Better benefits for health: plan to implement the central recommendation of the Acheson report

Call for a plan to implement the message of the Acheson report

As authors of the Black report, we welcome the report of the independent inquiry into inequalities in health by the scientific advisory group under the chairmanship of Sir Donald Acheson. 1 2 In particular, we welcome the attention given in the report to the increasing problems caused since the late 1970s by the rapidly widening gap in living standards. We also welcome recommendation number 3 (among the 39 principal recommendations) which specifies the need for policies to “reduce income inequalities and improve the living standards of households in receipt of social security benefits.”1 The report specifies that benefits in cash or in kind must be increased to reduce “poverty in women of childbearing age, expectant mothers, young children and older people.” Nine other recommendations (numbers 8, 13, 20, 21, 22, 27, 31, 35, 36) were explicitly linked to recommendation 3, reinforcing the call for integrated action to alleviate unemployment and the deprived condition of many ethnic minority groups, elderly and disabled people, and families with children; and increase benefit levels and real living standards. Another 10 recommendations are concerned with meeting material needs in schools, housing, the environment, transport, and diet.