Welfare life

Welfare Life in the UK 

People fight to live and to feed themselves and their families in order to live a welfare life. It is believed that some people in the UK cannot afford to work due to various reasons such as being retired, disabled people and pregnant women. Globally,  the UK is known for providing benefits to those people who could not work and often make excuses which the UK accepts. The UK  is often considered as the welfare state.  The Welfare State is "A system whereby the state undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits."(Oxford Dictionary 2014). This essay will highlight the most common factors when looking at the Welfare State in the UK, looking at advantages and disadvantages of having this system.

In order for benefits to be paid, the money must come from somewhere. All employees in the UK are required to pay national insurance from their salary. They also need to pay council tax which goes towards the police service and road repairs. 

The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for the benefit system in the UK. There are many benefits that are available, depending on your circumstances. A pension is one example of a benefit and is paid to people once they reach retirement age. According to Gov.uk (2014) the retirement age is 65 for women and 68 for men. However, the government has just recently increased the retirement age because they argue that people are living longer and there is a lot of money being spent on them. They believe that people are physically able to work for longer. The government would want to spend less money on pension by setting up new rules and law. 

Gov.uk (2014) also state that "Default retirement age (formerly 65) has been phased out - most people can now work for as long as they want to." The previous law was beneficial to the younger generation as it provided them with opportunities to gain employment. They could bring in a new perspective to the jobs that had been previously carried out by the older generation. However, if there was no default retirement age, these opportunities would not arise and the younger generation would remain unemployed. 

The NHS refers to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It is funded by the UK taxpayers and allows all UK citizens to be treated for free. However, this is not a fair system. Although the NHS is seen as being free, it is actually being paid for by british taxpayers. They are paying for foreign visitors to be treated for free, this is highly unfair. The idea of the UK providing a blanket system needs to be modified as it is placing pressure on the NHS as many people visit doctors for very minor illnesses, such as colds, because they know that they do not have to pay.

According to the NHS (2013) it is the largest publicly funded medical service in the world. Since it was founded in 1948, it has been committed to providing good healthcare to all citizens, regardless of their wealth. The NHS wanted to make sure that the poorer members of society still had access to medical treatment. 

Another example of benefits is maternity leave. A pregnant lady can have up to a year away from work when she is pregnant. NHS Choice (2014) define maternity leave as 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks of additional maternity leave. Although this is seen as a government payout, it needs to be remembered that pregnant women have already paid national insurance tax in their working life. Other forms of help available to pregnant women include healthy start, tax credits, statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance and the sure start maternity grant.

The UK provides many benefits that aids a variety of people depending on their circumstances, whether it is due to unemployment or retirement. Although it seems that this is free, it is the taxpayer that is funding this and the money is distributed by the government to those most in need. The retirement  age has increased which affects the youth generation and leads to youth unemployment. The NHS is a perfect system to treat people for free. Nevertheless, all people have access even if they do not pay for it. It is recommended that the government modifies the retirement age and keeps it as it was before, it should also provide the NHS system to those that pay for it, the taxpayer.

References

Gov.UK (2014) Retirement age. Available at: < https://www.gov.uk/retirement-age > Accessed at (18th March 2014).

NHS (2013) The History of the NHS in England, The NHS is Born. Available at: < http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/nhshistory/Pages/NHShistory1948.aspx > Accessed at: (18th March 2014).

NHS Choices (2014) Pregnancy and Baby, Maternity and Paternity Benefits and Leave. Available at: < http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/maternity-paternity-leave-benefits.aspx#close > Accessed at: (18th March 2014).

Oxford Dictionary (2014) Definition of Welfare State in English:, Welfare State. Available at: < http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/welfare-state > Accessed at: (18th March 2014).