经济学人下载:福利改革 睡房与碎砖

Welfare reform
福利改革

Bedrooms and brickbats
睡房与碎砖

The bedroom tax will probably survive
睡房税很可能延续

ON A sunny spring morning, a small group of protesters wait at the Department of Work and Pensions with a giant card for Iain Duncan Smith. It is his birthday. But the card also marks a year since the introduction of the “bedroom tax”, as opposition politicians call the welfare secretary's scheme to encourage people in subsidised social housing to move to smaller properties. “One year on and still causing misery”, it reads.
在一个阳光明媚的早晨，一小群人带着巨大的宣传板，上面画着伊安.杜肯.史密斯，来到就业与养老金部大门前。当日是部长的生日。此画板标志着“睡房税”已经实行了一年。这是政治反对派们对史密斯福利计划的戏称。福利大臣想动员民众从接受补贴的社会房屋搬到小点的房子中。板上写着“实施一年了，依然生贫致困”。

Since 2010, the coalition has introduced plenty of changes to the welfare system. But few are as unpopular as the bedroom tax (officially, the “removal of the spare-room subsidy”). According to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, it symbolises an “out-of-touch, uncaring Tory government that stands up for the privileged few”. In February the nationalists in Scotland triumphantly scrapped it. The Liberal Democrats are split by it. Yet despite the tide of anger, it will probably survive.
2010年以来，执政联盟对福利系统进行了大刀阔斧的改革。没有几个项目像“睡房税”一样惹人讨厌（官方的说法，“取消闲置房屋的补贴”）。据工党党首文立彬说，这标志着“脱离群众，对大众利益漠不关心的保守党政府公然倒向特权阶层了”。二月份，苏格兰的民族主义执政党废除了该政策。而自由民主党内部也对此政策看法不一。尽管群情激愤，该计划十有八九会延续下去。

Before April 2013 tenants with spare rooms got enough housing benefit to cover their full rent. Since then, they have had to pay for them themselves. On average, that means finding another 14 per week, typically out of other welfare benefits—which are hardly generous to begin with.The government says this is fair because people “underoccupying” their homes are preventing larger families from using the space more fully. The charge encourages tenants with spare bedrooms to downsize—or to rent them out. It is also meant to cut around 360m per year from the benefits bill.
2013年八月以前，租了空房的住客可以拿到足够的房屋补贴来抵消其全部房租。从那以后，他们只好自己付房租了。平均算起来，这意味着每周得额外拿出14英镑，这些钱往往从其他福利收益中节省出来。而这些福利补贴往往本来就没多少。该政府认为，这很公平，因为百姓“空置”其房屋就是为了阻碍有更多成员的家庭充分利用房屋空间。该命令鼓励租用多间房屋的住户搬到更小的房子里——或者将多余房屋转出。这也意味着每年能从补贴账单中节省3600万英镑。

Whether it can do so depends largely on people being able to move. So far just 6% of those affected have done, according to a BBC survey. A high proportion live in post-industrial northern towns, where councils own plenty of 1950s and 1960s family homes but comparatively few smaller flats. In Liverpool, for example, 24% of social tenants are affected by the policy. In Westminster, by contrast, where there is enormous demand for housing, the figure is just 5%.
节流能否实现取决于人们多大程度上愿意挪窝。到目前为止，据BBC调查，目标群体中只有6%受到影响。其中大部分都住在北部衰落的工业区城镇中。城镇委员会手握大量1950s-1960s相对较小的单套住房。例如，利物浦那里24%的社会租户受到此项政策影响。威斯敏斯特则相反，房屋需求旺盛，社会租户只占5%。

Yet the numbers of people affected is falling. When the policy came into effect last April, 560,000 households were hit. By November, that had fallen to around 500,000. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), a charity, explains the shortfall. Some people had found work; some had reached retirement age, whereupon the scheme no longer applies. And more may now be moving. Mutual exchanges—where tenants swap council homes with each other—appear to have taken off. Meanwhile, some housing associations and councils are buying smaller homes and selling large ones.
但目标人群的数量在下降。政策在去年四月生效的时候，560，000的家庭在调控之内。到了十一月份，数量已经下降到约500，000。朗特里慈善基金会（JRF）对此有解释：一些百姓找到了工作；一些到了退休年龄，计划也就不再适用了。更多的民众正另寻他所。互惠交换，即租户互换其委员会名下的房屋，似乎已经开动了。同时，一些房屋联合组织和委员会正在购买小面积的房屋，而将大的房屋卖掉。

Scrapping the tax outright could undo some of these improvements. Steve Wilcox, the author of the JRF's report, suggests tweaks that would make it work better. Exempting tenants with severe disabilities, who may need a room for a carer or equipment, would help. They currently have to apply for emergency funds from local authorities: a messy, bureaucratic process. So too would boosting that pot of money.
直接取消睡房税就会阻碍其中某些改良。朗特里基金会报告的主笔史蒂夫·威尔科克斯就建议对计划稍微改进就能让它事半功倍。把身患残疾因而需要一间房给看护人员或设备的租户免除在外就会有帮助。他们现在不得不申请地方政府设立的紧急基金：这个官僚化的程序往往一团乱麻。这样做也能支持那一大笔节省的目标。

Such pragmatism will not appeal to the Labour Party. For Mr Miliband, the bedroom tax is a helpful springboard for a wider war on welfare reform. Yet if elected in 2015, he too will want to cut the deficit. Tweaks might then be welcome.
但这些实用主义的策略对工党毫无吸引力。对文立彬来说，睡房税是就福利改革问题进行更大规模的斗争的一块有利跳板。但如果2015年能竞选成功，他也会削减赤字。那时改进措施可能就会有支持了。