Welfare state under pressure

As the UK government has mentioned on numerous occasions, the inability of many people in the UK to take up full-time employment due to the benefits system will be rectified over the next four years. The government is set to announce £25 billion in welfare budget cuts with an emphasis on reducing dependence upon benefit payments and making employment, whether this is part-time or full-time, more attractive for every person in the UK.

There is no doubt that over the last decade the number of people in the UK dependent upon benefits has increased dramatically as has the number of people employed by the public sector. It is common knowledge that over 50% of the UK workforce is employed by the public sector either directly or indirectly. When you also take into account the massive pension liabilities built up by the previous Labour government, with final salary pension schemes still commonplace in the public sector and almost extinct in the private sector, there is no doubt that the authorities were pushed into a corner.

We are now starting to see the major difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, something which could split the UK electorate down the middle at the next election.