“Work for those that can, security for those that cannot”:The United Kingdom’s new social security reform agenda

Following its election victory, the Labour government embarked on a programme to reform fundamentally the United Kingdom’s post‐war welfare state. The reforms are outlined in a number of government policy consultation papers and are intended to address neo‐liberal concerns about the welfare state, although neo‐liberal panaceas have been rejected in favour of a “third way”. Strongly influenced by Mead, Layard, Giddens and Field, the government’s welfare reform package is premised on a conception of citizenship that emphasizes equally the importance of “entitlements” and “obligations”, especially the obligation to work. We argue that this reform approach is inherently flawed: it presumes that the poor are without work because they lack appropriate incentives, not because they lack jobs that will lift and keep them out of poverty. We argue that the government’s welfare reform strategy is contradictory: while it aims to ameliorate poverty, the emphasis on obligations and compulsion may have the effect of reinforcing existing economic and social divisions. In approaching the second millennium, there is a clear need for a robust interventionist approach to welfare which emphasizes the right to a satisfactory standard of living.