Social Security Spending in the United Kingdom: Bridging the North-South Economic Divide

Abstract

Regional considerations have played little if any part in the development of social security policies in the United Kingdom. The spatial concentration of present social security expenditure is purely incidental and occurs simply as a result of the clustering of social security beneficiaries in particular areas. Nevertheless, by affecting regional aggregate demand these spatial transfers act to lessen the growth of regional disparities. In this paper the pattern of spatial transfers effected by social security benefits in the period 1979/80–1985/86 is described, with particular reference to transfers across the so-called north–south divide. Although not all benefits cause the transfer of resources in the same geographical direction, in 1985/86 social security transfers to the north exceeded those associated with formal regional policies.

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