ABSTRACT
In comparative studies the United Kingdom is frequently cited as an example of a liberal regime. Its welfare state is based on minimal benefi ts, often means-tested against income loss, and child and eldercare have traditionally been seen as a predominantly private concern. Thus, the market is more important for the protection of people from poverty than perhaps in any of the other countries included in this book. Since the 1970s employment rates in the United Kingdom have been comparatively high, and since the 1990s they were second highest in the countries included in this study after Denmark (see Table 4.2 Appendix). Private pension provision has always played an important role in the United Kingdom (Bridgen and Meyer 2005), and the demand for private care services has been growing steadily, too (Kendall 2003, 31). In liberal capitalism more is expected of the market, but employment and businesses are less regulated than in more coordinated countries such as Germany or Denmark (Hall and Soskice 2001); thus income differentials are larger (Glyn 2001), with very low wages at the bottom of the scale, and private pensions and care services only available to the more affl uent. As a result, for a long time, the United Kingdom has been battling against high poverty rates, which hit families with children and the elderly in particular (Bridgen and Meyer 2007; Gregg and Wadsworth 2001; Papadopoulos and Tsakloglou 2002 for a comparative perspective).
