In a new paper released today, New Beveridge: 70 years on – refounding the 21st-century welfare state, Chris Skidmore MP highlights the urgent need for a serious rethink of welfare provision.
It has been 70 years since the publication of William Beveridge’s seminal report which formed the basis of the welfare state and shaped our public services. Since then, Britain’s demographic landscape has been transformed, most notably with an ageing population becoming the single greatest challenge that we face in the twenty-first century. Over the next few decades, the current welfare state will become unsustainable. We need to come to terms with the fact that the universal welfare state is over: a radical refounding of the relationship between the individual and the state is necessary. Only by returning to Beveridge’s original principles, of the individual taking greater responsibility, alongside the state establishing a ‘national minimum’ will we be able to ensure that the most vulnerable in society are effectively looked after alongside ensuring that the nation remains financially solvent.
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