Policies and organisations addressing inequality
Compare state legislation, welfare and NGO activity with sociological critiques of how far these reduce inequality.
Exam scope and assessment notes
This lesson is written for Cambridge IGCSE Sociology 0495. It maps section 3.2 in the 2025–2027 Version 3 and 2028–2030 Version 1 syllabuses; Cambridge reports no significant teaching changes for 2028–2030. Use current, credible and age-appropriate examples from more than one society. Check local law and school policy before discussing sensitive or legally restricted family, marriage, crime or punishment examples. Do not ask learners to disclose personal experiences. These lessons present sociological explanations for analysis, not endorsements of political positions or stereotypes.
Before you begin
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
Before you start: Which is an example of a welfare-state measure?
What you will learn
- Explain progressive taxation, benefits, minimum wages, equal-opportunity laws and other government measures.
- Assess education, unemployment support, pensions, housing, healthcare and universal basic income as welfare measures.
- Explain NGO work in poverty reduction, medical support, business and education.
- Compare New Right, culture-of-poverty, Marxist, NGO and feminist critiques of interventions.
Different routes to reduce inequality
Legislation can set minimum standards, redistribute resources through progressive taxes and benefits, support wages or prohibit discrimination. Effects depend on eligibility, enforcement, funding and access.
Welfare states may provide universal or targeted education, unemployment benefits, pensions, low-cost housing, healthcare or universal basic income. A policy can improve some life chances while leaving other sources of inequality intact.
Government, NGO and sociological debate
NGOs may reduce poverty, provide medical assistance, promote business or improve education. Their scale, accountability, continuity and fit with local priorities should be assessed.
New Right critiques may argue welfare creates dependency or an underclass; culture-of-poverty accounts focus on learned practices, while critics question whether they blame disadvantaged people. Marxists ask whether welfare leaves capitalist inequalities intact. Feminists may question whether equality law reaches unpaid work and power inside families. Each view needs evidence and counter-evidence.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
What evidence most directly helps assess whether a tutoring programme improves educational access?
Worked example
A government funds school meals and an NGO provides tutoring in a low-income area. Explain how each might affect life chances and one issue to investigate.
Show the worked solution
- Meals may improve short-term access to nutrition and participation in school.
- Tutoring may provide learning support, but availability and continuity matter.
- Evaluate take-up, outcomes, funding and whether broader barriers such as housing or digital access remain.
Answer The measures may help through different mechanisms; evidence is needed to assess reach, outcomes and wider structural limits.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
Compare a minimum-wage law with unemployment benefits as responses to economic inequality.
Give me a hint
Explain each mechanism and identify who may or may not benefit.
Compare my reasoning
- A minimum wage sets a legal pay floor for covered employment.
- Unemployment benefits provide income support to eligible people who are out of work.
- Compare coverage, enforcement, living costs, incentives, fiscal capacity and effects on different households using local evidence.
The wage floor targets pay in covered jobs; benefits support eligible people without work. Their reach and outcomes differ with eligibility, labour markets and cost of living, so neither alone addresses every inequality.
Look for these in your work
- Accurately distinguishes mechanisms
- Identifies eligibility or coverage
- Evaluates with context
A charity reports that its education programme reached 500 learners. What further evidence is needed to judge its effect on inequality?
Give me a hint
Reach is an output; look for outcomes, comparison and distribution.
Compare my reasoning
- Check which learners were reached and which groups were missing.
- Measure relevant outcomes such as attendance, access to resources or learning progression over time.
- Compare with a credible baseline or similar group and consider other changes that could explain results.
The reach figure counts participation but does not establish impact. Evaluators need who benefited, what changed, for whom and compared with what, while acknowledging attribution limits.
Look for these in your work
- Separates output from outcome
- Examines distribution
- Requests a credible comparison
Evaluate a claim that welfare support causes poverty because recipients become dependent.
Give me a hint
Treat it as one theoretical claim and look for structural factors and evidence.
Compare my reasoning
- Explain the New Right concern that some benefits may affect incentives or expectations.
- Consider counter-evidence and structural causes such as low wages, disability, care, job availability and housing costs.
- Test the claim with evidence about duration, access, employment and poverty outcomes rather than assuming all recipients respond alike.
The claim reflects one critique but is too broad without evidence. Welfare may support people facing real barriers; its effects depend on design and circumstances. A balanced judgement examines both incentives and structural conditions.
Look for these in your work
- Identifies the perspective
- Considers structural alternatives
- Avoids blaming all recipients
Common mistakes
- Assuming welfare always reduces inequality or always creates dependency
- Treating an NGO's stated purpose as evidence of impact
- Ignoring who can access a policy
What can you explain now?
What evidence most directly helps assess whether a tutoring programme improves educational access?
Compare with the explanation
Participation and outcomes compared with a suitable baseline or group
The programme's name alone
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Make it stick
Name one legal measure, one welfare service and one NGO role, then give a question for evaluating impact.
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.