Observer: Purnell's welfare reforms now in total disarray!

[Hocus Eye.]

I like the way that the proposal was held up 'because of the snow'. It would be funny if it was not so sad. The thought of companies making money out of other people being out of work is not a good one. Just pushing people into any kind of work to get them off the jobless statistics will lead to a general downward pressure on wages and salaries and to a lot of discontent in the workplace. This must erupt sooner or later. The government will get the backlash when that happens.

 

[treelover]

No, that's not the question. That's your question on every single subject.

"Why haven't the Left issued a statement on Gareth Barry deciding to stay at Aston Villa? What is the Left doing about sorting out the residents parking problem in Plymouth?"

No , its a very pertinent question and one that bears repeating, if this was workers facing this sort of assault, wages being cut by around 1/3 and massive sanctions for 'abuses' , workers being forced to wear bibs identifying them as 'offenders' etc, , even more so, asylum seekers, etc, priviatision on a huge scale, more than the royal mail, etc, there would be uproar.

anyway, i thought you were a supporter of the LRC , they are actually one of the few groups doing anything about it all

 

[glenquagmire]

It might bear repeating on this subject but beginning your approach to EVERY SINGLE ISSUE "what is The Left doing about it" I'm afraid makes people less likely to listen to you when you do have something important to say.

And yes, I am in the LRC. And yes, we have done a fair bit around this. That doesn't mean I find your constant whining about "The Left" any less irritating, even when it's not directed at me.

 

[tbaldwin]

The question is though why have the Left from the New Statesman, Guardian, the progessive element of the churches, the unions, apart from PCS, left liberals, to the far left given them such an easy time?

Agree it is the question. But differ with you around what the answer is. But effectivelly millions of people have been written off in this country and by and large the Left are just as disinterested in them as anyone else.
You have generations of poverty and low self esteem from Lands end to John o Groats.
Its absulutely wrong in my opinion to just single out new labour and really lazy as well. The problems of low pay, no pay and shit housing go back much further.
The problems of long term unemployment do not have quick solutions, but leaving people to rot on jsa or ib should not be seen as acceptable by anybody with even a pretence of being a socialist.

 

[lewislewis]

Look at this bit from the A4E submission on the white paper, its very revealing aong how they see thenselves as some sort of quasi public sector organisation. They are not, like Serco, formerly Securicor, they are private profit making business which have made many many millions from NL Govt contracts, indeed making their owners multi-millionaires many times over, often under very little scrutint and where customer satisafction is so low that in any other sector they would have been booted out. Groups like A4E are now global having took advantage of the shift to neo-liberal ideas on welfare

The question is though why have the Left from the New Statesman, Guardian, the progessive element of the churches, the unions, apart from PCS, left liberals, to the far left given them such an easy time?

This is a vital and valid point. In Wales the proposals were resisted strongly, and there was time given to debating them in the Assembly AFAIK, even though they obviously do not have powers over them, the political tone was that the Labour-led administration in Wales could disrupt certain elements of the reforms as we already have policies to help people into work (help being the key word, not force), not involving privatisation.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

This is a vital and valid point. In Wales the proposals were resisted strongly, and there was time given to debating them in the Assembly AFAIK, even though they obviously do not have powers over them, the political tone was that the Labour-led administration in Wales could disrupt certain elements of the reforms as we already have policies to help people into work (help being the key word, not force), not involving privatisation.

The proposals were resisted by Plaid certainly but I'm not so sure that there has been a terrible amount of resistance from anyone else from what I've seen, the Labour politicos have been suprisingly supine.

 

[treelover]

Please show your support and solidarity in opposing the Welfare Reform Bill:

Lobby of Parliament - organised by the TUC and PCS union

3rd March from 12:30 - 2:30pm

I will confirm room and speakers asap. But in the meantime put this date in your diary and if you can please turn up and show your opposition to this draconian Bill.

The Welfare Reform Bill is going through Parliament at unbelievable speed. It was introduced in mid January and expected to become an Act sometime in March. At the moment the Bill is with the Public Bill Committee, which is expected to be finished with the Bill on or before the 3rd March 2009.

Part one of the Bill is, Work for your benefits’ schemes etc. This means, simply, Workfare. NL may, euphemistically, refer to ‘work for your benefits schemes’ when in reality this nothing more than forced labour.

