Is Purnell’s Welfare Reform Bill the greatest dilution of welfare rights since the inception of the Welfare State? There are many in our movement who feel the measures contained within this Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, are an attack on some of the most vulnerable in our society, disabled people, single parents, and drug addicts.
Tomorrow, a number of trade unions (sadly, not Unite) and welfare campaigning groups are to lobby parliament against this punitive Bill. If this Bill passes into law it will introduce such schemes as the notorious US ‘Workfare’, whereby benefits’ claimants are forced to work for benefits. Even though workfare has proved a failure where piloted; it hasn’t stopped the government including it in the Bill.
This ‘work-for-your-benefit’ plan could have people working full-time for a third of the minimum wage! As the recession deepens, we will see more and more companies using it as an excuse to diminish our members terms and conditions; only last week Argos gave its employees a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ ultimatum, tied up with the threat of a 90-day notice.
In 2010 compulsory unpaid work pilots will begin. Many of us remember how Thatcher’s YOPs schemes allowed ruthless employers to sack better paid workers in order to take on heavily subsidised youngsters. This could create a whole new class of worker, the compulsory unwaged class.
But, not satisfied with exploiting people unlucky enough to be hit by a situation not of their making, this recession; our government decides to introduce these draconian measures whilst paying JSA at the paltry level of £60.50 per week, or £47.95 for the under 25s. As though people are becoming unemployed in order to take advantage of such princely payouts.
Running in tandem with the above schemes will a cunning plan to get a million disabled people off benefits in the next ten years. So, we’re in the teeth of a recession. Companies and businesses from across the manufacturing, commercial and servicing spectrum of industry are shedding jobs by the thousand. Yet, the government insist that now is the time to get 100,000 disabled people per annum into work – not to mention the scores of thousands of lone parents and thousands of drug addicts who are also on the hit list.
Fair enough, a number of the factors presenting themselves today were unknowns when David Freud dreamed up this Bill. When in doubt as to solving the problem of long-term workless people (shorthand for people with severe disabilities), one should always reach for the nearest City investment banker. Who else can empathise with the poor, the socially excluded? Who but someone as divorced from the real world as an investment banker can make objective decisions on behalf of disabled people; those he can only dream about in his worst nightmares.
Now unemployed disabled people will also have to undergo ‘work-related-activities’; as though disabled people don’t daily struggle with pain, discrimination, Social Services for care packages, etc; such things that are not viewed as productive, even though they’re physically and mentally demanding.
To ensure nobody slips under the radar, the government intends to scrap Incapacity Benefit and Income Support for unemployed disabled people, replacing them with an Employment Support Allowance. The government are also introducing stringent work capability assessments that will mean a lot of disabled people unable to work will be forced to take on some work related activities. Experts believe that certain groups, such as those with mental health and severe learning difficulties may well fall through the safety net.
Then, as though to add insult to injury, the government plans to privatise much of the DwP; as can be evidenced in the 30,000 job cuts made over the past years.
At a time when disabled job seekers are looking to the expertise of Jobcentre Plus DEAs, the government slashes jobs. In their place companies like Remploy step in to operate a merry-go-round employment policy, in which they place a disabled person in three or four jobs a year, and then claim they’ve found work for 6,500, when in reality their figures represent double and triple counting.
If more of the Jobcentre Plus work is farmed out to the private sector, we’ll end up with a service more interested with presenting the government with the kind of targets it wants; not a service that will strive to place disabled people into jobs that are sustainable or suit their abilities.
We must not allow this pernicious piece of legislation to pass onto the statute books; so, please attempt to attend tomorrow and to call on your MP to:
Tomorrow, a number of trade unions (sadly, not Unite) and welfare campaigning groups are to lobby parliament against this punitive Bill. If this Bill passes into law it will introduce such schemes as the notorious US ‘Workfare’, whereby benefits’ claimants are forced to work for benefits. Even though workfare has proved a failure where piloted; it hasn’t stopped the government including it in the Bill.
This ‘work-for-your-benefit’ plan could have people working full-time for a third of the minimum wage! As the recession deepens, we will see more and more companies using it as an excuse to diminish our members terms and conditions; only last week Argos gave its employees a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ ultimatum, tied up with the threat of a 90-day notice.
In 2010 compulsory unpaid work pilots will begin. Many of us remember how Thatcher’s YOPs schemes allowed ruthless employers to sack better paid workers in order to take on heavily subsidised youngsters. This could create a whole new class of worker, the compulsory unwaged class.
But, not satisfied with exploiting people unlucky enough to be hit by a situation not of their making, this recession; our government decides to introduce these draconian measures whilst paying JSA at the paltry level of £60.50 per week, or £47.95 for the under 25s. As though people are becoming unemployed in order to take advantage of such princely payouts.
Running in tandem with the above schemes will a cunning plan to get a million disabled people off benefits in the next ten years. So, we’re in the teeth of a recession. Companies and businesses from across the manufacturing, commercial and servicing spectrum of industry are shedding jobs by the thousand. Yet, the government insist that now is the time to get 100,000 disabled people per annum into work – not to mention the scores of thousands of lone parents and thousands of drug addicts who are also on the hit list.
Fair enough, a number of the factors presenting themselves today were unknowns when David Freud dreamed up this Bill. When in doubt as to solving the problem of long-term workless people (shorthand for people with severe disabilities), one should always reach for the nearest City investment banker. Who else can empathise with the poor, the socially excluded? Who but someone as divorced from the real world as an investment banker can make objective decisions on behalf of disabled people; those he can only dream about in his worst nightmares.
Now unemployed disabled people will also have to undergo ‘work-related-activities’; as though disabled people don’t daily struggle with pain, discrimination, Social Services for care packages, etc; such things that are not viewed as productive, even though they’re physically and mentally demanding.
To ensure nobody slips under the radar, the government intends to scrap Incapacity Benefit and Income Support for unemployed disabled people, replacing them with an Employment Support Allowance. The government are also introducing stringent work capability assessments that will mean a lot of disabled people unable to work will be forced to take on some work related activities. Experts believe that certain groups, such as those with mental health and severe learning difficulties may well fall through the safety net.
Then, as though to add insult to injury, the government plans to privatise much of the DwP; as can be evidenced in the 30,000 job cuts made over the past years.
At a time when disabled job seekers are looking to the expertise of Jobcentre Plus DEAs, the government slashes jobs. In their place companies like Remploy step in to operate a merry-go-round employment policy, in which they place a disabled person in three or four jobs a year, and then claim they’ve found work for 6,500, when in reality their figures represent double and triple counting.
If more of the Jobcentre Plus work is farmed out to the private sector, we’ll end up with a service more interested with presenting the government with the kind of targets it wants; not a service that will strive to place disabled people into jobs that are sustainable or suit their abilities.
We must not allow this pernicious piece of legislation to pass onto the statute books; so, please attempt to attend tomorrow and to call on your MP to:
- Support amendments to remove these provisions from the Bill
- Support EDM ‘Contracting-out of Welfare provision’
- Support EDM 632 ‘Contracting-out of Social Fund’
- Write to the Secretary of State asking for a guarantee that he will not allow interest to be charged on Social Fund loans
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