Take-up Campaigns: Fighting Poverty through the Post

Abstract

This article is a critical review of the increasing number of Take-up Campaigns being run by local authorities in the 1980s in order to increase the levels of benefit take-up within their area. It outlines how these campaigns have developed as a part of the growing welfare rights work which is now so much a feature of the British benefit system; and discusses how, after some initial problems, they have become more sophisticated and successful in their approach. There are, however, inherent limitations within the achievements to be made through such campaigning; these are summarised and explained, and a plea made for a more general campaign for the reform of benefits themselves to be a central feature of future local take-up initiatives.