The role of redistribution in social policy
The role of redistribution in social policy
This chapter picks up and develops some of the ideas in ‘The social division of welfare’, particularly the arbitrariness of what was seen as a ‘social service’ because it involved public spending, as distinct from other forms of fiscal and occupational welfare. It notes that Titmuss rejects this view of social policy as consisting of public spending in specified areas as both inadequate, because of what it omits, and misleading in implying that welfare provision is unproblematically redistributive from those with more to those with less income. It provides a powerful statement of the case against services solely delivered to the poor through a means test. It develops Titmuss's comparison of social, fiscal, and occupational welfare and their distributional effects, providing examples of the often more favourable treatment of those with high than those with low incomes. It identifies a huge contemporary issue: equality of access to universal services does not guarantee equality of treatment.
Keywords: welfare, public spending, occupational welfare, social policy, poor, means test, equality, universal services
Policy Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
