Chapter 7: 'Work for those who can, security for those who cannot.'.

This chapter discusses issues regarding social security reform. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the paradigm shift in Labour's thinking, from an equality agenda to one comprising the trinity of Responsibility, Inclusion and Opportunity (RIO), expressed primarily through paid work. This agenda stands at the heart of the new contract for welfare, representing a third way in welfare reform, promoting opportunity instead of dependence. Overshadowed by the guiding principle of work for those who can, security for those who cannot, more traditional debates about benefit adequacy and the overall structure of social security, and in particular the balance between meanstested and non-meanstested benefits, are dismissed as irrelevant and old-fashioned. The chapter will argue, though, that they cannot be ignored, if security for those who cannot is to be treated as seriously as work for those who can in the implementation of social security reform. In the absence of public debate about the reform of the structure of social security, the danger is that individual policy changes will add up to a significant shift in the welfare regime mix further towards the liberal model. The implications for the fabric of citizenship and for the security of a significant proportion of the population are potentially profound.