social costs

The UK's deregulation from the EU will take Boris Johnson initially longer to sell

European economy 11th September 2021

Social Care Tax Rise Is Austerity By Another Name

The Conversation | Boris Johnson has unveiled an additional 1.25% levy on national insurance paid by wage earners and employers, which will raise £14 billion a year to help pay for the NHS and reforms to social care. Coming on the back of rises to income tax and corporation tax that were announced in the budget in March, it is the latest example of the government using tax rises rather than austerity to rein in public finances that have been hit by the cost of the pandemic. We asked Alex de Ruyter, a Professor of Economics at Birmingham City University, to explain how it would affect different parts of society.

In Europe 13th March 2014

The Greek crisis we don’t see

ATHENS | By Nick Maltkouzis | The social cost of the crisis in Greece is often hidden from visitors and casual observers. In fact if one excludes some parts of Athens and other big cities, the signs of the crisis are not always that visible. However, an increasing amount of Greeks are finding themselves socially excluded. According to the latest figures from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), 34.6 percent of the population was considered to be living at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2012, the highest proportion in the European Unión.