Welfare’s State

Record numbers of American citizens are now on some form of government assistance.

* $1 trillion a year: Amount taxpayers have to cough up to fund more than 120 welfare

programmes.

* 100 million: Roughly one third of the US population subsists on aid.

* $20,610: Amount in benefits received by a poor person in the US per year.

* Medicaid: Biggest expenditure guzzler among the US’s social safety nets.

* Food stamps: Next highest expenditure is on food stamps. Costs for this have doubled since 2008.

* $15 trillion: Total welfare spending since 1964’s “War on Poverty”. More than 46 million people continue to live in poverty.

SOUTH AFRICA: WELFARE BUBBLE

South Africa is Africa’s biggest welfare state. However,recent revelations that more people receive welfare than have jobs have rocked the welfare boat.

* According to World Bank,social assistance typically represents 1-2 per cent of GDP in developing countries. In SA,it’s 3.4 per cent.

* 16.1 million people are beneficiaries of various schemes.

* 60 per cent of the government’s R 1.15 trillion budget is aimed at social spending for the poor.

n In 2011,the unemployment rate in SA was 25 per cent. The Expanded Public Works Programme—the government’s largest job creation programme—lasts for 46 days and pays only $9 a day.

THE NORDIC MODEL

The Nordic states are still the world’s most generous welfare states. But a series of crises has sent these nations back to the account books to balance their budgets and welfare is not as forthcoming as it was before.

SWEDEN: NOT FOR EVERYONE

* The government has opened up services to competition (private players) to improve the quality of Sweden’s universal health and education systems.

* 27 per cent of health care is delivered by profit-making private firms.

* In education,private firms can run “free” schools. 400 such schools are in operation,

* Universities and adult education are free. The state offers six years of grant and an optional loan.

* 242,000: number of children living in poverty in 2010.

* Homelessness has quadrupled from 8,300 people to 34,000 out of Sweden’s 9 million population.

* At 27 per cent in the first quarter of 2013,Sweden’s unemployment rate is the highest in the EU.

DENMARK: RETHINKING WELFARE

* Denmark’s social safety net includes free health care,free university education and hefty payouts even to the rich.

* 18 per cent of Denmark’s population is over 65. And only 47 per cent work.

* Only 3 of 98 municipalities will have a majority of residents working in 2013.

* In 2000-12,average hours of work fell by 8 per cent.

* 250,000 Danes have no economic incentive to give up unemployment benefits and take up a job.

UNITED KINGDOM: AUSTERITY,NOT WELFARE

On April 1 this year,the largest ever welfare cuts came into force in Britain.

* 1 per cent per year: The rise in most welfare benefits for the next three years.

* 9,000,000: Number of families set to lose an average of $256 a year.

* $543 million: Reduction in the budget for legal aid. One of the motives for this is to prevent legal challenges to the government’s draconian welfare cuts.

* Health and Social Care Act: This new Act overturns the 1946 legislation that held the NHS as a provider of free,universal health care. The government no longer has a legal “duty to provide” comprehensive health service.

* 1 million: Number of children reduced to poverty in the next five years,thanks to the welfare cuts. This adds to the four million—one in three—already poor children.