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The principal objective of this thesis is to determine why, how and with what outcomes means tests for 'non-income-replacement' benefits were adopted in England and Wales from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. The approach taken is to explore four benefits: free prescription medicines; free school meals; student grants; and civil legal aid. I use documents to identify the objectives, administrative details and design of the benefits which are the focus of this thesis. The method used to find out how many and what sorts of people were eligible under the means tests is microsimulation with micro-data. There was no high point of generosity in the mid-1970s for these benefits, as the historiography often suggests. These four benefits had very different objectives. There was also incoherence in objectives over time, as governments struggled with spending constraints rather than following a welfare ideology, which serves to undermine theories which assume that welfare states are a unified institution. The changing income levels for entitlement for benefit show that who was deemed to be 'in need' of a particular benefit shifted over time. The results show little support for the theory of middle class 'capture' of the welfare state, which implies that the influence of pressure groups on welfare state change is more subtle than that theory suggests. Although the intention of restricting entitlement for all the benefits was achieved, they were not very well targeted on those with the lowest incomes, especially in the 1990s. This finding shows that the outcome did not meet all the stated objectives, with implications for the design of future policy. I also find that means tested benefits have embodied values, which are not necessarily made explicit as policy objectives. This, along with the failure to target effectively, demonstrates that the way a means testing policy is implemented does matter.

The Welfare Reform Act 2012 paved the way for wide-ranging changes to means-tested benefits in England. One of the reforms, the benefit cap policy, limits the amount of housing benefit or local housing allowance that unemployed benefit recipients can receive from the state. This has had a direct impact on tens of thousands of benefit recipients' ability to meet their housing costs and can lead to them becoming homeless. Those people affected by the benefit cap are likely to interact with local housing officials to seek solutions when housing problems arise. In light of this, the aim of this thesis was to provide a qualitative account of how and why the practices of housing professionals in London changed following the introduction of the benefit cap. One of the research methods involved negotiating access to key officials at three local authorities and interviewing them about their reflections and experiences. The findings are divided into two sets of factors. First, there was complexity of functions and boundaries between central and local government responsibilities. It is argued in this thesis that housing professionals' practices were changed in part by the poor fit between the national government's new policy and the local authorities' existing legal responsibilities towards homeless families. Consequently, tensions surrounding legislative, judicial and local interpretations of legislation emerged, which led to inconsistency between the government's intentions and the way the policy was put into practice. There was also increased divergence across the local authorities in how financial supplements to prevent homelessness were applied, leading to inequity in service provision. Second, that welfare reform has culminated in a crisis of identity for housing sector workers as they have been caught between different laws and policies. Housing professionals' roles have changed from processing housing applications to include development of creative ways of preventing homelessness, organising support packages to assist unemployed benefit recipients in complying with the benefit cap policy, applying eligibility conditions for accessing supplementary financial benefits, exercising discretion, and facing conflicting moral choices at work. Traditionally, housing professionals are meant to discharge citizenship-based rights to housing, but they are, increasingly, also performing the role of social control agents in the enforcement of welfare conditionality towards unemployed benefit recipients who seek housing assistance. An original element of this thesis was creating a sociological typology reflecting housing professionals' newly ambiguous identities - 'social worker', efficiency strategist, conflicted bureaucrat, 'firefighter', and frustrated intermediary. The findings of this study underline the critical role that local housing officials play in translating policies into practice. Critically for social policy-making, the findings show how what might seem a straightforward and clear policy at national government level can emerge as contested and ambiguous during the realities of its implementation at local level. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of welfare conditionality, governance and street-level bureaucracy as applied to the housing field. The findings may also be useful to practitioners in the housing sector, housing/homeless charities, and local and national government.

As an ageing society going through dramatic economic and political transitions, the care of older people in urban China has increasingly become a source of social anxiety and a topic of policy debate. This study has identified three key actors in the provision of care to older people in urban China, namely the family, the neighbourhood and the state. While the Confucian emphasis on filial piety and intergenerational responsibility has put the family as the primary care provider for older people, the neighbourhood is also conventionally perceived as a safety net for them. In a society that was once dominated by the values of communal reciprocity and collective responsibilities, the state has restricted its support only to those most deprived, and has thus played a limited role in promoting welfare entitlements for older people. Yet, since the 1980s, the transition from a collective socialist economy to a competitive market economy has also transformed societal values on issues such as individuality, family, responsibility, privacy and autonomy, which subsequently changed social expectations of how the care of older people should be best delivered. I argue that in order to understand the changing social expectations and the corresponding responses from different stakeholders, one has to first comprehend the shifting ideas of the rights and responsibilities associated with the care of older people. The changing perspectives towards different types of old-age support were examined, based on 39 qualitative interviews with key stakeholders (older people, academics, government officials and local Residents Committee officers and NGO staff) in two Chinese cities, Beijing and Guangzhou. This research contributes knowledge to social gerontology and social policy field through a broader understanding of the pursuance of a 'good life' by older people in contemporary China. It points to my argument that independence and autonomy in old age, as valued by the interviewees, will not be realised unless there is a fundamental shift in policy. That is to say, policies should recognise and respect the individuality of older people and facilitate their life choices. Most importantly, a balanced welfare mix requires the state to play a stronger role in filling the care provision gap left by the family and the neighbourhood.

