Today I issued the following press release:
In a week where new Work & Pensions Secretary James Purnell, welfare reform adviser David Freud and now Housing Minister Caroline Flint have all lined up to threaten the poor, reports on inequality and fuel poverty paint another picture.
John McDonnell MP, Chair of the Labour Representation Committee, said:
"The Government should attack poverty and not the poor. As the fuel poverty report reveals that one in six households is now living in fuel poverty, the Government seems focused on only demonising and punishing the most vulnerable.
"Instead of attacking poverty, the Government's Housing Minister has launcged another attack on the poor. A succession of statements by Purnell, Freud and now Flint demonstrate the Government is cut off from the reality of the poverty and insecurity people face in our community.
"Sanctions and threats already exist within the benefits system, so to threaten to make people homeless is more brutal than anything we've seen since the end of the Poor Law. The new generation of Ministers and advisers appear to be living up to the mantle of Thatcher's children. What next? Will it be the novel idea of the workhouse?"
15 Comments:
Superb, if only more Labour MPs had the balls to stand up and say this sort of stuff.
I was so horrified by last night's Dispatches programme on fuel poverty that I felt compelled to blog something about it immediately afterwards. It was a shameful indictment of this Government.Likewise Caroline Flint's pronouncements on council housing to the Fabian Society.I hope more MPs speak up on both counts. Tax credits and means-testing are letting down the very people who have put Labour into power for generations.It's time the rich started paying......
People like Flint (who were then in the Thatcher government) were the reason I joined the Labour party 24 years ago.After 24 years very active Labour Party service people like Flint are the reason I left the Labour Party several months back.I realise some people have to stay within the party and fight, and I applaud people like John McDonnell, but I'd had enough.I will continue to do my bit as a member of the Labour movement but it will be outside the Labour Party.
I seem to be the complete opposite! I put off joining the Labour Party but after 8 months of dithering I have taken the plunge last week.... i really don't know whether to laugh or cry!
Anyone have some comforting words please?!?
As for the threat of making people homeless, well, it's quite frankly shocking. It's not fine for this to come from people who probably have huge homes... maybe even multiple homes when some people genuinely cannot afford to buy or rent.
I'm Ashamed
JC - some comforting words: It is precisely because of policies like the appalling ones pouring out of Flint that we need people like you in the Labour Party. Get active, make a nuisance of yourself and we CAN reclaim the party. It won't be an easy fight, it won't be a quick one, but it is a fight we will eventually win because we are right.
On this precise policy, the leadership are already distancing themselves from it because of the reaction. But more nasty gimmicks will follow, and we have to make sure we react as strongly, and we have to make sure we've got a good set of policies to throw back at them.
Don't be ashamed - be angry and determined.
I'm afraid Caroline Flint is not only not in the real world quite obviously but also has an unfortunate streak of what I can only call mean-spiritedness. Sorry to be so blunt but it's important that people don't think her views are representative. If you are a Labour member in the SE see AnnBlack.com for what you can do on a practical level to make your voice heard in the Labour party via your elected "leftie" NEC reps who do consult the members and represent your views...
at the moment as well as various viatl policy issues they are consulting on changing the dates/timings of annual conference for THIS year so it's quite important. CLPs need to be getting their delegates and accomodation organised now...(see party website..laterooms.com can be usuelful if party says no accom left -it's the hotel industry website..
How cynical and predictable the flint stunt was.. In the worst traditions of New Labour. Make a reactionary statement to appease the selfish Daily Mail reading lower middle classes!!
Firstly, councils have a statutory duty to house people - how would this fit in with that statutory duty? Even by noon Gordon Brown was distancing himself from the idea.
Surely after 10 years of power Labour Ministers should not be craven hearted cowards. What is wrong with trying to re-educate people about economic and social rights such as the right to a decent house?
We also never seem the same responsibilies required from the wealthy and multinationals. Who avoid tax to the tune of up to 100 billion a year and syphon billions of pounds of profits from the real grafters - those working for employers on the frontline producing the wealth.
