ABSTRACT
In Britain today, seven times the number of people are wholly dependent upon means tested welfare as work in manufacturing industry. This is the appalling legacy of 16 years of Conservative Government. The aim of Britain's welfare state was to underpin a widespread sense of social security—that people would be full citizens, able to respond to economic and other incentives while at the same time liberated from Want. Hand in hand with means-tested welfare there is a new and invidious form of social insecurity. The chapter is concerned with explaining the question of the form of social insecurity. Housing benefit and council tax rebates are paid automatically to those registering for income support. The growing dominance of means tests under the Tories can be seen from the information and the amount spent on each of the major groups of benefits: contributory or national insurance, non-contributory and non-means-tested, and finally means-tested benefits.
