Stop the attack on Britain's poorest

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Stop the attack on Britain's poorest

(Sunday 30 November 2008)

by PAUL HASTE




SHAMEFUL: Government adviser Sir Richard Tilt has warned that the changes would "push people much closer to poverty."



UNIONS and anti-poverty campaigners called on the government on Sunday to tear up its "draconian" welfare reforms and scrap its onslaught on the recession-hit poor.

Last week, the government started to force single parents and people with disabilities applying for income support to claim jobseeker's allowance instead - and threatened to cut their benefits if they failed to look for work.


New Labour's attacks on some of the most vulnerable people in society come as thousands of workers face being thrown on the dole in a deepening recession.


Even the government's own social security adviser Sir Richard Tilt has warned that the changes would "push people much closer to poverty."
But Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed at the weekend that the recession makes such attacks "more important."


As unnamed "advisers" suggested forcing single parents of children as young as two to look for jobs that are fast disappearing, Mr Purnell boasted that "new Labour ideas were being renewed to face the recession."


This claim was immediately torn to shreds by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, who demanded that ministers "ditch the new Labour discourse that has been brought into such disrepute."


Mr Barber was joined by anti-poverty campaigners, who urged the government to "fundamentally rethink" its assault on the welfare state.
Coalition Against Poverty national co-ordinator Eileen Devaney declared: "Our aim is an adequate income for all, but we do not believe the welfare reform proposals can achieve this."


Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn added that Labour has always supported "a comprehensive welfare state to ensure that no-one ended up either homeless or destitute.


"But these welfare reforms do not seem to bear any resemblance to the principles of the Labour Party."


PCS union leader Mark Serwotka joined GMB general secretary Paul Kenny and National Unemployed Workers Centres director Colin Hampton in signing an open letter to the government to insist that "work for dole" provisions in the reforms also be scrapped.


"Multimillionaire merchant banker David Freud came up with this proposal and now the government wants more of the welfare state to be handed over to the private sector," Mr Serwotka explained.


"But it is wrong to profit from the sick and the unemployed. People should be paid the rate for the job or, at the very least, be paid the minimum wage."


Mr Barber urged ministers to turn away from an ideology that insisted on a "minimal state." He pointed out that the state "can be a powerful force for good and it's up to us on the progressive left to get our message across by using the more inspiring language of equality, fairness and social justice."

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