Broken Benefits

Britain is going through the most radical upheaval of the benefits system since its foundations were laid at the end of the 1940s. In Broken Benefits, Sam Royston argues that social security isn’t working, and without a change in direction, it will be even less fair in the future.

Drawing on original research and high-profile debates, this much-needed book provides an introductory guide to social security, correcting misunderstandings and exposing poorly understood problems. It reveals how some workers pay to take on additional hours; that those who pay national insurance contributions may get nothing in return; that some families can be paid to split apart; and that many people on the lowest incomes are seeing their retirement age rise the fastest.

Broken Benefits includes real-life stories, models of household budgets, projections of benefit spending, and a free online calculator showing the impact of welfare changes on personal finances. The book presents practical ideas of how benefits should be reformed, to create a fairer, simpler and more coherent system for the future.

Dr Sam Royston is Director of Policy and Research at The Children’s Society and chair of the End Child Poverty coalition, and spends much of his time trying to make the benefits system work a little bit better for children and families. He regularly gives evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees on welfare reform issues, and his work often appears in the national press.

Prior to this he worked as a welfare rights advisor, in which role he spent many frustrating days on the phone with the DWP and HMRC, trying to help fix people’s broken benefits.