Welfare Reform

Welfare reform is central to the Government's plans for the future development of Britain. Reform will tackle three key problems with the existing welfare system:

inequality and social exclusion are worsening, especially among children and pensioners, despite rising spending on social security;

people face a series of barriers to paid work, including financial disincentives; and

fraud is taking money out of the system and away from genuine claimants.

Reform will be a long process, but the Government has already begun by publishing a Green Paper on Welfare Reform entitled New Ambitions for Our Country - A New Contract for Welfare. It sets out a number of key principles guiding welfare reform and includes a series of success measures to be achieved over the next 10 to 20 years. For example, by the end of the process of reform, the results that the Government expect to achieve include:

a reduction in the proportion of working age people living in households where no-one works

a guarantee of decent income in retirement for all

a reduction in discrimination against people and an increase in the number of disabled people at work

a rise in the proportion of parents meeting their financial obligations to children after separation

a reduction in the amount of money lost in fraudulent payments.

QUESTIONS:

The National Health Service: What is the strength of the GP system?

What are the reasons for the steep rise in the cost of NHS?

What reforms did the Government introduce for hospitals, GPs and regional health authorities from 1990?

Compare the situation in Britain with that in Belarus from the point of view of availability of free medical treatment, provision of residential accomodation for the elderly, disabled and mentally ill.

Do you think that voluntary organizations in Britain which provide many forms of help allow the government to avoid its responsibilities?

Do you think that the British welfare state is successful in giving help to everybody who needs it? How many and what kinds of people "slip through the net" of care?

What are the main problems of the welfare state in modern Britain?