Money for nothing? How we broke the welfare state – and how we can fix it

It is nearly eight decades since the introduction of the welfare state but, as Hannah Fearn explains, today’s system is unrecognisable from the one envisaged by William Beveridge in 1942. And it is, clearly, no longer fit for purpose

The state is longer providing security for all (AFP/Getty)

So ingrained in the collective psyche is the concept of the welfare state, it is remarkable to remember that it is still less than 80 years old. Like the NHS, which sits at the centre of our great British social contract, we speak of it as a great unmoveable: almost everyone agrees that we need a welfare state, even if we don’t agree on how it should operate and on who should be its greatest beneficiaries.

And yet the welfare state as we once knew it is crumbling. Universal credit, the Conservative government’s reform of the system, is a story of failure upon failure resulting in dramatic stories of neglect – and, in a handful of shocking examples, even death.

Astonishingly, the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, last month admitted that it is the welfare state – created to prevent hunger and destitution – that is now actively causing it, with the shortcomings of universal credit responsible for driving up the number of Britons who are reliant on food banks to feed their families.