ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the springtide of reform which is steadily lapping and rising around the foundations of Britain's welfare state. Discontent with the welfare system expressed by voters is matched by those who are welfare's beneficiaries. A cause of the discontent about welfare is that voters feel that the benefit system can no longer be viewed as part of a range of duties and rights which societies have to operate if they are to survive. A misreading of the voters' reactions to Labour's 1992 defeat and a communication of that misreading may now have resulted in educating the very same voters into believing the doctrine that higher taxes automatically results in electoral failure. The nineteenth century established the right to vote and the twentieth century focused on gaining economic and welfare rights. The complexity of welfare provision has led to a mushrooming of individuals who of their own volition work out how best they can maximise their income.
