Last week, Reform published its 2011 scorecard
of the coalition government’s public service reform programme. Yesterday, Thomas Cawston explained how the coalition can get NHS reforms back on track. Today, Patrick Nolan, Chief
Economist at Reform, discusses why the government’s welfare reforms scraped through with a pass.
The government’s welfare reforms are significant. The 2010 Emergency Budget and Spending Review announced cuts of
£18 billion to benefits, so the DWP had to respond with a radical agenda. The Work
Programme aims to incentivise providers to deliver better outcomes from welfare to work services and the Universal Credit promises to create a simpler system where “work always pays.” Also,
the Government has broken the principle of universality of the Child Benefit.
The Universal Credit is the flagship reform; it aims to make the welfare system simpler and easier to administer.
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