Summary

Although caseloads of the four recipient groups – unemployed people, disabled people pensioners and families with children – all increased between 1971 and 1998/99, they did so for different reasons. The process of deindustrialisation provided a background for all the changes, but was only implicated as a major direct influence in the case of unemployment-related benefits.

Unemployment caseloads reflected movements in the economic cycle, but increased with the secular decline in manufacturing and a large youth cohort in the 1980s. By 1999, the claimant unemployment was comparable to that in 1971, although changed definitions flatter the comparison, and absolute numbers remained 65% higher because of growth in the labour force – largely on account of higher economic participation by women. Control of inflation replaced full employment as a policy priority in the late 1970s, and from the 1980s active labour market policies began to be implemented.

The number of disabled people claiming benefits rose in response to new provisions, themselves a consequence of growing recognition of the financial needs of disabled people. The reported prevalence of disability increased, while a more competitive economy and labour market may have placed disabled people seeking work at a growing disadvantage. Ill-health associated with increased poverty may also have played a role. An ageing population added to the caseloads of those benefits for people above retirement age.

New benefits – notably Child Benefit and means-tested benefits for working families – added to the number of families with children receiving benefit over a period during which fertility fell markedly. While, at times, unemployment inflated the numbers of families claiming out of work benefits, the three-fold growth in lone parents – reflecting profound changes in sexual attitudes and relationships – was the main cause of growth.

The increased retirement pensioner caseload was largely the result of higher life expectancy, but a decline in the means-tested caseload resulted from the maturation of occupational pensions and the State Earnings Related Pensions Scheme.

The diversity of experience, transience of circumstances, and differences in aspirations worked against the creation of class consciousness and the development of a welfare class.