RAS Prelims: Concepts and Practice

Learning outcome

You can tell the state budget from one welfare scheme.

Concepts and why

The state budget is the full statement of what the state expects to receive and what it expects to spend. A welfare scheme is one spending item inside that statement. Naming a scheme does not name the budget. This lesson does not list current schemes, and it does not give a deficit figure. Those change from one budget to the next.

Worked examples

A question asks what the state budget is. It is the whole plan of receipts and expenditure, not one scheme. A question asks whether one named scheme is the budget. It is not. It is one item of spending.

Common mistakes

Calling a popular scheme the state budget. Treating this year deficit, or this year list of schemes, as a permanent fact.

Practice questions

1. What does the state budget set out?
2. Is one welfare scheme the whole budget?
3. Should a lesson store this year list of schemes as a fixed fact?

Answers and explanations

1. What the state expects to receive, and what it expects to spend.
2. No. A scheme is one spending item.
3. No. The list changes from one budget to the next.

Analogy

A household account book has every expected receipt and every expected payment. One gift to a relative is a single line in that book. The line is not the book. A scheme is the line. The state budget is the book.

Quick reference

State budget: the full plan of receipts and expenditure. A welfare scheme: one spending item. The scheme is not the budget.