Last PhD student: Malika Al-Busaidi [The meaning of poverty in Oman]; doctorate awarded April 2009.

Esteem Indicators

Since 2000 [many before that] --
Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, 2007.
Honorary Fellow of the Joint University Council, 2003.
Research Fellowship at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Studies and University of Bremen, Germany 2008-09.
Visiting Professor, Eötvös Lorand University ELTE, Budapest, Hungary, 2000.
Member, Advisory Group for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Research Project into Minimum Income Standards for the UK [as originator of the concept of minimum income standards], ongoing since 2006.
Member, Advisory Group for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Research Project into Transmitting Deprivation: Media, Poverty and Public Opinion in the UK, 2007-2008.
Vice-Chair since 2010 and Trustee, Child Poverty Action Group [founder member, 1965, and elected trustee for many years since then, with one gap].
Member of Advisory Board, 'Social Cohesion and Development' (biannual journal published by Dionicos, Athens, Greece, 2006--.
Member of Advisory Board, 'Journal of the Seoul Association for Public Administration' (SAPA, Korea), 2010--
Consultant to Technical University of Lisbon Institute of Social and Political Sciences, research programme, 'Minimum Income Standard for Portugal: a consensual approach', 2011--
Often consulted on income adequacy questions by Parliamentary Committees, government departments and a range of NGOs/voluntary organisations in the UK and Europe; also on international development [DfID: poverty measurement and statistics in Republic of Georgia, 2001]. Publications have been translated into German, Greek, Polish and Russian. Invited translator of two sociological theory/social policy books from German [1996-97; 2008-2010].

Funding

Research funding at various times since 1976 from SSRC [now ESRC], the Nuffield Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Millfield House Foundation and the British Council. Research Fellowship at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Studies and University of Bremen 2008-09.

Industrial Relevance

The scope of minimum wage issues.

Postgraduate Teaching

Poverty, deprivation, exclusion, income maintenance, social security, social assistance.

Supervision of dissertations and theses on poverty theory and income maintenance subjects.

• Veit-Wilson J. Some social policy implications of a right to social security. In: Jef Van Langendonck, ed. The Right to Social Security. Antwerp: Intersentia, 2007, pp. 57-83.
• Veit-Wilson J. Setting adequacy standards: how governments define minimum incomes. Bristol: Policy Press, 1998.
• Veit-Wilson J. Minimum income standards. In: Tony Fitzpatrick et al., ed. International Encyclopedia of Social Policy. London: Routledge, 2006.
• Veit-Wilson J. No rights without remedies: necessary conditions for abolishing child poverty. European Journal of Social Security 2006, 8(3), 317-337.
• Veit-Wilson J. Poverty. In: Tony Fitzpatrick et al., ed. International Encyclopedia of Social Policy. London: Routledge, 2006.
• Veit-Wilson J. Poverty. In: Harrington, A., Marshall, B.L. and Muller, H-P., ed. Encyclopedia of Social Theory. London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 455-457.
• Veit-Wilson J. Poverty, incomes and resources: concepts and measures. In: Nick Manning and Nataliya Tikhonova, ed. Poverty and social exclusion in the new Russia. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004, pp. 37-62.
• Veit-Wilson J. Triangulation of data from existing sources as a basis for a Governmental Minimum Income Standard. In: House of Commons Social Security Committee ed. House of Commons Social Security session 2000-01: Second Report - Integrated Child Credit 2001. London: The Stationery Office, 109-126.
• Veit-Wilson J. Horses for discourses: poverty, purpose and closure in Minimum Income Standards Policy. In: Gordon, D.; Townsend, P., ed. Breadline Europe: the measurement of poverty. Bristol: The Policy Press, 2000, pp. 141-164.
• Veit-Wilson J. States of welfare: A conceptual challenge. Social Policy and Administration 2000, 34(1), 1-25.
• Veit-Wilson J. Unfinished business: Seebohm Rowntree's project for British Minimum Income Standards. In: Getting the measure of poverty: the early legacy of Seebohm Rowntree. 1998, University of York: Ashgate.
• Veit-Wilson J. Poverty and the adequacy of social security. In: John Ditch, ed. Introduction to social security: policies, benefits and poverty. London: Routledge, 1999, pp. 78-109.
• Veit-Wilson J. The National Assistance Board and the 'rediscovery' of poverty. In: Fawcett, H.; Lowe, R., ed. Welfare policy in Britain: the road from 1945. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999, pp. 116-157.
• Veit-Wilson J. The tax threshold: policy, principles and poverty. Twentieth Century British History 1999, 10(2), 218-234.
• Veit-Wilson J. Condemned to deprivation? Beveridge's responsibility for the invisibility of poverty. In: Hills, J.; Ditch, J.; Glennerster, H., ed. Beveridge and social security: an international retrospective. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994, pp. 97-117.
• Veit-Wilson J. Muddle or mendacity? The Beveridge Committee and the poverty line. Journal of Social Policy 1992, 21(3), 269-301.
• Veit-Wilson J. Consensual approaches to poverty lines and social security. Journal of Social Policy 1987, 16(2), 183-211.
• Veit-Wilson J. Paradigms of poverty: a rehabilitation of B.S. Rowntree. Journal of Social Policy 1986, 15(1), 69-99.
• Veit-Wilson J. Social Democratic Principles and Values [Translation from Swedish of: Swedish Social Democratic Party (2007), Vår Ideologi].. 2011. Available at: http://www.chrissmithonline.co.uk/files/swedish-sd-party-our-ideology-300810.pdf.
• Veit-Wilson J. Book review of Kristian Niemietz (2011), A New Understanding of Poverty: Poverty Measurement and Policy Implications. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs. Journal of Social Policy 2011, 40(4), 857-858.