In 1997, the Labour Party was elected in the UK with few explicitly articulated ideas about social security reforms. This paper reviews the large number of subsequent reforms to social security, and argues that some consistent themes have emerged. A commitment to keep to the tight spending plans of the previous, Conservative, administration left little scope for increases in benefit spending during the first two years in office. Since that time, increases in the generosity of some social security programmes have been directed towards achieving certain goals. An emphasis on encouraging paid work has been a consistent theme, whilst aims of reducing poverty rates for children and pensioners have been emphasised since 1999. Spending to achieve these goals has often been directed through means-tested programmes, and there has been a related weakening of the link between paid National Insurance contributions and benefit entitlements. It remains to be seen whether reforms to the process of income assessment will increase take-up.
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Article provided by Institute for Fiscal Studies in its journal Fiscal Studies.
Volume (Year): 23 (2002) Issue (Month): 4 (December) Pages: 505-537 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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Find related papers by JEL classification: D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General
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