ABSTRACT
The previous chapter examined images of the poor and their implicit messages about causes of poverty. These matters are necessarily linked to policy issues concerning the treatment of the poor and the degree of collective responsibility which is considered acceptable. A common view asserts that the transition into the twentieth century saw the incremental development of social responsibility for the poor, but detail of the legislation shows a perpetuation of the deserving/undeserving distinction of nineteenth-century thought, and even its exacerbation. This chapter looks more closely at poverty policy in Britain, and the question of whether the welfare state utopia was ever really delivered.
