Universality and Selectivity in Income Support

Drawing on data from the Luxembourg income study and the international study programme, this text examines the classic social policy question in a comparative analysis of income support in Australia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. The statistical studies are embedded in a discussion of social policy and citizenship, need, poverty and social cohesion, and the structure and restructuring of welfare states. The research found that while selective benefit arrangements achieve greater redistribution in favour of the low income aged for a given level of public expenditure than do universal ones, selective arrangements do not necessarily perform better in other respects. In particular, selective arrangements are associated with low levels of benefit income. It may be asked whether these low levels reflect low levels of public support for social spending, especially among the groups who do not expect to receive benefits under selective arrangements.
This study was not able to detect a pattern of this kind in public opinion about social spending on the aged, where there was nearly universal support in all the countries examined, but has found some indications in other areas of social policy.