Neoliberal policy requires means-tested minimalism and bans universal provision

Evidence

The neoliberals believed that a market-conforming social policy must not stifle the system of risks and incentives that produced familial responsibility and submission to the market. Concretely, this meant that any government payments must be minimalist (sufficient to prevent destitution, but no more) and targeted at the poorest citizens through strict means-testing. There could be no universal provision, no expectation of social insurance ‘as of right’, and certainly no use of welfare to redistribute wealth in the interest of greater equality. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 208

Categorization

• XREF: Direct antecedent of the conditional-welfare and workfare regimes the reader studies under austerity/neoliberalism — means-testing as deliberate design, not pragmatic constraint. — connects to: Neoliberal theorists opposed the UDHR as a false bureaucratic universalism; Neoliberals sought minimal welfare that avoided legitimizing the welfare state — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 206; Neoliberal development framed egalitarian welfare norms as obstacles to be overcome — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 409 (+7 more)
• SEED: Angle for an essay: ‘Markets require poverty as incentive infrastructure’ — how minimalism and means-testing were designed to preserve the stigmatizing, work-compelling function of welfare.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals sought minimal welfare that avoided legitimizing the welfare state #corroborates (0.95) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 206
• Neoliberal development framed egalitarian welfare norms as obstacles to be overcome #corroborates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 409
• Neoliberals framed welfare states as existential threats to individual rights and civilisation #expands (0.75)