It would have been a safe bet that last week’s budget would include further cuts to welfare. Many people assume that the grand tradition of the British welfare state has a distinguished past, but no future. The demographic time-bomb means that we can’t sustain decent pensions and health and social care. Benefits for the poor and low-waged are unpopular with tax payers and sap work incentives.
Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby’s new book The Double Crisis of the Welfare State and What We Can do About It, Palgrave suggests that these assumptions are misleading. Using Office of Budgetary, Institute of Fiscal Studies and EU projections, Professor Tayor-Gooby shows that a high-quality welfare state is affordable, with only minor adjustments. The target of ending child poverty is attainable within a decade, but needs political commitment and determination to increase wages at the bottom, improve benefits and cut the cost of child care so more mothers can work
The full article ‘Britain can still afford the welfare state’ can be found on the Prospect Magazine website.
Peter Taylor-Gooby FBA, AcSS, FRSA, OBE is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.