PCS: Welfare plans are not radical, they

PCS: Welfare plans are not radical, they’re just cruel

PCS: Welfare plans are not radical, they’re just cruel

Commenting on publication of the government’s welfare reform bill, Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka
said:

“The government claims its plans to fundamentally undermine the welfare state are ‘radical’. But they’re not, they’re just cruel.

“Set against the backdrop of rising unemployment, including a record number of young people out of work, it is nonsense to suggest that cutting £18 billion in welfare will suddenly act as an incentive for people.

“At the same time, as a result of the government’s spending cuts, the Department for Work and Pensions is planning to cut 15,000 jobs, 9,000 of which will be from jobcentres. These are the skilled staff with expertise in supporting people back to work and to receive the payments they deserve.

“You can’t force people into jobs that aren’t there. Instead of denigrating some of the most vulnerable people in our society and blaming them for being sick, disabled or unemployed, the government should be creating jobs – not cutting them – and properly supporting people with the help and training they need.

“Today’s bill raises the sickening spectacle of disabled people having their benefits cut while private providers will be profiting out of the system.

“This is not about offering help, it is about an ideological choice to slash support for the vulnerable, while real scroungers in the boardrooms of the bailed-out banks award themselves massive bonuses.

“The government continues to peddle the myth of the ‘workshy’, while attacking the very principle of the welfare state that we provide support for citizens in times of need. Ministers want to take us back to a more brutal time when the poor and vulnerable were categorised as ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’.”

ENDS

Notes

– For information and interview requests contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216

– The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies, and in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich

– Follow PCS on Twitter http://twitter.com/pcs_union