Britain’s Household Benefit Cap restricts the amount of benefit income unemployed households can receive. In this article, it is examined using material held at the UK’s National Archives recording debates about a proposal to introduce a similar policy – a benefit limit – in the first Thatcher Conservative government elected in 1979. It was rejected, but the Household Benefit Cap was introduced three decades later. The article locates debates about, and the practice of restricting benefit income, in perennial social security concerns with the financial incentive to do waged work. The article argues that while there are material differences that help explain the different policy outcomes in 1980 and 2010, they can primarily be explained by changing ideas about the roles of social security policy, including the development of the ‘incentive paradigm’ concerned with manipulating behaviour; a loss of concern with the hardship that would come with the introduction of a benefit restriction and a view that institutions other than the state are better placed to address poverty and buttress work incentives.

中文翻译：

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家庭福利上限：了解英国福利收入的限制

英国的家庭福利上限限制了失业家庭可以获得的福利收入金额。In this article, it is examined using material held at the UK's National Archives recording debates about a proposal to introduce a similar policy – a benefit limit – in the first Thatcher Conservative government elected in 1979. It was rejected, but the Household Benefit Cap was三年后推出。这篇文章定位了关于限制福利收入的争论和限制福利收入的做法，在长期的社会保障问题中，与从事有薪工作的经济激励有关。本文认为，虽然存在有助于解释 1980 年和 2010 年不同政策结果的重大差异，但它们主要可以通过改变关于社会保障政策作用的观念来解释，包括发展与操纵行为有关的“激励范式”；不再担心引入福利限制带来的困难，并认为国家以外的机构更适合解决贫困和支持工作激励措施。