By Lucy Phillips
10 December 2009
The state welfare system should be redesigned to focus on psychological wellbeing rather than material needs, according to a social policy think-tank.
In its report, Sinking and swimming: understanding Britain’s unmet needs, the Young Foundation said current welfare policy had significantly boosted the nation’s material wealth. However, it was failing to deal with increasing psycho-social needs such as stress, depression and loneliness.
Mental health problems and prescriptions for antidepressant drugs are soaring, while half a million pensioners are set to spend Christmas alone, it said. It warned that many families lacked the support to help teenagers move successfully into adulthood.
Foundation director Geoff Mulgan said the report showed a ‘brittle’ society that was ‘materially prosperous’ but lacked systems for emotional support.
He said people were ill-equipped to deal with turbulent economic times and that millions more risked sinking into depression and despair, depending on where cuts in public spending fell.
The report, backed by 13 charitable organisations, also found that government policy was failing to adequately manage community transitions from family breakdowns, social care or prison. Currently, 70% of offenders return to prison within two years of leaving through lack of welfare support.
Speaking at the report’s launch on December 7, Oliver Letwin, chair of the Conservative Party policy review, said government’s relationship with society needed to be restructured to focus on ‘personal solutions’ rather than bureaucratic ones.
‘The idea of having some group of people in Whitehall who invent schemes that are run universally to solve these problems is extraordinary.’ He added that people’s problems do not correspond to a single Whitehall department.
Letwin said the Tories would use a ‘payment by results’ model to encourage private and voluntary organisations to help ex-offenders find stable accommodation and employment after leaving prison. The £35,000 a year it takes to keep someone in prison would be reinvested in such schemes, he said.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable warned that an across-the-board, top-down approach to spending cuts risked ‘new, subtle and interdepartmental things falling by the wayside’.
Cable said unemployment would continue to rise after the UK came out of recession, increasing the amount of state aid required to help people into work. Such transition support would be particularly important for jobless graduates and former members of the armed forces.
10 December 2009
The state welfare system should be redesigned to focus on psychological wellbeing rather than material needs, according to a social policy think-tank.
In its report, Sinking and swimming: understanding Britain’s unmet needs, the Young Foundation said current welfare policy had significantly boosted the nation’s material wealth. However, it was failing to deal with increasing psycho-social needs such as stress, depression and loneliness.
Mental health problems and prescriptions for antidepressant drugs are soaring, while half a million pensioners are set to spend Christmas alone, it said. It warned that many families lacked the support to help teenagers move successfully into adulthood.
Foundation director Geoff Mulgan said the report showed a ‘brittle’ society that was ‘materially prosperous’ but lacked systems for emotional support.
He said people were ill-equipped to deal with turbulent economic times and that millions more risked sinking into depression and despair, depending on where cuts in public spending fell.
The report, backed by 13 charitable organisations, also found that government policy was failing to adequately manage community transitions from family breakdowns, social care or prison. Currently, 70% of offenders return to prison within two years of leaving through lack of welfare support.
Speaking at the report’s launch on December 7, Oliver Letwin, chair of the Conservative Party policy review, said government’s relationship with society needed to be restructured to focus on ‘personal solutions’ rather than bureaucratic ones.
‘The idea of having some group of people in Whitehall who invent schemes that are run universally to solve these problems is extraordinary.’ He added that people’s problems do not correspond to a single Whitehall department.
Letwin said the Tories would use a ‘payment by results’ model to encourage private and voluntary organisations to help ex-offenders find stable accommodation and employment after leaving prison. The £35,000 a year it takes to keep someone in prison would be reinvested in such schemes, he said.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable warned that an across-the-board, top-down approach to spending cuts risked ‘new, subtle and interdepartmental things falling by the wayside’.
Cable said unemployment would continue to rise after the UK came out of recession, increasing the amount of state aid required to help people into work. Such transition support would be particularly important for jobless graduates and former members of the armed forces.
