Not a huge post from me - just some remarkable statistics that really did make me gasp. Unbelievable one of the world’s largest economies, not to mention one of the oldest welfare states, could allow a situation to emerge where:
- 1.4 million people in the UK have been on an out-of-work benefit for nine or more of the last 10 years;
- Income inequality in the UK is now at its highest level since comparable statistics began in 1961;
- Social mobility in Britain is worse than in the USA, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark;
- A higher proportion of children grow up in workless households in the UK than in any other EU country.
Iain Duncan Smith has a huge task ahead of him, and along with Michael Gove I genuinely believe he could go down as one of the great reforming ministers of recent history.