Policy Press
Chapter 6 A unified system?
Abstract
The Beveridge system has been represented as universal, uniform and based in a unified administration. None of these is strictly true. The system was limited and hemmed in by conditions. It was deliberately designed to be bureaucratic and centralised, but the model of service delivery has greatly changed over the years. The scale of the administrative operation implies rather more diversity than is at first apparent, and responsibilities are shared across a range of agencies. Schemes for unification do not necessarily simplify the administration.
Describing social security as a ‘system’ tends to imply that the parts have some kind of structural relationship to the whole. That was certainly what the Beveridge report was intended to achieve. Beveridge provided the blueprint for social security in Britain, and the scheme of social insurance dominated policy for at least forty years. The details of the Beveridge report are principally concerned with National Insurance, which Beveridge planned to cover people ‘from cradle to grave’. Insurance could not do that; the coverage has never been comprehensive, and other benefits have grown to fill in the gaps. The limitations, and then the progressive erosion of the insurance base led over time to a different kind of scheme: a multiplicity of benefits, covering a range of contingencies through a variety of methods. The post-war British system has been characterised, in continental literature, as having three elements: universality, uniformity and unified administration. None of these is true, but understanding why they are not true offers a useful starting point for the analysis of a complex, diverse field of activity.
Abstract
The Beveridge system has been represented as universal, uniform and based in a unified administration. None of these is strictly true. The system was limited and hemmed in by conditions. It was deliberately designed to be bureaucratic and centralised, but the model of service delivery has greatly changed over the years. The scale of the administrative operation implies rather more diversity than is at first apparent, and responsibilities are shared across a range of agencies. Schemes for unification do not necessarily simplify the administration.
Describing social security as a ‘system’ tends to imply that the parts have some kind of structural relationship to the whole. That was certainly what the Beveridge report was intended to achieve. Beveridge provided the blueprint for social security in Britain, and the scheme of social insurance dominated policy for at least forty years. The details of the Beveridge report are principally concerned with National Insurance, which Beveridge planned to cover people ‘from cradle to grave’. Insurance could not do that; the coverage has never been comprehensive, and other benefits have grown to fill in the gaps. The limitations, and then the progressive erosion of the insurance base led over time to a different kind of scheme: a multiplicity of benefits, covering a range of contingencies through a variety of methods. The post-war British system has been characterised, in continental literature, as having three elements: universality, uniformity and unified administration. None of these is true, but understanding why they are not true offers a useful starting point for the analysis of a complex, diverse field of activity.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables and figures vii
- About the author viii
- Preface ix
-
Introduction: social security benefits in principle
- What is social security? 3
- Social security and the welfare state 11
- Social security and society 21
-
The development of the system
- The origins of social security in Britain 35
- The politics of social security 45
- A unified system? 53
-
Benefits
- National Insurance 67
- Means-tested benefits: the basic minimum 79
- Means testing: income supplements 89
- Non-contributory benefits 101
- Discretionary benefits 109
- Universal benefits 117
- Claiming benefits 125
- Understanding complexity 137
-
The principal contingencies
- Pensioners 149
- Benefits for people with disabilities 163
- Incapacity 175
- Children and families 187
- Lone parents 193
- Unemployed people 201
- Benefits for the poor 213
-
Issues in social security policy
- The cost of social security 225
- Targeting 235
- Fraud and abuse 241
- Responding to poverty 249
- Social security and redistribution 259
- How social security in Britain compares to other countries 265
- Social security: a programme for reform 273
- Social security: sources of data 277
- Index 281
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables and figures vii
- About the author viii
- Preface ix
-
Introduction: social security benefits in principle
- What is social security? 3
- Social security and the welfare state 11
- Social security and society 21
-
The development of the system
- The origins of social security in Britain 35
- The politics of social security 45
- A unified system? 53
-
Benefits
- National Insurance 67
- Means-tested benefits: the basic minimum 79
- Means testing: income supplements 89
- Non-contributory benefits 101
- Discretionary benefits 109
- Universal benefits 117
- Claiming benefits 125
- Understanding complexity 137
-
The principal contingencies
- Pensioners 149
- Benefits for people with disabilities 163
- Incapacity 175
- Children and families 187
- Lone parents 193
- Unemployed people 201
- Benefits for the poor 213
-
Issues in social security policy
- The cost of social security 225
- Targeting 235
- Fraud and abuse 241
- Responding to poverty 249
- Social security and redistribution 259
- How social security in Britain compares to other countries 265
- Social security: a programme for reform 273
- Social security: sources of data 277
- Index 281