Surely there is a better way?
You thought Caroline Flint was scraping the barrel ... well Phil Woolas has beat her with his stupid comments about "inbred" Muslims. Is there competition between on-message MPs and ministers for who can get the most favourable Hate Mail story lines?
On Welfare Reform and specifically the New deal, from Suffolk Association of Trades Councils (I am so angry about the Workfare scheme now being introduced I'm posting everywhere, Andrew Coates):
Long-term jobless will be forced to work for benefits under new plan
Benefit threat to long-term jobless
By James Lyons, Political Correspondent 20/02/2008
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The long-term jobless will be forced to work for their benefits under a get-tough plan to be unveiled today.
Anyone unemployed for two years or more will have to do a work-experience placement permanently or see their payouts axed.
New Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell's "workfare" policy risks angering unions and the Labour left.
But in his first major speech since taking up the job last month, he is set to insist the aim is to help people out of poverty.
He will say: "I recognise the genuine barriers that some people face."
Everyone will have intensive help to find a job before they are forced to take an unpaid placement. And officials insist the placements will be "meaningful" jobs that prepare people for paid employment.
Anyone who is out of work for 12 months will be placed on the Flexible New Deal programme from next year.
An estimated 43,000 people a year will be put through the courses run by private firms and voluntary bodies, including charities.
They will get 12 months to try to find a job, including four weeks' work experience.
Those who are still out of work a year later will have to take up a permanent placement or face the same sanctions as those who reject a job.
That can mean losing benefits worth up to £59.15 a week for 26 weeks.
Mr Purnell said earlier this week jobless 18-year-olds would have to do a month's work experience.
FOR
By James Purnell Work Secretary
Our goal is to unlock the talent of all the people.
We are announcing a radical move to tackle worklessness.
The message I want to send is clear - if you can work you should work and that will be a condition of getting benefits.
I want to help those longterm unemployed who need support to build up their confidence and find work.
But there are a small number of people who are determined not to work.
Avoiding work is not an option.
AGAINST
By Kate Green Child Poverty Action Group
The vast majority of people on benefits want to work, including the disabled and lone parents.
The priority of the Government must be to help them find it.
Demeaning policies that force people into unpaid work are a step back to the values of the workhouse.
James Purnell must keep focused on his government's promise to eradicate child poverty, rather than competing to be toughest on poor families.
The proposal is a rejection of important
About this article
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This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday February 20 2008 on p12 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 09:13 on February 20 2008.
The government will break new ground in welfare reform today when it proposes that 250,000 long-term unemployed will have to work or train for a month if they wish to continue receiving the Jobseeker's Allowance, the government's main unemployment benefit.
James Purnell, work and pensions secretary, will make the proposals in his first big speech since he was given his new role in the cabinet reshuffle forced on Gordon Brown by the resignation of Peter Hain. Purnell will ask for the private, voluntary and public sector to make bids to run the programme from October next year.
The programme stops short of Workfare, a US-based scheme in which the unemployed are required to work for their benefit, but breaks new ground by severely tightening the requirements on the long-term unemployed. Anyone who has not worked for 12 months is classified as long-term unemployed.
On Monday, Purnell set out plans that from October 2009, all 25,000 under 18s not in employment, education or training will be expected to work or undertake work-related activity for at least four weeks or face losing their Jobseeker's Allowance.
A department spokesman added: "In future, we will be looking for bidders to go much further than this. And for the small number of people who refuse to take up the opportunities available, we will be looking at how we can develop a strict sanctions regime including either cuts in benefits or an option of permanent work for benefits".
It was being stressed that the government would not dictate to private sector providers how they delivered the training or work, saying they would reward providers on the basis of what they achieved and the personal service they provided.
The spokesman claimed: "This is an important new initiative to ensure that the long-term unemployed are connected to the world of work. It will not be about blanket community service programmes that dump everyone into menial work which make dependency worse. It will focus on training and skills."
