Tackling Poverty Across the United Kingdom. Devolution, Difference and Discourse

ABSTRACT The UK welfare state is often considered as being highly centralised, yet the design and administration of UK social security involves significant spatial variations in law, policy, and practice. As such, where you live in the UK can affect the value of benefits and cash transfers you are entitled to, as well as how you experience benefit administration. In this article we advocate for greater consideration of spatial variations in social security and draw attention to existing policy differences in the devolved nations and across localities. The article explores policy discourse and design differences to identify competing narratives and to encourage greater consideration of spatial policy developments in social security. Drawing attention to the Safety Nets research project, it argues that a better understanding of the causes and outcomes of spatial variation in social security provision is necessary in the context of governance reforms to increase devolution and decentralistion including the rise of mayoral regions in England.