social welfare

Would independent Scotland be more prosperous?

Stephen Richard — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 21:55:06 +0000

Would independent Scotland be more prosperous? Stephen Richard Fri, 10/15/2021 - 22:55

Author or Creator

Stephen Richard

That is largely unknown, but Scotland will be able to take its own course in economic and social development. Choices can be made that are relevant to Scotland rather than in a dominant larger entity with different priorities.

Keywords

Economy

social welfare

How small independent countries create a better, more equal society

Stephen Richard — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:25:05 +0000

How small independent countries create a better, more equal society

Primary Author or Creator

Believe in Scotland

Stephen Richard Fri, 11/05/2021 - 12:25

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Social welfare

Type of Resource

Article

Fast Facts

It has become clear that small, independent countries largely outperform the UK and offer greater security to their citizens. This includes pensions, income distribution and public social spending.

More details

State pension

As we have already shown, the state pension is a gloomy aspect of the UK’s welfare system. So, how much exactly does the UK offer to old age pensioners?

The UK former state pension consisted of two tiers – the basic state pension (£137.60 a week) and an earnings-related additional state pension. The new state pension provides a flat-rate pension worth up to £179.60 a week.

The figures highlight that small, independent countries offer a much greater state pension (including full entitlement) than the much larger UK. Therefore, it’s more likely that an independent Scotland would follow a similar path as its European neighbours. Indeed, the SNP has said that an independent Scotland would work to increase the Scottish state pension to match the EU average, effectively doubling it.

Net pension replacement rate

The net pension replacement rate is another interesting way of analysing and comparing the state pension schemes across various countries.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines net pension replacement rate as “the individual net pension entitlement divided by net pre-retirement earnings, taking into account personal income taxes and social security contributions paid by workers and pensioners.”

The net pension replacement rate measures how effectively a pension system provides a retirement income to replace earnings as the main source of income before retirement.

The data demonstrates that the UK’s net pension replacement rate is significantly worse than several of the small independent countries across Europe. In fact, the only country that offers a state pension that constitutes a lower percentage of pre-retirement earnings is South Africa.

Public social spending

Public social spending is another important factor that should be considered when analysing the effectiveness of a country’s social support system. Public social spending includes health, old age, incapacity-related benefits, family, unemployment and housing, among other things.

The figures highlight that, with the exception of Ireland in this case, Scotland’s Northern European neighbours with a similar population size outperform the UK in terms of public social spending. Indeed, both Norway and Denmark spend a significantly great share of the country’s GDP on public social services than the UK.

Income distribution

The OECD provides an Income Distribution database that monitors the performances of countries in the field of income inequality and poverty. This is measured using the Gini coefficient, which is based on the comparison of cumulative proportions of the population against cumulative proportions of income they receive (ranging from 0, in the case of perfect equality, and 1, in the case of perfect inequality). Therefore, with reference to the OECD’s database, we have compared the case study countries of this article.

The data, again, shows several small independent countries across Europe outperforming the UK. Indeed, Ireland, Norway and Denmark all provide greater income equality than the UK.

By analysing these various social support factors, it has become clear that small, independent countries largely outperform the UK and offer greater security to their citizens

Conclusions

This article has drawn upon data from various countries across Europe, including the UK, Ireland, Norway and Denmark. By analysing these various social support factors, it has become clear that small, independent countries largely outperform the UK and offer greater security to their citizens. This includes pensions, income distribution and public social spending. Overall, it can be suggested that an independent Scotland would behave similarly to these small European countries and the Scottish Government has already set out various goals for an independent Scotland to prioritise social wellbeing factors and match European targets.

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.believeinscotland.org/how-small-independent-countries-create-a-bett…

Keywords

social welfare

Income distribution

Public spending

Language English

Contesting the austerity and “welfare reform” narrative of the UK Government: Forging a social democratic imaginary in Scotland

Stephen Richard — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:36:16 +0000

Contesting the austerity and “welfare reform” narrative of the UK Government: Forging a social democratic imaginary in Scotland

Primary Author or Creator

Jay Wiggan

Stephen Richard Wed, 10/06/2021 - 10:36

Purpose

The “welfare reform” narrative of successive Conservative-led UK Government emphasises public spending reductions, individual responsibility and strengthening of benefit conditionality. The purpose of this paper is to cast light on how this narrative is challenged and disrupted by the Scottish Government through their articulation of a social democratic welfare state imaginary.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws together a decentred governance perspective that emphasises ideational tradition for understanding (re)construction of governance (Bevir, 2013, p. 27) with critical discourse analysis to examine how welfare interpretations/representations are carried into the policy and public arena. The Scottish Government documents are deconstructed to interrogate the ideas and form of their emergent discourse and its relation to the independence referendum and welfare governance reform.

Findings

Responding to changing socio-economic contexts and welfare governance, the Scottish Government has developed a discourse of modernisation rooted in British and Scandinavian social democratic traditions. Fusing (civic) nationalism with social wage and social investment concepts, they conjure up imaginaries of a prosperous, solidaristic, egalitarian welfare state as a feasible future reality, recuperating “welfare” as a collective endeavour and positioning a maldistribution of power/resources between groups and constituent countries of the UK as the “problem”.

Originality/value

The paper is of value to those interested in how changes to centralised-hierarchical welfare governance can open new spaces for actors at different levels of government to articulate counter-hegemonic discourses and practices. Its originality lies in the analysis of how the Scottish Government has reworked social democratic traditions to weave together a welfare imaginary that directly contests the problem-solution narrative of successive Conservative-led UK Governments.

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

paywall

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSSP-04-2016-0050/full/html

Keywords

Austerity

Democracy

social welfare

Language English