Not since Fyre Festival have images of pitiful meals whipped up such a furore. But the pictures of food parcels … Continue reading “There’s a simple solution to the food parcel furore”

Given the manifold problems with both the implementation and the design of Universal Credit (UC), as well as similar problems … Continue reading “Do we need a welfare state at all?”

Parts 1 and 2 demonstrated that while Universal Credit (UC) has the potential to increase efficiency, improve employment incentives and … Continue reading “Universal Credit: what went wrong? (Part 3: lessons from Germany)”

…continued from Part 1   The issues of implementation described before should largely go away once UC is finally rolled-out … Continue reading “Universal Credit: what went wrong? (Part 2: the design)”

Universal Credit has several objectives, some more, some less explicit. Overall, these seem to fall within two categories: increasing employment … Continue reading “Universal Credit: what went wrong? (Part 1: the implementation)”

Benjamin Franklin once noted that “nothing is certain, except death and taxes”. Given recent developments, I’d add government incompetence in … Continue reading “There has never been a better time to simplify our labyrinthine tax code”

Were it not for Brexit, the furore over the roll-out of Universal Credit would surely be dominating the headlines on … Continue reading “Don’t ditch Universal Credit, fix it”

I recently visited a foodbank at the invitation of the Trussell Trust, the admirable charity which runs the UK’s largest network … Continue reading “Three cheers for the Trussell Trust – but we still need a free market agenda to truly cut poverty”

As the United Kingdom looks to reform its policies for dealing with the poor and unemployed, it should take notice … Continue reading “The work-vs-welfare trade-off”