Simplification, modernisation and social security

The topic of benefit simplification regularly returns to the policy agenda. A simpler system, easy to understand and to deliver, is a goal that everyone wants to reach. Simplification is both a political and an administrative issue and, although these two issues cannot be entirely separated, this article focuses on the administrative side. The first section discusses how the government’s commitment to modernisation has, in various ways, focused attention on the need for simplification of benefits. The second section considers simplification from the three rather different perspectives of the DWP, the claimants of benefits and the public in general.