Background to the Research

• This chapter uses data from the 1995 Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Survey.
• 766 respondents aged 18+ were interviewed.
• Increased fluidity in the pattern of social protection in the UK has led to uncertainty about the future of the state welfare system.
• The 1995 Northern Ireland Social Attitudes Survey was undertaken in the first full year after the IRA and Loyalist paramilitary ceasefires. This may have inspired a 'feel warm' factor on attitudes to welfare provision.
• The 1995 survey provides information the reception given to reform of the National Health System, perceived as the jewel in the crowd of the UK's welfare system.

Main Findings

• Welfare spending:
  • 52% of NI and 61% of GB respondents supported increasing taxes and spending more on health, education and social benefits - an increase from 1990, but a slight fall from 1993.
  • Catholics were more likely to support this view than Protestants, and this was reflected along political party lines - 43% of UUP voters were in support, compared to 63% of Sinn Fein voters. Alliance voters maintained a median position.
• Priorities for increased government expenditure:
  • Health and education were on top of the public's wish list for increased government expenditure.
  • 81% in NI (77% in GB) ranked health as their first or second priority for extra spending.
  • 60% in NI (65% in GB) ranked education as their first or second priority for extra spending
  • The strongest supporters of the NHS were SDLP and Sinn Fein voters - 66% and 69% respectively gave it primary importance.
  • There was been a decrease in support for public investment in industry, policing, prisons and housing since 1993.
• Priorities for increased social spending showed readiness to support 'deserving poor', but not the unemployed or single parents:
  • 41% saw retirement pension as the highest priority for extra social spending, reflecting the same trend since 1989.
  • 50% of UUP voters identified the retirement pension, compared to 18% of Sinn Fein voters, perhaps reflecting the older age structure of unionists.
  • Catholics were more likely than Protestants to endorse spending on child benefit and unemployment benefit.
  • Single parent benefits were the lowest priority for social spending, identified by 13% of Sinn Fein voters, compared to 2% of DUP voters.
• Evaluating benefits and beneficiaries:
  • 51% believed that benefit levels for the unemployed were too low and cause hardship, while 30% believe they are too high and discourage the unemployed from finding jobs. 66% of Catholics believed they are too low, compared to 41% of Protestants.
  • 23% (26% in GB) believed that unemployed female single parents on state benefit have enough or more than enough to live on. 70% (66% in GB) believed this group of people are hard up or really poor.
  • Respondents aged 60 + were less likely that those aged 17-34 to believe that unemployed single mothers are hard up.
  • 38% (38% in GB) believed that £78 per week is enough for an unemployed single mother to live on - 38% of Protestants believed this compared to 26% of Catholics.
  • Younger people believed that single mothers with children under school age should decide themselves whether to work outside the home, while older men and women believed they should stay at home. However, 69% of women and 78% of men agreed that the government should cover the childcare costs for children under school age of a single women. Slightly lower percentages agreed that government should pay childcare fees outside school hours for older children.
  • 43% of men but only 17% of women, aged under 35 believed women with school age children should go out to work. Religious affiliation influenced these attitudes: 35% of Protestant men and 27% of Protestant women thought that single mothers with school age children should be obliged to seek employment, compared to 18% of male and 14% of female Catholics.
  • 17% of Catholic men and 14% of Catholic women thought that unmarried mothers who find it hard to cope have only themselves to blame - compared to 31% and 39% of Protestant men and women respectively. Catholics were also more likely to agree that unmarried mothers get too little sympathy from society.
• Welfare dependency:
  • While 40% agreed that the welfare state makes people less willing to look after themselves, Protestants were more likely to think so than Catholics. Protestants were also more likely to think that the welfare state undermines the readiness of people to help each other.
  • Although Catholics received more benefits than Protestants, the most important factor in defining attitudes was being Catholic. Supporters of the Alliance Party were more sympathetic, and UUP supporters are less sympathetic, towards welfare defendants.
  • 37% believed that most people on the dole are fiddling one way or another, although 47% believed than many beneficiaries of income maintenance are deserving of support. 48% agreed that those reliant on benefit are made to feel like second-class citizens. Catholics were more likely to recognise the stigmatising effect of benefit dependency, and also to reject the proposition that most of the jobless are work-shy.
• Scope of Welfare:
  • 9% of respondents were in a private health insurance scheme, mostly paid for by employers. 34% of these respondents would support a two-tier health service, compared to 22% of the all respondents.
  • 37% thought that the government should pay for those off work due to short-term sickness, 24% thought that employers should pay, while 37% believed that the responsibility should be shared by state and employers. However, 63% thought that the government should assume responsibility for those off work for at least six months.
  • Responsibility for ensuring adequate retirement pension should be mainly (11%) or jointly (31%) with employers, while 54% agreed that the government should be mainly responsibile. Levels of support for government responsibility increased with age and were strongest among those in Social Class V.
  • 73% believed that individuals should receive the same level of unemployment benefit, while 75% believed in a universal state retirement pension.
  • 56% agreed that high earners should receive the same amount of child benefit as people on lower incomes, while 19% believed they should be wholly ineligible. The only voters supporting universality of child benefit were Sinn Fein voters.
  • 48% believed that when a marriage breaks up the woman either always or usually comes off worse than her former partner. 22% believed the man always or usually suffers more. However, there were large gender gaps.
  • 85% of men agreed that if an unmarried couple split up, fathers should be made to make maintenance pavements for a child who remains with the mother. However, approximately 90% of men and women believed that these payments should be means tested. 75% of men agreed that the mother's income should be taken into account, compared to 59% of women.
  • 46% of women believed that the biological father should continue to pay maintenance if the mother marries, compared to 32% of men.
• Redistribution of wealth:
  • 87% agreed that the gap between those on high and low incomes is excessive. 52% of high earners thought that they pay too much tax, while 54% of those on middle and low incomes thought that high earners pay too little tax.