George Osborne has said a further £25bn spending cut will be coming after the next election, much of which will hit disabled people
Over the past five years, we have been forced to watch the systematic slashing of our welfare state. The coalition says ‘we are all in this together.’ The reality has been an austerity agenda where the disabled, the lowest-wage earners, and the chronically ill have taken the biggest hits.
Policy after policy has put the burden on the people who can least afford it. Cuts to council tax support have seen what’s effectively a new poll tax on millions of the poorest working households. The abolition of Disability Living Allowance and the Independent Living Fund are seeing basic dignity dubbed as too costly. Employment and Support Allowance has been riddled with conditionality, delays and outright failing, as thousands die after private companies find them ‘fit for work’. The bedroom tax has pushed thousands of the poorest people into rent arrears, penalising the disabled for needing a box room to store oxygen cylinders.
Worse, a climate has been built that says this is entirely right. The coalition has orchestrated a demonisation of need, where someone struggling on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) has been recast as the feckless workshy and a person too sick to work is a scrounger worthy of suspicion.
Right-wing media and ‘poverty porn’ television have simply fed a fear that our own government has started. Benefit fraud is less than one per cent. The biggest part of social security spending – 53 per cent – actually goes to pensioners. Listen to Ian Duncan Smith and you would think the disabled were living in gold houses and the unemployed bathing in diamonds.
The sanction regime is characteristic of the distortion of a compassionate, fair safety-net. Jobcentre staff report being given targets for stopping people’s benefits, whether that’s a claimant who’s five minutes late for an appointment or someone with chronic illness who’s too sick to get out of bed. Meanwhile, workfare schemes force people on JSA to work for free or be sanctioned. This is not only about removing benefits but the principle behind them. Social security as a universal entitlement is being attacked.
A major tool in this has been the stigmatisation of people needing benefits – part of a wider attempt to make the public see things in terms of workers versus claimants. But the facts show this is an entirely false division. A job market characterised by unstable hours and low wages has pushed working people towards benefits. Housing benefit figures alone show the number of people in work needing help to pay the rent has increased by almost 60 per cent under the coalition.
Britain is getting poorer. This government’s choices – both benefit cuts and tax changes – have made more workers, more children, more disabled people struggle. 13 million people now live in poverty in this country.
It is charity that has been left to pick up the pieces. Half a million people have had to go to food banks to feed themselves over the past six months – most because of benefit delays and sanctions, others due to low wages. This is part of a disturbing retreat of the state, where private companies and local volunteers fill the gaps left by failing government.
Taking back the welfare state is a fundamental issue of this election. The stakes could not be higher: the right to a life without poverty and a system where we help each other. As Class set out in their election guide, we must restore social security as a permanent, humane part of British society.
Judgement and punishment must be cast out for solidarity and compassion. Workfare, low wages, a gender pay gap, and propped up high rents, need to be replaced by a living wage, stable jobs, gender equality, and affordable homes. The people unable to work due to ill health or disability, currently enduring nominal income and arbitrary testing, must get bespoke assessment and support to live comfortably.
We know what’s already been done in the name of austerity is just the beginning. George Osborne has said a further £25bn spending cuts – much of it from the welfare budget – will be coming after the next election. If the Conservatives keep hold of power, Britain will find itself halfway through a near-decade of cuts. The disabled, people struggling to find work or living hand-to-mouth on low wages are easy targets. The welfare state cannot afford another five years of this.
Frances Ryan writes for the Guardian and New Statesman, covering austerity, disability and feminism. Follow her on Twitter
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49 Responses to “The coalition has stigmatised welfare users – we need a return to compassion and solidarity”
Paul
Your understanding of the financial crash is incorrect.
The cause of the financial crash was people in the US taking out mortgages that they could not afford and then defaulting on the repayments. ‘Bankers’ had allowed for default rates based upon historical volatility bands. When these bands were exceeded, the model became untenable and investments based on the model were therefore overvalued. A firesale therefore ensued. This affected markets and institutions across the world.
Nobody went to ‘jail’ because no criminal offence had been committed. Mortgages were offered based upon flawed assumptions, but this is only known in hindsight.
Mike Stallard
” the right to a life without poverty and a system where we help each other. As Class set out in their election guide, we must restore social security as a permanent, humane part of British society.”
I have been on the dole myself for some ten years in the 1990s. I felt that I was sponging off the state and, worse, that I was sponging off my wife. I worked for free for some years, not even getting expenses.
In the end it comes down to this question: why should other people have supported me? There is no real reason I can think of except that they had to because their money was taken off them in tax.
I have met several people, too, who regard taking other people’s money as their right. I met a couple of them this evening. They are living off you and me, although both are men of working age, strong, fit, intelligent.
In the end, there is no reason why such people should be given other people’s money is there?
Believe me, both men existed. How many more of them are there?
jray
You are right and wrong,the US Banks purchased subprime mortgages and then packaged them in bundles,they assigned risks,but mixed and matched risk to get the highest possible yields and ratings,these were then sold to investors including UK/European Banks after things began to unravel it was like pass the parcel,plain and simple it was a quasi ponzi scheme,but based on greed,plain and simple.
robertcp
I agree with Frances but does the Labour Party? I cringe when I hear Rachel Reeves talking about being tough on welfare.
Guest
Yea, better 40% of the population die. Then lots more.
Oh wait, I’m sure you’ll come up with a fix like…oh…outright slavery.
As you use two people (who are probably you and your partner – rich people like you don’t need to work, after all) to justify the state turning on it’s people. For your profit.