Families, Morals and Welfare's Role: The Future of Welfare Policy

Gareth Morgan

In many OECD countries state welfare has come under fire for its fiscal cost (and the inability of governments to cap the spending), and its lack of incentive for recipients to get off welfare. In several countries (including New Zealand) these factors are leading to a reappraisal of state welfare.

Eradication of readily available and exploitable state support is viewed by governments as important to re-establishing strong incentives for people to participate in conventional work and family relationships. Often this is associated with nostalgia for traditional family values, with the “New Victorians” maintaining that the state must not offer economic assistance without moral assistance. There is also a move to shift the responsibility for care on to the voluntary sector.

This paper argues that the viable arrangements within families have changed dramatically since the days before contraception and economic enfranchisement of women. Growth in the number of solo-parent benefits has simply exposed the extent of the tensions within family structures rather than necessarily having caused them.

The paper concludes that successful reform of state welfare depends on understanding modern family structures and the pressure they are under, and that families require more flexibility and more customised support, which may become easier with community-based policies.