Raising the poverty plateau: The impact of means-tested rebates from localauthority charges on low income households

The role of means-testing within social policy has become more important an d more central in the 1990s, However, extensive reliance on means-testing b rings with it the accompanying problems of the unemployment and poverty tra ps, In the 1990s these take on more of the form of a poverty plateau, accen tuated by a new savings trap. This article uses hypothetical calculations o f benefit entitlement in order to explore the extent of the poverty plateau , and looks in particular at the impact on this of the growing use of means -tested rebates by local authorities. Means-tested rebates have been develo ped by authorities because of a concern that the new charges for services t hat they are making might disadvantage poor local citizens, Drawing on work of one typical authority, this article reveals that these rebates do add s ignificantly to the poverty plateau, and yet that this is an issue which is little understood by both local and national policy planners.