ABSTRACT
No system can last forever. In 1942 Beveridge Plan set out to consolidate the piece-meal changes of the previous fifty years and the system instituted after Second World War, largely as a result of the Beveridge Report, is itself forty years old. A system that reserves all its goodies for those with a sufficient record in the labour market damages the family and weakens the sense of community. Beveridge recommended a system of social security based on contributory social insurance benefits plus non-contributory family allowances, with means-tested national assistance as a residual safety net. Some of the changes taking place are outside government control, but many are by-products of past government policies, especially the systems of personal taxation and social security. Only governments can ensure that the tax and benefit systems match the economic and social conditions under which people actually live.
