A new book (A Time For Choosing: Free Enterprise in Twenty-First Century Britain by Kwasi Kwarteng, Palgrave Macmillan 2015) sets out a "radical" free market agenda, pulling together policy ideas from the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs and backed by the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank. It argues for a more radical shrinking of the welfare state to return it to the contributory principle envisioned by its founder Sir William Beveridge - that you only get out what you have paid in. Here are some of the points and proposals made in the book.
- Welfare is expensive - over £90bn for working-age benefits alone - because too many people are eligible. The main out-of-work benefit (JobSeekers Allowance) is "fairly stingy for those who have contributed to the tax system for years and find themselves out of work for the first time".
- Pay benefits as a loan to give "an additional incentive to find work rather than allow the debt to build up". Young people who have not yet paid national insurance contributions for a certain period (say five years) could receive their unemployment benefit in the form of a repayable loan, receiving the same amount of cash as now, but paying back the loan once in work. Someone out of work for all seven years between the ages of 18 and 25 would build up a loan debt of £20,475 - less than many tuition fees loans.
- Scrap maternity and paternity pay to ease the burden on business. Instead, new parents would get a flat rate "baby bonus" paid directly by central government.
- Scrap some government departments.
- Tax raising powers for local authorities.
- A regional minimum wage.
- Allowing free schools to generate a profit.
- Encourage banks to use a common IT system allowing "portable" bank accounts.
- Scrap the BBC licence fee.
