Welfare Rights Work into the 1990s—a Changing Agenda

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe authors discuss the development of welfare rights advisory work in Britain, tracing its origins from the Community Development Projects of the late 1960s to services which are funded mainly by local government. Changes in social security legislation in 1980 introduced a largely non-discretionary regulated scheme which was quickly exploited by welfare rights advisers to maximise the take-up of single payments. Advisers and social workers were blamed for generating a deluge of claims by informing claimants of their right to extra benefit. Hence, in 1986, the government restricted entitlement to single payments. It is argued, on the basis of a survey of single payment queries made to welfare rights advisory agencies, that those restrictions foreshadowed the coming of the social fund—with its discretion, cash limit and extremely limited eligibility. The implications for welfare rights work in this changed climate are considered.