Title: Impact of increasing the rate unemployment benefits - Economics Help
Headings: Impact of increasing the rate unemployment benefits
Impact of increasing the rate unemployment benefits
Benefits of increasing unemployment benefits
Problems of increasing unemployment benefits
Statistics
Cost of unemployment benefits
Unemployment benefit spending compared to social security spending.
Fraudulent Unemployment benefit claims

Content: If unemployment benefits are higher, it may enable lower income support / universal credit. Problems of increasing unemployment benefits
Unemployment Trap. If benefits are increased too much then there may be little incentive to get a job rather than stay on benefits. This is said to be a problem in Germany, where generous unemployment benefits encourage many to stay on benefits (known as voluntary unemployment)
Cost to taxpayer of paying for the benefits. However, the level of unemployment benefits is currently quite low relative to other benefits. Statistics
Cost of unemployment benefits
In the 2014 the public expenditure survey, the total cost of unemployment benefit payments fell from £5.5 bn to £4.9 bn – Claimant count method. Unemployment benefit spending compared to social security spending. UK benefit spending
Unemployment benefit is now dwarfed by housing benefit
Fraudulent Unemployment benefit claims
It is possible that the claimant count could overstate the level of unemployment because people could collect JSA whilst also having a job. However, the levels of estimated benefit fraud is quite low. According to gov.uk, in 2012/13 , 4.6% of unemployment benefit was estimated to be overpaid or £230m out of total cost of £5bn
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