The decades of disruption: New social risks and the future of the welfare state

Article

A number of major disruptive forces will transform life in the UK and globally in the 2020s and beyond, creating a new set of social risks.

In the Covid-19 crisis, government financial assistance has been the decisive factor in protecting businesses and livelihoods, but it has fallen short. We can learn from the response to this crisis to create the stronger welfare settlement we will need to tackle new social risks and prevent inequality from growing.

The economic shock resulting from the pandemic follows a ‘great risk shift’ experienced by people in the UK over recent decades. It is clear that we need to ‘future-proof’ our welfare state, but historically, welfare states in the UK and across Europe have remained ‘frozen’ in the face of new social risks. It is for this reason that IPPR is launching a major new Future Welfare State Programme.

Related items

  1. Graphic depicting a stack of pound coins in the background and one sideways pound coin displayed on its side in the foreground

    The full-speed economy: Does running a hotter economy benefit workers?

    How a slightly hotter economy might be able to boost future growth.
  2. The outside of Rochdale town hall on a sunny day, with flowers in the foreground

    Making the most of it: Unitarisation, hyperlocal democratic renewal and community empowerment

    Local government reorganisation need not result in a weakening of democracy at the local level.
  3. West Midlands Metro Tram at Victoria Square in Birmingham city centre during 2022 Commonwealth Games

    Transport and growth: Reforming transport investment for place-based growth

    The ability to deliver transformative public transport is not constrained by a lack of ideas, public support or local ambition. It is constrained by the way decisions are taken at the national level.