Both the British government and the Labour leadership (through the Commission on Social Justice) have instigated radical reviews of the welfare state. This article criticises the British social scientific research available to these enquiries. It draws on Bill Jordan's recent (as yet unpublished) ESRC review and synthesis of research on poverty and social exclusion, and his and Marcus Redley's ESRC-funded comparative study of decision-making and moral regulation in households. The authors argue that too little scholarly attention has been given to the divergence between better-off and poor people's practices over work and welfare. This dimension of polarization - the way higher-income couples orientate towards property, occupational and private welfare, and low-income couples towards means-tested benefits, in their employment decisions - has important implications, both for the underclass debate and for the future of the welfare state.
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