Cette page reproduit la tribune diffusée le 1er octobre dans le journal « Le Monde », sous le titre « L'alerte des dirigeants de l'Unédic :

How and why governments waste the most precious resource

Recent political debate in the UK has been seized by an abstruse discussion of the merits of inheritance tax. Politicians have been wrong-footed; no-one, it seems, can remember what the tax is for,…

The government’s recent concessions fall some way short of what would be necessary to make PIP, the Personal Independence Payment, a fairer, more manageable benefit. There’s been some c…

The UK has 90 different taxes. This interactive chart shows them all, & how much each raises. The article explains why UK tax has become so complicated.

What Is the Welfare State For?; Welfare states matter for people’s lives – but what are they trying to do, and why? The book discusses the institutions and methods that characterise welfare states aro...

In previous postings, I've been supportive of some of the key principles behind AI. I wrote last year: using material to train AI, sometimes called ‘scraping’, is quite different from copying. The LLMs aren’t copying: they’re processing the information. (There may be some circumstances where a program does just copy, but the point of doing this by bulk processing is to avoid that situation: simple copying can always be superseded by something richer and deeper.) Processing information – selecting, analysing, representing – is a normal, expected and legitimate use of source material.

There have been repeated attacks in the media on the principles of social security. Matthew Elliott told the Lords that "The Government will collect £331bn in income tax this year, and spend £333bn on welfare. In other words, we now spend more on people not working than we raise from those who do." Robert Jenrick, for Reform, announced that "the benefits bill is a time bomb that will bankrupt the country".

The two books included in The Origins of Modern Welfare are probably the earliest studies ever written in the field of Social Policy, and among the earlies...

There might almost seem to be a deliberate campaign by some of the press to mislead or distort the rules and rates around benefits entitlements. In particular, there seems to be a trend, amongst the u...

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The debate in the UK about immigration has been constructed in terms that are almost wholly negative. Politicians talk about controlling borders and treating some people as ‘illegal’. T…

European Commission - Have your say

Historic and forecast benefit expenditure and caseload data usually consistent with the annual spring and autumn Budgets or Statements.

Southampton Itchen candidate told to report to police accused of ‘treating’ after savouries were provided at event attended by snooker star Jimmy White

Welfare spending is not out of control It is lower than a decade ago and not set to rise within the next five years. What is true is that disability benefits as a share of overall welfare spending …

Paul Spicker, author of 'What Is the Welfare State For?', highlights how ‘incentives’ are misused to shift blame onto individuals and justify benefit cuts, rather than tackling systemic issues.

The government’s idea of ‘saving’ money on disability benefits are being justified by several fairly basic misunderstandings about what the benefits do. PIP, in particular, is not…

Is it time to think about a UK national life insurance scheme?

A proposed new law will also give ministers greater powers to request bank account information.