So-called "welfare" payments (including entitlement programs, disability funding, and a host of other benefits) have all but crippled the British economy. Here's how the Wall Street Journal views Britain's current crisis.
Disability payouts are no longer just for those most in need; they have become a financial crutch for a large swath of the population as wages stagnate and prices rise.
It’s blowing up Britain’s welfare bill, hamstringing its politicians and imperiling its long-term financial stability.
Some seven million people—more than 10% of the population—now claim at least one or more sickness or disability benefits. The numbers are growing fastest among working-age people who should be powering the country’s economy, surging more than 60% in the past six years to 4.7 million from 2.9 million in 2019.
. . .
Many of the newer disability claims are for mental-health issues like depression, anxiety and ADHD, which can be harder for the government to verify than a physical disability. Between 2017 and 2025, disability claims for cancer doubled. But benefits claims for all psychiatric issues surged fourfold.
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 U.K. 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, according to government figures.
The scale of the payout has become a scandal. No other western country has seen such a rise in disability claims. In the U.S., the number of people getting federal disability payments has fallen in the past 15 years. The most recent figures show some 10.6 million working-age people in the U.S. claimed one or both main Social Security programs for people with a disability, in a country with a population five times bigger than the U.K.
There's more at the link (may be paywalled). Whether the British economy (indeed, the British nation as we know it) can survive this ever-increasing burden remains to be seen. Anytime any politician or party talks about reducing welfare expenditure, the beneficiaries of such welfare rise up in vehement, vocal opposition: so the politicians dare not touch the subject, for fear of never being elected again (and/or of being un-elected as soon as the next election comes around). The whole nation is caught in that trap. Can't afford to pay for the benefits, and can't afford to cut them.
In the USA, the federal government has done a lot to cut back on entitlement spending, as the last paragraph above shows. However, many states have implemented their own entitlement programs. For example, a couple of weeks ago it was revealed that California is spending up to $11 billion every year on benefits for illegal aliens, who are not entitled to federal benefits at all. "All told, a family of five in California with two illegal-alien parents, two US-born children and one illegal-alien grandparent can receive public services worth more than $100,000 per year." That's just one state, out of 50 in the Union. How many others are taxing their citizens - and claiming refunds from Washington D.C. - to run their own such programs? How much is it costing us, the taxpayers of this country?
The mainstream media is strangely silent about such matters, even when they're exposed through other sources. Anyone would think that the media wants to grow the "dependent economy" at the expense of the market economy, and make taxpayers liable to support the millions who don't pay taxes. There's a word for that. They call it "socialism".
If you pay taxes, remember on November 3rd, and vote accordingly.
Peter
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