Contemporary stuff:
Information about the system we have now is on a separate page.
Benefits - policy journal
New Tax Credits consultation document
Benefits for people living abroad
House of Commons Social
Security Committee
The Social Security Advisory Committee
The Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill 1999, explanatory notes about the bill and information from DSS about the intentions behind it. The main controversy has been about Incapacity Benefit where it seems that the proposals are directly contrary to the stated aim of encouraging people to make their own provision and to give security to people who cannot work.
Polly Toynbee: How serious is the Government about redistribution, poverty and social exclusion?
Government welfare reform
Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Important source of research on benefits, poverty and related topics
Means testing sounds a good idea doesn't it. Give the help to the people who
need it most.
But when you look at the problems Tony Blair is complaining about, apart from
spending going up, most of them are related to people being trapped on benefits
and the effect that has on incentives. Journalists are so far removed from the
world of the poor that they don't know the rules. And as long as we have means
testing no one will pay for their own insurance or pension unless they are pretty
confident that they will never be poor enough to pass the means test or, like
most poorer people, they don't understand how the system works
Personally I think the Beveridge Plan is the only one which works. Make everyone
pay something identifiable so that when they come to claim they don't feel any
guilt. Make sure that everyone is in the same system so that people can't be
stigmatised. Avoid means testing as much as possible so that people have an
incentive to make their own provision if they can afford it.
Benefits which are reserved for the poor will end up like the workhouse: oppressive
and intimidating to ensure that only those with no alternative will be reduced
to claiming.
Historical stuff:
History of the American Social Security System
Speeches at the 33rd anniversary of (US) Social Security ceremonies
PRIVATE CHARITY AND THE 1834 POOR LAW
Five Hundred Years of English Poor Laws, 1349-1834: Regulating the Working and Nonworking Poor
Social Security and Social Work
Text of the 1601 Poor Law
The best history of the Welfare State I've found is Nicholas Timmins - The Five Giants. I have only found a review in German, but on the same site you can find some material about the German Social security system.
And did you know that the magazine which today is The Health Service Journal, first appeared in 1892 as The Poor Law Officers' Journal?
Last updated August 28, 2007