Universally discredited

When a Tory government claims it is embarking on “the biggest reform to the welfare system in a decade” we can expect the worst.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy 'rhymes with' Hunt, is promising wide-ranging reforms to the Universal Credit system to 'encourage' hundreds of thousands of claimants into work or to take on more hours. To be fair (if I must) some of his proposals ahead of what he is ominously calling his "back to work Budget" have been cautiously welcomed by campaigners and union leaders, especially his scrapping of the controversial Work Capability Assessment for disabled people. He also proposes paying childcare costs to those on Universal Credit in advance, rather than in arrears, while the maximum amount people on benefits can claim for childcare will be increased by several hundred pounds.

So far so (possibly) good but, to paraphrase the adage, beware geeks bearing gifts. This is a Tory Chancellor we're talking about and he's far more likely to be pitching his changes to the illiberal shires Tory voters than to benefits claimants. His plans will have little to do with fairness or improving the lot of poor people, who are unlikely ever to vote Tory, and much more to do with appeasing the Daily Pail and Torygraph readership who feel 'dole scroungers' are being given an easy ride. The devil in the detail is almost certainly going to be the sanctions regime.

Another of Hunt's proposals is that Universal Credit claimants should be expected to spend thirty hours per week job seeking. Given that 40% of claimants are already working how are they expected to find another thirty hours in a working week satisfying that criterion? The system is supposed to be being automated and streamlined, with more help and advice on offer to claimants. Far more likely in practice is that more will face draconian sanctions, plunging them even deeper into poverty and debt.

Because, be in no doubt, the motives here are to toughen up the system under the guise of liberalising it, giving the appearance of being a caring, listening government whilst actually turning a tin ear to campaigners' justifiable concerns. Hunt has form on this. In his six years as Health Secretary he gave every appearance of compassion and concern whilst presiding over the implosion of the NHS we are all now witnessing. According to The Independent, "Hundreds of thousands of claimants will be told to attend more regular meetings with work coaches, with “skills bootcamps” to be expanded by 8,000 places per year by 2025, up from 56,000, the government said".

Coming from a Labour government this might have inspired confidence but, after thirteen years of Tory (mis)rule and with the memory of Margaret Thatcher still haunting those of us old enough to remember her regime trust in Hunt's intentions will need to be earned rather than given automatically. Coming against a backdrop of a historically low unemployment rate of 3.7% and almost one million job vacancies one can clearly see the direction of travel here. No amount of pious platitudes about the dignity of labour and the generosity of benefits will allay the fear amongst claimants that their already tough lives are about to be made a hell of a lot tougher.

Ever since Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries and the loss of the welfare safety net they offered the poor the English/British state has wrestled with the problem of social welfare. In fact the moral panic goes way back beyond this. The Statute of Cambridge of 1388 differentiated between 'sturdy beggars' and the infirm (disabled or elderly) poor. The Vagabonds and Beggars Act of 1494 listed restrictions and punishment. Henry's own Vagabonds Act of 1531 empowered justices of the peace to issue licences to those unable to work, making begging by persons able to work a crime. In 1601 Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I, introduced her Poor Relief Act and this was followed by a succession of Poor Laws well into the 20th century. Poor Law parish workhouses were only abolished in 1929 and Poor Law provisions for poor relief only finally disappeared with the Labour government's welfare legislation of 1948.

Victorian notions of the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor remain enthrenched in the Tory mindset, as has the tendency to blame the victims of their failed government policies. If they really cared about solving these issues they would take a holistic view of all government provision. They would review education and skills training to ensure that young people were properly prepared for the world of work - or worklessness. They would implement a proper social care system to allow family carers to work if they wished. Their work coaches and "skills bootcamps" would support rather than coerce the unemployed or underemployed. And there would be much better provision for lifelong learning to inculcate the ethos of personal development over simply 'getting a job'.

But the elephant in the room is the rapidly changing nature of the workplace. Mechanisation, then computerisation, had a dramatic impact on the type of employment available but government policies have failed to keep up. Now, in the age of AI, the need for a new settlement and social compact is urgent. Paid employment might soon become the exception rather than the rule and concepts such as the social wage and universal basic income (UBI) might need to be looked at again.

Well, good luck with that one.


Popular posts from this blog

Looking to Africa - long read

As I sit here on an island just off the coast of North-West Africa I can't help pondering the future of that vast and seemingly unknowable continent, so near and yet so far. I'm writing this in Tenerife, one of the eight Canary Islands forming an archipelago off the coast of Morocco and Western Sahara - tantilisingly close and yet a world away from the 'mainland' of continental Africa. As an Autonomous Community of Spain, the Canaries form an outpost of the European Union (EU). Yet, despite their proximity to Africa, their outlook, politically, culturally and economically, is resolutely European. Africa may as well be Mars, though only a narrow gulf of the Atlantic Ocean separates these offshore islands from their continent. I say resolutely European but that resolve may, little by little, be weakening. There is a growing sentiment, especially, though not exclusively, amongst young Canarians, that they have been sold a pup. True, the economy is superficially buoyant, du
Read more

On old age

"The fact is that when I come to think it over, I find that there are four reasons for old age being thought unhappy: First, that it withdraws us from active employments; second, that it enfeebles the body; third, that it deprives us of nearly all physical pleasures; fourth, that it is the next step to death."  Writing his essay,  De Senectute (On Old Age), in 44 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero went on to refute these four supposed reasons in characteristically robust and forthright manner. Cicero wasn't one to sit about moping in his own old age; he remained actively engaged in the political life of the Republic whose survival, in the face of tyranny, he championed so fiercely.  Cicero was nine years younger than I am now when he met his untimely end yet he considered himself already an old man; or, rather, his society judged him to be so. His second point about age enfeebling is more germane. Physical decline had not yet impacted him but, six years on from my retirement, I
Read more

Born to rule

When, ten days ago, I posted my piece about the manipulated image of Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her children (see Snap Judgment) I didn't know of her cancer treatment. Had I known, I would have adopted a gentler, though I hope no less critical, tone. But I didn't know, and nor did any of us outside the immediate royal circle, which rather goes to strengthen the case against the monarchy. For Kate and her family the diagnosis of cancer (as yet unspecified) will have been a devastating blow, as will the chemotherapy she is currently undergoing. On a human level, of course I sympathise and extend my best wishes for a full recovery as, indeed, I did at the time of her father-in-law's diagnosis. It is particularly cruel, then, that on top of all this she has been obliged to record a video statement to reassure the public. As if she didn't have enough to contend with already. But such is the unpalatable obligation placed upon any royal personage - noblesse oblige. Whic
Read more