In this paper Peter Saunders suggests that the time has come to turn back the growth of this expensive, damaging, demeaning and largely unnecessary welfare state behemoth. I argue that in the 21st century we no longer need a mass welfare state, which originated in the 20th century to tackle what were essentially 19th century problems. We need to reduce welfare dependency by reforming the system of Income Support, by pushing forward on labour market reform (to create more jobs for people currently on welfare), by radical reform of personal taxation (to restore work incentives), and through savings reform (to reward and encourage self-reliance).
