Social Security : The Story of British Social Progress and the Beveridge Plan
1943 1943 1940s 3 preliminary leaves, 9-62 pages : illustrations, diagrams impossible ; he had to make so many theoretical assumptions. On the whole, he seems to have made rather pessimistic ones. With reasonable conditions in this country, the cost of the whole Beveridge Plan in 1945 might well be...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : G.G. Harrap and Co.
1943
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/613FE989-668F-41A5-A53A-220C4A10505C http://hdl.handle.net/10796/D5A36194-25AD-4E66-BFE8-AB87D72E9D10 |
| Summary: | 1943
1943
1940s
3 preliminary leaves, 9-62 pages : illustrations, diagrams
impossible ; he had to make so many theoretical assumptions. On the whole, he seems to have made rather pessimistic ones. With reasonable conditions in this country, the cost of the whole Beveridge Plan in 1945 might well be below the Actuary's gross figure of £700,000,000. Many economies may be realized, especially in the early stages after the war. What is more reliable is his estimate that the cost of our present services in 1945 will be nearly £450,000,000 without any new legislation. That means at the worst an increased burden of about £250,000,000 as the price of the reforms now projected. Of this possible increase the insured contributors will bear the greater part — £120,000,000 — while their employers will pay an extra £50,000,000 and the Exchequer an extra £80,000,000. By 1965 the estimated total cost is to be about £850,000,000, of which 60 per cent. would come from the Exchequer. Pensions are the great query here! (c) Pension Costs. Let the reader note that in 1945 retirement (old age) pensions alone are going to cost £126,000,000. That is a fairly firm figure, though it involves speculative assumptions about the effect of the retirement rule. It is the largest in the list of all our social service charges. In 1965 the much-increased pensions will cost not less than £300 millions a year with a smaller working community to pay for them. These are formidable figures, even though the Beveridge Plan puts off the evil day some years into the future. The only ways to mitigate the future cost are either to scale down the basic pension rate below £2 per week joint, retaining the chance of supplementation as proposed by Sir John Anderson for the Government, or, what might be socially more desirable, to raise the retirement ages to 67 for men and 62 for women. If sacrifices are necessary this might prove the most tolerable. At the present time it is safe to say that 54
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |