The aims of social security

It is misleading to talk about the 'aims of social security' as if they are something that exist on their own, providing a set of universal criteria against which we can evaluate the social security system now or at any given time in the past. The reality is that the aims of social security are constantly changing; sometimes in slow, almost imperceptible, ways as policy develops in a familiar incremental fashion and sometimes in big steps as major reviews of the benefit system take place or as new governments take office.