Social Security in the 1980s

In the evolution of social security policy over the past decade, a number of themes stand out: improving work incentives; reducing expenditure and civil servant numbers; simplification; targeting help on those in greatest need; the promotion of self-reliance and independence; tackling fraud and "abuse". Although not all exclusive to the Thatcher Government, they reflect to a great extent its wider ideological and economic preoccupations. This article examines how the Government's contradictory goals for social security were translated into specific policies, the extent to which their ideological thrust was tempered in practice, and the ambivalent attitudes towards "the poor" revealed in the interplay between ideology and pragmatic politics.