Poverty, exclusion and New Labour

With the publication of the Green Paper A New Contract for Welfare the government has set out its analysis of the links between poverty, exclusion and the benefit system. This article traces New Labour thinking on these topics to popular discourses on poverty that constitute a new politics of welfare. In this, Tony Blair has been influenced by the programmes of the Clinton administration designed ‘to end welfare as we know it’. Using the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ report on expenditure in low income households as a case example, it can be shown that the government's New Deals have been moulded by a particular interpretation of the evidence and popular perceptions of poverty. These reforms, it is argued, will increase the coercion of poor people and do little to improve productivity or reduce public expenditure. The article concludes by outlining an alternative approach, based upon the resistance of poor people themselves, combining economic regeneration and community development with appropriate social support.