ABSTRACT
Social welfare policy refers to the use of the state as an income-transfer mechanism to provide services and monetary supplements to sectors of the population deemed by the government to deserve such assistance through their social circumstances and to provide basic social services for all citizens. Overall, the agenda in postwar British social welfare policy has moved from one of "minimum benefits" for all to one of "selective benefits" to most. The major institutions in the social welfare area include the traditional parliamentary ones, the House of Commons and the government it supports, abetted in the twentieth century by an expanded bureaucracy to administer the variety of programs. British central government took measures to encourage private housebuilding by allowing nonprofit housing associations to build. Despite all of the elite posturing on the issue, Britain over the years has moved from being a welfare state leader to a welfare state laggard.
