Britain's welfare state is fast becoming the central strain on its finances, argue Max Colchester and David Luhnow in the Wall Street Journal. About 7 million people—more than 1 in 10 residents—now receive sickness or disability benefits, with spending on those programs alone set to top £100 billion ($133 billion) this year. That's a third more than Britain's defense budget and up 25% in four years; the figure is on track to jump another 30% in the next four. The fastest growth is among working-age adults, especially for hard-to-verify mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD. As Colchester and Luhnow write, "no other Western country has seen such a rise in disability claims. In the US, the number of people getting federal disability payments has fallen in the past 15 years." One standout paragraph:
- "One benefit, created to help those with disabilities be more mobile, allows people to give up part of their welfare cash handout in return for a new car lease every three years. It now accounts for around one in every seven new car sales in the UK. Among those who got new cars last year: 40 people whose primary medical condition was tennis elbow, 50 with wheat intolerance, and 320 with dyslexia."
The
WSJ piece frames Britain as a test case for whether Western democracies can rein in expanding welfare states without blowing up their politics or bond markets. "So far, the answer seems to be no," they write. For the full picture and more data,
read the full article.
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