Comments on: The Condition of Britain report lives up to the hype https://leftfootforward.org/2014/06/the-condition-of-britain-lives-up-to-the-hype/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Thu, 19 Jun 2014 21:03:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 By: Leon Wolfeson https://leftfootforward.org/2014/06/the-condition-of-britain-lives-up-to-the-hype/#comment-320846 Thu, 19 Jun 2014 21:03:00 +0000 https://www.leftfootforward.org/?p=85568#comment-320846 *Further conditionality on top of the mountain we already have (Including workfare commitments, which in study after study show they mean people take longer to get back to work, replace workers and reduce salaries)…
*An endorsement for the shambolic UC.
*”Contribution” principles under a global cap, which means cuts for most claimants *Expecting poor people to work for free for “their community”…
* A “backstop”, which will mean companies can get a steady stream of minimum-wage workers by relying on people in that situation, and introduces a strong principle of time-limiting JSA…
* Cutting any guaranteed uprating in JSA and the state pension altogether by divorcing NIC’s from government funding. and creating a deliberate and strong justification for cutting income-based JSA entirely.
* Introducing a reclaiming principle for SMI which is trivial to justify extending to housing benefit, and for shorter periods to be introduced a few years down the line.
* Making work REALLY not pay by “loaning” people higher “contribution-based” payments, which they’ll end up paying interest on… (and thus people will rather struggle than take!)
* Continuing the expensive, ineffective work program, taking billions away from actual welfare. Heck, syphoning off EU funds for the poor into this type of program!
* Mandatory “Occupational health plans” for the sick, never mind what they’re sick of, with punishments if people don’t recover quickly enough.
* Letting councils lower housing benefit locally to drive out the poor, and letting landlords know who’s on HB so they can evict them (lose your job? Don’t *dare* claim HB with many
landlords!)

…This is a Tory document from a few years ago, as far as I can see.

Then there’s repeating the “required voting at the first election” idea, which is just a MAJOR turnoff from ever registering to vote..and because parliamentary districts are based on voter rather than population numbers is a true, true gift for the Tories (And it’s anti-democratic, in itself, afaik).

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