Abstract
What is to become of the welfare state is a basic question within social and political policy — a question, which has dominated the political agenda in the UK for some time. In the past opinion has been divided between incremental change to the benefit system and more radical reform to the balance between cash benefits and services, means-testing and universality. The last two decades have witnessed substantial change in the welfare in the UK. Motives for reform have been diverse: to reduce the benefits bill, to reduce the length of time spent on benefit, to create incentives for people to move from welfare to work and to improve quality of services. At different times, different strategies have been adopted, but much of the discussion in the UK has been based on snapshots, leading to decisions, which later have proved inadequate or inappropriate.
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References
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Reed, H., Deakin, S. (2000). United Kingdom. In: van Vugt, J.P.A., et al. Social Security and Solidarity in the European Union. Contributions to Economics. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-57676-8_11
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