Welfare reform opposition reaches fever pitch
Opposition to the government’s welfare reform programme is reaching fever pitch today, with critics mobilising against the plans before the Queen’s Speech.
Observers expect the government to plough ahead with the reforms in tomorrow’s speech, but unions and left-wing activists are saying the economic downturn means it is the wrong time.
The reforms, based on a report by the city financier David Freud, would see those on unemployment benefits face tough penalties if they failed to take up job offers.
They will also force single parents of 12-year-olds and above to go back to work or face losing benefits.
“The government’s thinking was conceived in a time of boom,” said a spokesperson for the social democratic pressure group Compass.
“Now we are in recession. There are no jobs to push these people towards.”
A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) official said: “Sanctions would only apply to those who refuse to take steps to be job-ready that have been jointly agreed with their personal advisers in jobcentres.”
Today, a report by Professor Gregg for the DWP found the single parent proposals to be problematic, describing them as “clearly not appropriate, and would not be effective, for some lone parents”.
The Conservatives, who broadly support welfare reform proposals, said the focus on single parents was unhelpful.
“I am puzzled by the degree to which they are still focusing on lone parents as the main part of the challenge we face,” said shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling.
“Of course we need to help lone parents into work, but not until their children are properly established in school.”
TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “This approach to welfare assumes a utopian world of unrestricted childcare and widely available jobs where only the lazy opt for life on the dole.
“The reality is very different. Thousands of people are joining the dole queue every day through no fault of their own.”
Observers believe the provisions will form a key part of Wednesday’s speech, after Gordon Brown told the Progress conference it would be “the biggest New Labour project of all”.
The prime minister has been facing accusation of the ‘death of New Labour’ since he and Alistair Darling added a new top-rate of income tax in the Pre-Budget Report last week.
“It will mean not a slowing down of reform but only a stepping up in the pace of reform,” he said.
Leading welfare and social policy experts wrote a letter to the Observer this weekend publicly outlining their objections to the plans.
Compass is calling on supporters to start a letter campaign and has published a petition on its website. Spokespeople from the group told politics.co.uk they would now build a coalition of MPs – overwhelmingly Labour MPs – and academics to stop the plans turning into law.
“Some of the private companies who’ve been lobbying the government to take over our welfare services, include controversial US corporations who’ve made millions in profits out of the suffering of millions who’ve found themselves out of work in George W Bush’s America,” said a Compass spokesperson.
“Don’t stand by and allow those same companies to force people into unsuitable jobs, making money out of people’s suffering, here in the UK. It is wrong to make profit in this manner from the vulnerable and unemployed.”
Last month, the head of the social security advisory committee said the single-parent plans could force people into poverty.
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