The Future of Welfare
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 October 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The furlough scheme, introduced in response to Covid-19, has raised a question: should Britain’s social insurance be a bit more German? Germany has what’s known as an earnings-related contributory system – individuals pay quite a lot in, and if they lose their job, they receive quite a lot out - around 60% of their previous salary, for at least a year. Critics of the German system say it’s costly and puts too little emphasis on redistribution. But advocates claim it commands far wider support than the British system. So does the pandemic and the calls it has provoked for a fresh look at the shape and scope of our welfare state provide an opportunity? Should Britain move towards a system that is more like Germany’s? Presenter Ben Chu Producer David Edmonds Editor Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:41.0 | Hello, thanks for listening to this edition of Analysis. podcasts. Over the next half hour I'll be asking whether the UK should radically transform its social |
| 0:54.9 | insurance system, whether in effect we should become a bit more German. |
| 1:01.4 | Sweeping and extraordinary measures to deal with coronavirus the |
| 1:05.5 | forced closure of pubs restaurants and gyms and an unprecedented rescue |
| 1:10.0 | package for workers and businesses on the 20th of March this year, Rishi Sunak, |
| 1:14.8 | Chancellor for just one month did something that no occupant of 11 Downing Street |
| 1:18.8 | had ever done before. |
| 1:21.4 | In response to the impending shutdown of large parts of the UK economy to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus, |
| 1:27.0 | Sunak unveiled an unprecedented new furlow scheme. |
| 1:31.0 | Today I can announce it for the first time in our history, |
| 1:35.0 | the government is going to step in and help to pay people's wages. |
| 1:39.7 | In normal recessions, people without work |
| 1:41.6 | would go onto the doll, collecting flat rate unemployment benefits, |
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