- No additional costs for healthcare or health insurance
- Some state pension reduces the need to save for retirement
- (About) free university reduces the need to save for education (or, to have education debt)
- ~39 weeks paid parental leave
- 6 weeks of holiday per year is normal
- Other social benefits, such as childcare
I interpret this as meaning that people don't need to save as much money.
- University is definitely not free, at least in England. Fees are £9k per year. Interest rates are high and you don’t have to pay it back unless you earn over a certain amount so in reality, it’s more like a graduate tax for many, but it’s definitely not free.
- Childcare is limited to a few free days a week, often has extras to be paid for and is otherwise very expensive. For those on higher incomes that’s reduced too.
- 52 weeks parental leave is for the mother only and is only at statutory pay after 6 weeks (about £150 per week). Paternity leave is 2 weeks at statutory pay.
- 6 weeks of holiday is not normal. Normal would be about 4 weeks.
- The state pension is £185 per week. Nearly everybody contributes a decent amount to a private pension too.
It used to be that mothers were entitled to maternity leave which broke down as: - 6 weeks at 90% of your average pay - 33 weeks of statutory maternity pay (£156/wk) - 13 weeks unpaid
Now parents can opt for shared parental leave, effectively sharing that time off entitlement: https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay
The legal minimum is 20 days plus 8 public holidays. I don't know anyone in a white collar job who gets fewer than 25 (+8) days off, and in the public sector 30 seems to be the low end.
The US has a government pension. That is (part of) what "Social Security" taxes pay for.
The state of the NHS for the last 2.5 years means that you effectively need to pay private (whether out of pocket or through insurance) if you want any chance at decent, timely healthcare.