Uganda experienced significant economic growth from 1992 to 2009. Following economic restructuring, the national poverty rate fell from about 56 per cent in 1992 to 25 per cent in 2009/10. However, while the overall proportion of the people living in poverty dropped significantly, in 2007, 64 per cent of older people were still living below the poverty line (Help Age International, 2007). Older people in Uganda make up 4.2 per cent of the total population which is 30.7 million. They are economically active: 84 per cent are involved with agriculture. However, over 90 per cent of the older persons live in rural areas where poverty rates are higher than in urban areas. Older people are vulnerable owing to HIV/AIDs: 12 per cent of Ugandan children are AIDS orphans and a quarter of these live in a household headed by an older person. In addition, out of the 16 per cent of the population with a disability, older people comprise 53 per cent. Furthermore, more than half of the older persons have never been to school. However, the majority of older persons provide for their households, this challenges the government position that ‘older people are generally too weak to perform productive work and are economically dependent on others’ (UNHS, 2009/10:137). This thesis focuses on the following questions: What is poverty? What explains the exclusion of older people from poverty reduction programmes? How do older people address poverty in their households?The study used qualitative methods, employing 120 interviews, including in-depth interviews with 18 representatives of government and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) six focus group discussions and 60 semi-structured interviews, to provide insight into the strategies used to fight poverty at the Sub County level. Narrative interviews and observation of non-verbal communication were employed to analyse older people’s experience of Poverty reduction programmes and identify their poverty alleviation strategies. Programme guidelines and policy documents were reviewed to gain detailed information about the backgrounds to the strategies, the modes of implementation and the theories that influenced the strategies. The study was carried out in Katabi and Mbututumula subcounties of Wakiso and Luwero respectively. This study found that the Government and CBO’s official views of what poverty is do not seem to differ much, but when it comes to identification of the poor then differences arise. The research demonstrates that both sectors support the monetary perspective on poverty and identify minimum income and expenditure in terms of a level of consumption below which poverty is identified. This understanding has its roots in an absolute perspective on poverty. Meanwhile, older people’s perspectives on poverty included a wide range of deprivations in their households. For example, the inability to send their grandchildren to school was a common type of self-reported deprivation for the majority of respondents. Older people used a relative concept to define poverty. What was needed for basic survival did depend on the cultural context and involved comparison with what other people in that context could afford. Despite the government’s objective of fighting poverty at the Sub County level, it was clear that government strategies did not include old-age poverty alleviation. Anti-poverty approaches were more strongly linked to the government’s own agenda than to the needs of older people. Yet in all these the older people in poverty were disadvantaged. Older people tended to be excluded by strict eligibility rules and conditions and by individual relationships within the groups formed to tackle poverty. Older people in poverty shy away from Poverty reduction programmes leaving the relatively poor, but those not in absolute poverty, to participate. The participants’ definitions of poverty and living standards observed during the interviews revealed that they were living well above the official poverty line. Furthermore, findings revealed that the right of older people to participate in government Poverty reduction programmes was not supported by legislation and there was limited information available to enable them to demand accountability or even influence policy strategies to address poverty. v In contrast, community based organisations have been remarkable in seeking to reduce poverty among the older persons. Their approach provided support for participation of older people in Poverty reduction programmes. CBOs have conducted skills and possession audits among older people and, based on the results, old-age poverty has been included in development programmes. Such strategies have led to the establishment of credit facilities through community saving schemes and village banks, and age-friendly projects such as hand craft, mat and basket making, mushroom and vegetable growing. These motivate older people to participate and take into account their physical abilities. The formation of groups seems to be a major strategy used by CBOs to enable members to support each other and facilitate both the collective participation in decision making and the barter exchange strategy for goods and services among group members. This study concludes that despite the difficult living conditions of older people in poverty, the majority live independent lives, are self-reliant and use a variety of strategies to address poverty. These include involvement in agriculture, use of community banks, use of manual and business skills, fostering children, family visits, joining religious and collective social groups and training to gain new skills. The present study extends the literature by showing why old age poverty persists despite efforts to counter it. Some implication of the study’s findings are that strict eligibility rules should be used to ensure that poverty alleviation support reaches those who need it most, the formation of groups should not be used as a condition to qualify for government support, information on anti-poverty programmes should be readily available to older persons in poverty and best practices from CBOs and individuals should be incorporated in anti-poverty policies. Keywords: Uganda, poverty alleviation strategies, anti-poverty, older people, community based organisations, government, older people associations.