How did the neo-liberal reforms of the Thatcher administration impact upon the provision of welfare in Britain?

The first election victory of Margaret Thatchers Conservatives in 1979 has come to be reflected upon as one of the most significant moments in the history of social policy in the United Kingdom. Though their manifesto may not have been the bold rallying call for radical restructuring and overhaul in the state sector which one could be forgiven for expecting to find when glancing at it in the benefit of twenty-three market driven years of hindsight, it was nevertheless the election that brought to power a Conservative party and its leader who saw a need for dramatic change. The neo-liberal approach emerged, proposing that the welfare state in its current monolithic form was largely an imposition on the invisible hand of the free market. From this position the Conservatives set about a course of radical policies…(short extract)