ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews British evidence about the extent to which the targeted benefits and costs of the welfare state result in the redistribution of income. Welfare reform is reportedly the big idea of the new Labor government in Britain. The chapter explains targeting policies and outcomes in relation to two distinctive aspects of British social policy: social security benefits and the allocation of resources for health and social care. Throughout the health and social care system there is now growing interest in the development of formulae and protocols to ensure that resources and needs are matched more precisely. Adjustment for demographic factors markedly reduces the pro-poor impact of the social wage from a ratio of 1.1 to 1.2. The piece of evidence comes from comparison of two large-scale national surveys of elderly recipients of home-based community care: the domiciliary care project that was conducted in 1985 and the evaluation of community care for elderly people project that began in 1995.
