Number: RL30911
Title: SOCIAL SECURITY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: A MODEL FOR REFORM?
Authors: Geoffrey Kollmann and Dawn Nuschler, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: Supporters of the U.K. social security system maintain that it has improved the living standards of the elderly, lessened the role of government in private lives, increased saving and investment, reassured workers that retirement benefits will be available to them, and forestalled the large tax increases that would be needed to pay benefits under the old system. They contend that its structure could be particularly instructive for the U.S. because it is a gradual process that maintains basic protection while slowly shifting part of the responsibility for retirement income to the private sector.
Pages: 21
Date: Updated March 27, 2001