Short presentation to Bishop of Wakefield's breakfast meeting on how the welfare state could be redesigned.

1. Bishop’s Breakfast
five smooth stones
Talk by Simon Duffy of The Centre for Welfare Reform
for members of the Church of England

2. 1.Welfare state is a good thing
2.But its designed wrong
3.Many of our beliefs about it are false
4.It is biased against the poor
5.Citizenship is the key to its reform

3. 1. Welfare state is good
• Morality demands we create a fair society
• Happiness demands security and freedom
• Efficiency demands we use all our talents
• Prudence demands we avoid fear & crisis

4. Fear and insecurity breeds
scapegoating, terror, war and
revolution

5. 2. Welfare is designed wrong
• Hyper-taxation for poor and disabled (e.g.
poorest 10% pay highest tax rate, 47%)
• Limited rights, choice and control (e.g.
families can’t choose education)
• Subsidises services, not people (e.g. £3
billion spent on 21,000 in private institutions)
• Undermines communities and families (e.g.
social care awaits family crisis)
• Rooted in 1940s paternalism

6. [The ill-fated
Pruitt-Igoe
housing
project]
Government
doesn’t always
know best

7. 3. Policy is based on myth
£1 billion benefit fraud, £15 billion tax fraud,
£16.7 billion unclaimed benefits, £28 billion
of benefit cuts.
Benefits after tax is only £25 billion, most
state spending is on middle-earning
employees.
Current economic crisis was not created by
poor, but by bad lending to home owners
and middle earners.

8. public expenditure has changed little

9. benefits are not technically public expenditure -
they are a form of income adjustment

10. the poorest pay the highest levels of taxation

12. there are very few fit and healthy working age
adults who just rely on benefits

13. the UK is the second most centralised welfare state
in the world (after New Zealand)

14. benefits fraud is dwarfed by fraud by taxpayers and
by government itself

15. 4. System is biased against the poor
• The poor often pay marginal rates of tax
that can exceed 100%
• You must get poor and stay poor to get
social care
• Only the better off can choose how they
get education, health or social care
• Poor is very poor: as low as £7 per day -
poorest 10% of families - £9.50 per day.

19. 5. Citizenship is the key to reform
• Human rights at heart of
system
• Minimum universal securities
as rights
• Fair and integrated tax-
benefit system
• Individual freedom for all
• Families and communities
respected

21. 1.Join the Campaign for a Fair Society
www.campaignforafairsociety.org
1.Subscribe to The Centre for Welfare
Reform
www.centreforwelfarereform.org
1.Twitter users can follow #fairsociety
If you want to get more involved