259 Chapter 26 Social security and redistribution Social security redistributes money in several directions – not only between rich and poor, but between age groups, different types of households and people with different types of need. Overall, the system has a progressive redistributive effect. The system might become more redistributive with greater means testing, but the aims of benefits depend on many other principles, and progressive redistribution is not the only test. A measure is redistributive if the people who receive goods or services from a
199 The restructuring of redistribution TEN The restructuring of redistribution David Piachaud introduction By far the largest component of social policy in Britain measured in terms of government expenditure is the social security system. Despite many changes, this system was for over half a century recognisably the same as that proposed by Beveridge (1942). Over the past decade, however, that system has been radically restructured. Goals have been changed: the guiding mantra has become ‘work for those who can, security for those who cannot’ (DSS, 1998
Poverty, inequality and redistribution 21 TWO Poverty, inequality and redistribution Tom Sefton, John Hills and Holly Sutherland introduction The previous Conservative government presided over a period of sharply rising income inequality: between 1979 and 1996-97, the median income of the richest tenth increased by more than 60% in real terms, but that of the poorest tenth rose by just 11% (or fell by 13% if incomes are measured after housing costs). Ultimately, many people’s judgement of New Labour will rest on whether it has made progress towards reversing
109 Tom Sefton Research Fellow ESRC Research Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE UK +44 (0)20 7955 7613 +44 (0)20 7955 6951 t.a.sefton@lse.ac.uk http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/case t e f w Inequality and redistribution under New Labour Tom Sefton While Tony Blair has stated that income redistribution is not an explicit aim of his government, many of the changes it has made to the tax and benefit system have been redistributive. The experience to date highlights the challenge New
part Three Redistribution: between households; over time; between areas
181 SEVEN Equality with little tax or redistribution Changes to taxation and other means of redistributing income are the final policy shift examined by this book. Based on the neoliberal premise that poverty is a problem of personal behaviour, rather than economic conditions, low tax has been reoriented as the best means for ensuring fair redistribution of income (Harvey, 2007). This sits in contrast with the emphasis placed on progressive, relatively high levels of taxation during the post-World War II period which was regarded as a trade-off for
103 The role of redistribution in social policy In the literature of the West, concepts and models of social policy are as diverse as contemporary concepts of poverty. Historically, the two have indeed had much in common. They certainly share diversity. There are those at one end of the political spectrum who see social policy as a transitory minimum activity of minimum government for a minimum number of poor people; as a form of social control for minority groups in a ‘natural’ society; as a way of resolving the conflict between the religious ethic of
and 1960s. In other ways, circumstances have changed as a result of some of the social and economic forces he foresaw as of growing importance. * * * * * The first chapter, ‘The role of redistribution in social policy’, picks up and develops some of the ideas Titmuss had discussed in what is included here as Part 2, Chapter Two, ‘The social division of welfare’, particularly the arbitrariness of what was seen as a ‘social service’ because it involved public spending, in distinction to other forms of fiscal and occupational welfare. Titmuss rejects this view of
137 Karina Batthyány Dighiero, karina.batthyany@cienciassociales.edu.uy University of the Republic, Uruguay Coral Calderón (ed) (2013) Redistributing care: The policy challenge Cuadernos de la CEPAL, Institutional Documents and Books 422pp, ISBN: 978-9-2122-1062-9 EPUB/pdf version freely accessible at: http://www.cepal.org/en/ publications/redistributing-care-policy-challenge In this edited collection, Calderon and the authors of its 10 chapters make a significant contribution to debates about care policy and public policy in Latin America. The book offers a
