In the absence of a coherent, comprehensive and robust social security system, economic insecurity comes to the forefront as many Lodamese citizens are forced to constantly question the extent to which they may be able to keep their heads above the water. Lodamun's social welfare model can only be described as a patchwork of programmes, managed by various government departments (both federally and stately) and which never truly reaches those who need the most help. The system's history of hits and misses has been devastating for public confidence in the government's ability to render assistance to the nation's most vulnerable and has damped almost any and all optimism among the nation's senior citizens of the prospect of a comfortable, worry-free retirement. For any modern/advanced economy, the existence of a social welfare system which caters to the needs of the vast majority of the population with some semblance of both transparency and efficiency and which attempts to eliminate uncertainty among its contributors and benefactors has often been viewed as one of the core measures/determinants of a nation's capacity for greatness. Although it can be argued that throughout the known world, there is no perfect social welfare model, it does not excuse the calamitous state of the Lodamese system.
In its report on the state of the Lodamese welfare state, the Centre for Social Policy Research notes that the Lodamese system is plagued by administrative inefficiencies, corruption and fraud. It placed much of the blame for this situation at the feet of the government itself as it noted that the way in which the Lodamese welfare system is managed (wherein its core programmes are administrated by different/separate entities, under different departments, all operating in silos) had created an enabling environment for fraudulent activities such as double dipping as each programme refused to share information with each other related to the enrollment applicants."Throughout our welfare state's history, it has been plagued with numerous challenges related to its administration; i.e. whether the help it says it could render to those in need, truly gets to them. From double dipping and other fraudulent activities, the system has become a cesspit for criminality and a stain on the nation's credibility when it comes to social welfare reform. The disjointed, unintegrated nature of the programmes has created situations where the Unemployment Assistance programme under the Department of the Treasury doesn't know that the applicant before it is under another programme administered by the Department of Health and Social Services virtually doing the same thing. Whether it's double dipping or duplicate programmes, much of the woes of this system is by design and thus much of the blame rests at the feet of the [federal] government," Harriet Graydon, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Centre for Social Policy Research explained in an op-ed in the Kensington Post last week.
As the Lodamese economy continues to grow, some analysts note that although growth could simply push the great reckoning of the poor state of Lodamun's social welfare system down the road, in times of economic uncertainty, (such as during a recession) the system could buckle and collapse under the weight of its own inefficiency. Having promised to overhaul the nation's social welfare system during the campaign, President Carver has stated that his administration is prepared to unveil the details surrounding their plans for a new welfare model in Lodamun. At a joint press conference at Whitehall alongside the Secretary of Health and Social Services Dr Samantha Fraser revealed that one of her day one initiatives was to form a committee of social policy experts with the aim of aiding the government in building a new social welfare model for the nation, one purged of the inefficiencies of the current model. At the head of this committee was Dr Abner Montgomery, a Professor of Public Economics at Drumford University and one of the nation's foremost intellectual minds on matters related to the welfare state, retirement issues and public finance. Other names included Dr Abner Adams, a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Newchester, Dr Susanna Kinnard, a Professor of Labour Economics at the University of St. Christopher, Dr Efrem Hopkins, a Professor of Health Economics at the University of Barrington and Dr Arleen Joseph, Director of the National Institute for Social and Economic Reform.
According to Dr Montgomery, the committee conducted a series of consultations with members of the private sector and the public sector in order to map out the extent of the damage done to the Lodamese welfare state. In a 120-page document which has been since seen by the President and has been subsequently sent to the National Congress, the committee regurgitated much of the observations and conclusions drawn by persons such as Harriet Graydon. It noted that for the system to have the intended effect, it would have to be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. Of the numerous recommendations coming out of the report, the establishment of a singular, federal entity responsible for the administration of all welfare programmes stood out, virtually eliminating the problem of duplicate programmes and enhancing monitoring through consolidation.
Part Two of this Two-Part Series will continue next week