Welfare spending – time to reassess universal benefits?

by Kayte Lawton and Kate Stanley via http://www.ippr.org/


In the face of oncoming austerity, no public spending can simply continue without scrutiny. All spending must be subject to robust tests of providing public value, meeting a demonstrable need and contributing to progressive goals. This must include spending on welfare benefits. We cannot simply assume that, because welfare is an intrinsic part of the progressive vision of a society that supports those who are worst off, the current system should remain untouched. Welfare must also be subject to tests of public value.


Difficult political decisions will have to be made – and it does not get much tougher than making changes to benefits for the young and the old that will create losers – but government might have to go there.


Read the full article (PDF 4pp) which is an extracted chapter from Opportunities in an Age of Austerity: Smart ways of dealing with the UK’s fiscal deficit, published in November 2009.

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