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Gordon Brown calls for overhaul of benefits system as study reveals ‘crisis’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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Britain’s benefits system is rated as the meanest in Western world, according to OECD. And yet there’s a misconception in UK that those on benefits live the life of Riley.
Benefit Street and its ilk did untold damage to our society. Yes, there are surely a few people who take the absolute piss, but they're in such a minority that it barely makes sense talking about them.
The vast majority of those claiming benefits are struggling, and working for a living no less.
Maybe instead of getting upset that someone has found a way to con the system we should be getting upset at employers who pay piss poor wages safe in the knowledge that the government will subsidize their poverty wages with Universal Credit.
Given that Labour is now LibDems 2.0 and Tories are... that... there's gonna be a lot more of this austerity talk and with basically no real challenge to it. Just some kayfabe that pretends to negotiate better terms of surrender.
Do you have a link spare for this?
This table was in an article discussing benefits including pensions from across Europe. I’ll see if I can locate it. I think the data comes from this calculator: https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/benefits-and-wages/tax-benefit-web-calculator/#d.en.500997
Thanks that's a very eye opening chart. Given that it says it's basically a state pension as a percentage of pre tax income chart I wonder if it be different if all forms of social security were plotted rather than just state pension. For example NHS.
It'll probably still show the UK near the bottom, 😢.