UK unemployment benefit less generous than Romania, Albania and the US

(not satire – it’s the UK today)

Well now. Here’s an interesting ranking of countries according to how generous their unemployment benefit is for the first year after workers have lost their jobs.

Quite contrary to the spin we constantly receive from the mainstream press et al about how generous the UK is with unemployment benefits, the fact is we actually rank lower in generosity than countries like Romania, Albania and even the US.

Here’s the ranking – with the most generous countries at the top (you have to go right to the bottom to find the UK):

Country	Gross Replacement Rate, year 1	Ranking
Netherlands	0.7	1
Switzerland	0.687	2
Sweden	0.685	3
Portugal	0.65	4
Spain	0.635	5
Norway	0.624	6
Algeria	0.612	7
Taiwan	0.6	8
Ukraine	0.56	9
Italy	0.527	10
Denmark	0.521	11
Russia	0.505	12
Tunisia	0.5	13
Finland	0.494	14
France	0.479	15
Bulgaria	0.473	16
Canada	0.459	17
Romania	0.45	18
Hong Kong	0.41	19
Austria	0.398	20
Belgium	0.373	21
Argentina	0.354	22
Germany	0.353	23
Greece	0.346	24
Azerbaijan	0.338	25
Egypt	0.329	26
Venezuela	0.325	27
Belarus	0.313	28
Israel	0.307	29
Japan	0.289	30
United States	0.275	31
Kyrgyzstan	0.255	32
New Zealand	0.254	33
Latvia	0.253	34
India	0.25	38
Korea, South	0.25	37
Uruguay	0.25	36
Uzbekistan	0.25	35
Ireland	0.238	39
Hungary	0.235	40
Poland	0.226	41
Czech Republic	0.225	42
Australia	0.21	43
Turkey	0.206	44
Albania	0.202	45
United Kingdom	0.189	46
Brazil	0.152	47
Estonia	0.132	48
Lithuania	0.117	49
Chile	0.115	50
Georgia	0.09	51

For more details of how the list was compiled – have a look at this excellent website:

World ranking in Unemployment Benefit replacement rates

The data by the way, is taken from a study compiled for the IMF - before anyone starts accusing me of peddling left-wing propaganda.

I don’t know about you, but I think it would be nice to see a few real facts being allowed to surface in the debate about welfare reform – instead of the ill-informed spin and propaganda that passes for debate on benefits we’re getting at the moment in the UK.

Pride's Purge