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GREENS SAY LABOUR WRONG ON INCAPACITY BENEFIT |
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14th November 2005
 Proposals will hit Gloucestershire's poorest hard: Labour cuts benefits to pay for the super rich
David Blunkett, before he was forced to resign again, set out his thinking before the publication of the government's green paper on welfare reform. He proposed tighter conditions on many of the 2.7 million incapacity benefit claimants (i), as well as on lone parents and insists the way to overcome depression and stress was to stop watching daytime television and get back to work. Greens hope that now he has gone there will be a chance for a rethink.
Philip Booth, a Gloucestershire Green party spokesperson said: "We are repeatedly told we have the world's fourth largest economy yet many of our sick and disabled people are living on as little as £57.65 per week. Now these proposals include taking away a third of a claimant's Incapacity Benefit as a sanction if they don't attend 'work focused interviews'. They will hit Gloucestershire's poorest hard."
Philip Booth said: "What many people on benefits would welcome is a real opportunity to learn new skills or, alternatively, if they are unlikely ever to be fit for work again, to be given a decent level of benefit to compensate. However what we now fear is that these proposals will lead to some people being forced into inappropriate work. Getting tough is not the best way of helping some of the most vulnerable in society to obtain and keep jobs. It would be much better to see resources put into more positive programmes which provide ongoing support. We hope with Blunkett gone there will be a real chance to relook at this."
What jobs?
Philip Booth commented: "In the UK there are 628,000 job vacancies at any one time and 800,000 people on Jobseekers Allowance, with a further 2.7m people on Incapacity Benefit and nowhere near enough for the total of 8m people who do not work."
Philip Booth said: "We also have to question the wisdom of forcing people into low paid jobs. Each year the government spends millions topping up poverty wages with 'tax credits' and other benefits because their wages are not enough to keep them out of poverty. Without this extra cash people would refuse to work for such low pay and employers would have to increase wages until people thought the jobs were worth doing for the money on offer. It is typical of this government to attack the most vulnerable in society rather stop giving big business this hefty subsidy from tax payers' money."
'Blunkett wrong to strengthen myth over feckless parents'
Philip Booth continued: "It is disturbing that Mr Blunkett by urging people claiming benefits to switch off the TV and work, should want to strengthen the myth that the 28% of children who live in poverty in the UK have feckless parents. The words must be a bitter blow to parents struggling to bring up their children, many of whom are being forced to pay back money from a tax-credit bungle. Let us not forget that those forced to live on benefits are likely to have an income at least 20% below the poverty line. Those parents will know that work alone is not the solution - 50% of children living below the poverty line have at least one parent working and the government knows that."
Philip Booth added: "A staggering £4.5bn of benefits each year go unclaimed by those who are entitled to them and government mistakes in the administration of benefits cost £1bn a year. Yet instead of putting cash into a benefit take-up campaign for Britain's poorest, Blunkett is to chuck more resources at anti-fraud measures (ii). Meanwhile by contrast there is a noticeable failure to tackle the billions lost by international law and corporate tax dodgers."
During the government's first term, 41 Labour backbenchers voted against proposals to cut lone-parent benefits, with another 14 abstaining. A similar rebellion would overturn Labour's much-reduced majority.
Cuts to the poor to pay for the super rich
Philip Booth added: "It seems Labour MPs plan to cut benefits yet have awarded themselves another 3% increase in pay. Blunkett just created a new tax cut which means high-earners will be able to cash in on an effective 40% 'discount' on second homes. This really is a case of cuts to the poor to pay for the super rich."
Call for a Citizen's Income
Philip Booth concluded: "People on state benefits are often financially worse off when they take a job. This discourages some of them from trying to find work, and can result in benefit-dependency. On the other hand, many of those in demanding full-time jobs can resent being little better off than those who they do not see working at all. These twin problems, caused by our current tax and benefit system, result in the poverty trap. When claimants start earning money, their whole earnings can be deducted from their benefits. It's as if are facing a 100% tax rate. When they also take into account things such as the cost of travelling to and from work many people find that they are actually worse off having a job. To tackle this Greens would introduce a Citizen's Income, along the lines of the system in Alaska - an unconditional payment made to each individual as a right of citizenship like a tax credit paid to everyone whether they're working or not (iii)."
Notes:
(i) Labour's record on benefits is not good: almost as soon as it took power it axed single parent child benefit and then launched the 'Benefits Integrity Project' which managed to take away Disability Living Allowance from amputees and the blind. Next went the Severe Disability Allowance worth at least £46 per week for 10,000 of the most disabled people in the country. Ministers say that they are unhappy at the big increase in claimants, but infact the number of people on Incapacity Benefit has actually fallen by over 100,000 since 1997. The vast majority of claims are made by men living in former areas of heavy industry: the real increase in claimants came in the 1980s as the Conservatives used Incapacity benefit to hide the real unemployment figures.
(ii) Estimates reported to the public accounts committee show that while benefit fraud is declining, errors in payments are on the increase. Staff are needed to deliver these policies. Currently the government is cutting 30,000 staff in the Department for Work and Pensions and in the jobcentres there are not enough staff to deliver the system we have in place. Many claimants are waiting weeks and weeks for their benefit. Even the Tories have commented on how it is impossible to see how improvements in the benefits system could be delivered while 30,000 jobs are being cut.
(iii) Read more at:
http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=530&Itemid=2
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