It’s a snip: simplification or the shedding of administrative responsibility?

Welfare rights advisers are immersed in the day-to-day detail of advising claimants on their rights under social security law that appears to become more complex each year. This article traces some of those difficult entitlement issues of recent decades. Complexity has resulted both from well-intentioned reform and from cuts packages. The article considers the shifting of administrative responsibilities, marketisation and outsourcing and some likely developments that these may facilitate. Rearranging the architecture of welfare and providing broad-brush reforms emerge as key strategies in simplifying social security. Yet reforms may fail, or bring serious risks, often without sufficient informed debate. The article considers implications for simplifying law and future change.