The state of welfare and the future of the welfare state in Britain

Christopher Adam and İrem Güçeri

Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2025, vol. 41, issue 1, 2-11

Abstract: The British welfare state is facing unprecedented challenges, both in delivering welfare services—benefits, pensions, health, social care, and social housing—and in funding them. This paper introduces a set of expert articles that examine the past, present, and the future of the welfare state in Britain. The papers map the scale of the challenges facing the Labour government as it seeks to reform the welfare state for the mid-twenty-first century. These include: demographic: change which is placing new demands on ever more technology-enabled healthcare; new forms of precarity in employment; burdens on non-pension social assistance, including on the need for social housing; and an ageing population that is increasing pressures on state pension provision and long-term social care for the elderly. Meeting these needs will be extremely difficult, particularly as dependency ratios rise, productivity growth remains sluggish, and public finances are under increasing pressure. The articles in this issue analyse the existing challenges and propose ways forward.

Keywords: UK welfare state; welfare assistance; social assistance; health and social care; public pensions; social housing; comparative welfare states; productivity; public finance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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