Where do you want to get to?

Patrick Nolan has a good post at Coffeehouse, suggesting policymaking should start by defining where you want to get to.

This is in contrast to the crabbed approach of the unlamented Yvette Balls, who failed as usual to get her head round her brief, but at least did nothing, in contrast to her Housing role where she made things worse by introducing HIPs.

Credit, then, to IDS, for putting his cards on the table about his aims. If he wholly fails, it will have been a noble failure, and even the Green Paper stands as an important document, both in the history of welfare policymaking and in terms of this government's ambitions.

Nolan also hopes the document will lead to a debate on how to reduce the "over-reach" of the welfare system:

Since 2000, reflecting an ever-expanding scope of welfare payments, spending on welfare increased even when the economy was growing.

With our huge state debts, that is unsupportable. The debate isn't about whether the welfare system should change any more.

We can't afford it.

So the debate is only about what the changes should be. Here's a fragment of IDS



Note he suggests fraud and error may be higher than the official numbers. This blog and website agree.