Katherine Rake

Gender and New Labour's Social Policies

Since its election to government in 1997, the programme of social policy reform introduced by the British Labour government has proceeded at a dizzying pace. This article analyses the impact of these reforms on gender relations, and how policy is working to shape the roles of citizen worker; parent and carer and spouse or partner. The article focuses on how the New Deals, tax and benefit policy (including the Working Families Tax Credit) and childcare policy affect these roles. The analysis reveals how, in institutionalising paid work as the key route to citizenship, New Labour runs the risk of building implicit gender bias into a number of its policies. The analysis suggests that more gender-sensitive policy would follow where consideration was given both to how individuals relate to the labour market over their lifetimes and to the effect of policy on the division and distribution of unpaid caring work.

British Pension Policy in the Twenty‐first Century: a Partnership in Pensions or a Marriage to the Means Test?

This paper analyses how well the latest in a long line of reforms to the British pension system will serve the low-income population and protect against a means-tested old age. We argue that New Labour’s proposals (set out in the Green Paper “A New Contract for Welfare: Partnership in Pensions”) will develop a new relationship between public and private pension provision which leads to a much wider role for means testing. We illustrate our argument by looking at faults written into the design of the pension system and by examining the experiences of the new regime that a range of hypothetical, low-income individuals would have. We find that, contrary to the government’s message, the proposed State Second Pension will not be a replacement for SERPS but will, in fact, combine with the basic pension to provide a new flat-rate pension aimed at the poorest. Low-income individuals and those with broken work histories will face great difficulty in avoiding a means-tested old age. Furthermore, increased reliance on annuity income in retirement may also propel significant numbers of the middle classes into means testing. Far from simplifying the pension system, the proposals will add complexity, making it difficult for individuals to make an optimal pension choice. In conclusion, the proposed pension partnerships are likely to be unsustainable and therefore likely to lead to a continuance of the cycle of pension reform.