The programme will be flexible and personalised - contractors will have freedom to put together the right package for the individual which can last for up to a year, and will be able to put together a mix of job search, job-specific training, skills, work experience, work trials and continued support once in work.
In a speech to the Social Market Foundation, Purnell is expected to say: "Our goal is to unlock the talent of all our people. We are today announcing a radical move to tackle worklessness. The message I want to send is clear - if you can work you should work and that will be a condition of getting benefits. But I recognise the genuine barriers that some people face. I want to help those long-term unemployed who need support and encouragement to build up their confidence and find work. But there are a small number of people who are determined not to work. Avoiding work is not an option."
Every young person who has not been in employment, education or training for at least 26 weeks by their 18th birthday is to be fast-tracked to the Jobcentre Plus-led, support and sanctions regime. They will have to prove they are actively looking for work and engaging in work-related activity; if they don't, their benefits will be stopped. If they fail to find work in the next six months, they will be referred to a specialist provider from the voluntary or private sector who will ensure they undertake a minimum of four weeks full-time work-related activity.
•
WELFARE REFORM
Conference notes that the Prime Minister has made Welfare Reform a centrepiece of his financial strategy. His advisers aim to remove 1.5 million people from Incapacity/Invalidity allowances, and make the right to Social Housing and Benefit dependant on job-seeking and skills tests, with greater elements of compulsion, up to the age of 60, to take part in the New Deal scheme.
We are concerned that the principles underpinning New Deal are flawed; we note that;
- The DWP does not directly run any New Deal scheme to prepare claimants for work.
- Contracts for training and placements in firms and voluntary bodies are employer led, with terms and conditions of work often outside regulations and hidden from public scrutiny.
- The widespread use of work-placements undermines the conditions of existing workers.
- The widespread use of work-placements has already meant a large-scale replacement of those convicted by the Courts, undertaking Community Service, by the jobless.
- There is no provision for claimants to join trade unions, with many New Deal companies not recognising Trades Unions.
- The criteria to get Benefits now include obligatory participation in training or work placements
- Reforms are introduced with no consultation by those most affected, ie the claimants
- The defects of the system affects employees of the DWP and those working for providers in both the private and public sectors. Harassed claimants do not make easy customers
Those on New Deal, from Gateway, Job Search and Training Centres to Placements are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation;
- they have no employment rights
- there are no tribunals to judge cases of alleged abuse
- there are a number of claims that some employers use the system to obtain free(subsidised) labour.
- Training Schemes rarely match the level of recognised qualifications, with some being placed on week-long ‘Job Searches’, with no training whatsoever.
- Placements are sketchily supervised and the payment (Benefit plus £15 a week) is derisory for what approaching full-time employment.
- The potential for harassment and bullying is evident, with no-one responsible for independent arbitration.
For these reasons Conference demands;
1. An independent review of the entire Welfare-to-Work programme.
2. A genuine training system, with real qualifications which are job-transferable and taught to fit the standards of Vocational College courses.
3. Properly paid placements in work that acknowledge genuine experience and fulfil criteria such as social need and skills development.
4. A system of independent supervision and arbitration
5. An end to compulsion.
Conference recognises that full employment is an important goal. Provision for those unable to work should be based on the principle of ‘work or maintenance’.
Workfare is profoundly unjust, which will reduce claimants to dependency. In it’s place we should aim for real jobs, a decent level of benefits, training at college and apprenticeship standards.
Suffolk CATUC
I wholeheartedly agree with this.
But will they listen??
for every person sent on one of these schemes i.e new deal it must cost a packet to pay these private firms full of do gooders teaching people to count and build things using straws oh and how to put a stamp on a envelope , just makes me laugh at the idiots running this country !!!
It's just another way to reduce the unemployment figures. The law states that a person must have a certain amount of money coming in each week which is why we have a benefit system. 12 months of unemployment and your benefits won't be stopped. Jobseeker's Allowance will be stopped. You will then be put on Income Support. Ta-daaaa! One more off the unemployment figures.
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