Chapter Writing everyday life into law
In 1977, a curious and short-lived social security benefit came into being. Housewife’s Non-Contributory Invalidity Pension (HNCIP) was assessed through a ‘household duties test’ which sought to determine whether a woman was capable of performing everyday activities. HNCIP’s very existence shows tha...
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| Format: | Online |
| Idioma: | anglès |
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Manchester University Press
2025
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| Accés en línia: | ONIX_20250703T165813_9781526170675_3 |
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| _version_ | 1869525011841155072 |
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| author | Millward, Gareth |
| author_browse | Millward, Gareth |
| author_facet | Millward, Gareth |
| author_sort | Millward, Gareth |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | In 1977, a curious and short-lived social security benefit came into being. Housewife’s Non-Contributory Invalidity Pension (HNCIP) was assessed through a ‘household duties test’ which sought to determine whether a woman was capable of performing everyday activities. HNCIP’s very existence shows that assumptions were made about women’s lives, domestic labour, and the position of women within a nuclear family headed by a male breadwinner. It exposed fundamental tensions within the social security administration in the late 1970s. Authorities accepted the moral claims from disabled people’s organisations for welfare support but were mindful of the cost implications. A patchwork of benefits for various disability categories had emerged over the previous decade. HNCIP, however, did not fit existing models of ‘income replacement’ or ‘extra costs’ benefits. It provided for the household’s costs from a wife being unable to perform domestic labour based on a medical diagnosis. Yet it was also a ‘pension’, a category for people unable to secure paid work. Was domestic labour ‘work’? If so, why did it have financial value only when ill health took it away? This chapter considers the implications of the Department of Health and Social Security’s attempts to quantify the everyday life of domestic labour. Internal policy files from the National Archives about the ‘household duties test’ give us a window onto the interaction between the Beveridgean welfare state, gender, and disability. Further, tribunal documents give us a unique – if historiographically problematic – perspective on disabled women’s needs and expectations of the welfare state. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-162544 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Manchester University Press |
| publisherStr | Manchester University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1625442025-07-05T05:13:18Z Chapter Writing everyday life into law Millward, Gareth everyday health health humanities intersectionality medical humanities social history of medicine wellbeing thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999::3MPQ Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999 In 1977, a curious and short-lived social security benefit came into being. Housewife’s Non-Contributory Invalidity Pension (HNCIP) was assessed through a ‘household duties test’ which sought to determine whether a woman was capable of performing everyday activities. HNCIP’s very existence shows that assumptions were made about women’s lives, domestic labour, and the position of women within a nuclear family headed by a male breadwinner. It exposed fundamental tensions within the social security administration in the late 1970s. Authorities accepted the moral claims from disabled people’s organisations for welfare support but were mindful of the cost implications. A patchwork of benefits for various disability categories had emerged over the previous decade. HNCIP, however, did not fit existing models of ‘income replacement’ or ‘extra costs’ benefits. It provided for the household’s costs from a wife being unable to perform domestic labour based on a medical diagnosis. Yet it was also a ‘pension’, a category for people unable to secure paid work. Was domestic labour ‘work’? If so, why did it have financial value only when ill health took it away? This chapter considers the implications of the Department of Health and Social Security’s attempts to quantify the everyday life of domestic labour. Internal policy files from the National Archives about the ‘household duties test’ give us a window onto the interaction between the Beveridgean welfare state, gender, and disability. Further, tribunal documents give us a unique – if historiographically problematic – perspective on disabled women’s needs and expectations of the welfare state. 2025-07-04T05:10:18Z 2025-07-04T05:10:18Z 2025-07-03T15:02:47Z 2024 chapter ONIX_20250703T165813_9781526170675_3 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103936 9781526170675 9781526170651 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/162544 eng Social Histories of Medicine open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/103936/1/9781526170675-ch5.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/103936/1/9781526170675-ch5.pdf Manchester University Press Manchester University Press 10.7765/9781526170675 10.7765/9781526170675 bcb4ab08-c525-4e6c-88e5-a0cf0a175533 ‘Everyday health’, embodiment, and selfhood since 1950 Wellcome Trust d859fbd3-d884-4090-a0ec-baf821c9abfd 343879dd-7955-422b-881a-bf482aa661e2 9781526170675 9781526170651 Wellcome Manchester University Press 20 Manchester [...] [...] open access |
| spellingShingle | everyday health health humanities intersectionality medical humanities social history of medicine wellbeing thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999::3MPQ Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999 Millward, Gareth Chapter Writing everyday life into law |
| title | Chapter Writing everyday life into law |
| title_full | Chapter Writing everyday life into law |
| title_fullStr | Chapter Writing everyday life into law |
| title_full_unstemmed | Chapter Writing everyday life into law |
| title_short | Chapter Writing everyday life into law |
| title_sort | chapter writing everyday life into law |
| topic | everyday health health humanities intersectionality medical humanities social history of medicine wellbeing thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999::3MPQ Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999 |
| topic_facet | everyday health health humanities intersectionality medical humanities social history of medicine wellbeing thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTB Social and cultural history thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999::3MPQ Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999 |
| url | ONIX_20250703T165813_9781526170675_3 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT millwardgareth chapterwritingeverydaylifeintolaw |