Social Safety Net ≠ Safety Net

Our Senior Social Policy Advisor Stephen Kidd provides a follow-up to the first edition of our Pathways Perspectives – Nick Freeland’s reaction to the misuse of the term ‘social safety net’ and the consequences of this. In this third edition, Stephen argues that the majority of ‘social safety nets’ do not, in fact, fulfil the minimum criteria of a ‘safety net’ – in effect, they are not available to catch people as they fall into poverty.