'21st Century Welfare' and the Wage-Work-Welfare Bargain

The Coalition government has been pursuing an ambitious programme of changes to social security following a promise to carry out ‘the biggest shake up of the welfare and benefits system for sixty years’. Proposals in 21st Century Welfare (2010, Cm 7913) and Universal Credit: Welfare that Works (2010, Cm 7957) were followed by legislation, namely the Welfare Reform Bill 2011. Some initiatives are new, including a scheme replacing most benefits and tax credits with a single benefit, Universal Credit (UC) and a power to impose a ‘cap’ on claimants’ benefit income. Other features such as greater benefits ‘conditionality’ are more familiar.