‘It should pay to work’ is the main credo of the current Danish government, which has accordingly adopted a number of reforms in order to motivate people to seek employment rather than social benefits.
However, the Danish liberal think-tank Cepos claims the effects of these initiatives have so far not been particularly large – especially compared to the results achieved by the former government led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Paltry return so far
According to Cepos, Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his team have only ‘created’ 1,300 jobs since they were elected to rule the country last June, while Thorning-Schmidt managed to get about 45,000 people into work over a period of four years.
Mads Lundby Hansen, the chief economist at Cepos, suggests that Rasmussen needs to tackle the current student grant system, promptly increase the age of retirement and abolish the possibility of early retirement, among other measures.
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