omy in Britain they are faced with a huge and increasing public spending deficit.
The huge social security 'overspend', is not something new. It is part of a continuing upward curve since 1950. The government needs the tax generated from the equivalent of 50 plus companies the size of British Petroleum to pay off what the Sunday Telegraph describes as 'the Welfare equivalent of the Dreadnought.
Pensioners The most difficult aspect for the Tories (and for Labour if they were in office) is that 24 per cent of social security spending is permanent. It won't go away after the end of the recession - because it is the result of long term, demographic trends.
There are now 24 per cent more pensioners over 75 than in 1978-9 and numbers are expected to rise to 4.1 million in 2001.
People in this age group are the most expensive to the welfare state, costing £1005 per head compared to f220 for the population as a whole. The Public Spending Review's interest in chang- Now 45 per cent of women ing the ways pensions are workers are in part-time paid is no coinci- jobs this is being used to dence.
The proposals force men to do the same. of the Review 10% of men now work are bound to lead to cuts in public part-time. services, welfare provision and sector Education, nursery provision, health, benefits, the care of old people and the disabled, all face huge cuts. The effects of such changes will fall disproportionately on women.
Much of the caring now publicly provided will fall to women, and the same women will increasingly fill the poorly paid and super-exploited jobs.
A good example is what has happened to the school meals service. What was originally a subsidised and nutritionally regulated provision, with free meals for children of the lowest paid and unemployed, had been reduced, by the 1980 Education Act, to free meals for children of families on social security and no other statutory provision.
The hope was to reduce costs by half, saving £200 million. The result was increased prices, reduction both in quality and quantity and - for women - an inSOCIALIST OUTLOOK No.50, October 9 1993, Page 9
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