Miller and Harrell's Hornbook on the Law of Modern Payment Systems, with 2006 Pocket Part. (... Book

I picked up the 1973 book in a charity shop for 50p and it's a remarkably interesting read. It's very hard going of course but the sixpage introduction is an excellent primer to the evolution of the welfare state. The flipflopping between a realisation that the poor need to be saved from destitution and the belief that they are ripping off the tax payer is nothing new; it's been goig on since the 1620s at least.

It's also worth knowing that the Englis state has been relieving the poor in one form or another since Tudor times.