People will be expected to work for their benefits and failure to comply with the regulations means sanctions i.e. loss of benefits. At the moment, the current level for JSA (Jobseekers’ Allowance) is £60.50 per week.

If claimants are expected to do a 35 hour week then that works out at £1.73 an hour!! This will inevitably drive down pay and conditions therefore the trade unions should be at the forefront fighting this.

Clause 13 refers to external provider of social funds. This means contracting out the social fund when it should stay in the public sector. And then at Clause 23, further privatisation with contracting out the administration of welfare benefits.

Clause 24 revolves around sanctions where failure to comply with the regulations will mean loss of benefits for one week. So that will mean increased poverty.

Other clauses include abolishing income support. Conditionality and sanctions are at the heart of this Bill which means that NL are continuing to punish, penalise and criminalise the poor.

Workfare will mean forced labour and even the DWP’s own research is sceptical about the positives of ‘work for your benefits’ schemes. Privatisation means no transparency, responsibility and accountablity.

And recently, due to the ecomomic crisis, the private sector have whinged about not being able to cope with administrating welfare benefits. Private companies underestimated the time and effort it takes to advise and support claimants. That is why the obvious solution is to keep public services public!

Unfortunately, as NL are intent are pushing through this Bill at breakneck speed we need to act promptly. The liberal intelligentsia along with the media have accepted these arguments from NL coupled with the reactionary ‘culture of dependency’ myths.

Thatcher in 1985 tried to impose Workfare, she couldn’t as the cabinet rebelled. Probably in the knowledge that there would be a campaign to stop it. Twenty-four years on a Labour government (yes, I’ll repeat that, a Labour government) is imposing Workfare with the illusion that it is all about ‘choice’. These are the actions of a neo-liberal government committed to social authoritarianism whose interests are firmly in corporate capitalism.

The politics of the workhouse are upon us….

If you want to show your opposition please come to the Lobby on the 3rd March.

Write to your MP as you still have time. Get your MP to support these 3 EDMs.

TUC Campaign to increase Jobseekers’ Allowance

Contracting out Welfare Provision

Contracting out the Social Fund

fwd,

 

[elbows]

Im not surprised the plans have gone a bit wrong, but Im sure they will still try to get some of it through.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Well, that's the crux of the matter - the providers want 50% up front, not 20%.

No doubt because they know just how shit the 'service' they provide is, and how it is centred around providing their friends with temporary workers who they can safely pay fuck all and treat like shit because they know that the next batch will be along shortly because A4E have given them no choice in the matter. A4E and simillar specimens of congealed satan spunk have no interest in providing people with good, secure long term jobs they just want their money. This is reason number one of about forty thousand why the private sector should not be allowed to run the welfare state.

 

[treelover]

Did anyone watch the CH4 News today, Saturday, it had a package about the reforms by the reporter Gary Gibbon, it was about how the reforms are being 'operationalised' in Sheffield and focussed on A4E, the private training, it made no mention the reforms were contested, including the lobby of Parliament by the TUC and PCS, etc in March. I've said before the coverage of welfare issues by the media, and particularly though not parodoxically the nominally liberal media, Guardian, Newsnight, Ch4 news, etc. has been bad, this was even worse!

 

[trevhagl]

I know its a bit early to celebrate, who knows what may yet happen, but I'm off to get a little whisky from the kitchen!

btw, A4E will lose millions

what a fucking shame!

 

[trevhagl]

fwd,

I wrote to my MP and all i got was a vague nicey nicey letter back which could mean anything but that he will oppose any measures that harm the vulnerable (???!!!) ie the complete opposite of what he probably really means...

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

david freud has resigned from his post at dwp and has joined the torys now, i reckon this could have a far bigger impact on labour's welfare policies than the revised contracts for fnd.

 

[treelover]

It doesn't look like the Left is mobilising for the TUC/PCS Lobby in March, to me, this is incredible: these latest reforms will see claimants labelled as offenders if they miss appointments, forced to do work while wearing orange bibs, (similar to community service) while harassed daily by private firms who make a profit on this crap. Only 951 have signed the PCS unions petition against privatisation, so even its own members are turkeys voting for xmas> the london left turns out at a drop of a hat for palestine, etc, yet seems to be ignoring this, crazy....

the backlash from all this will make the recent BNP rise seem like a blip as the soup kitchens spread and scapegoats are sought

 

[brasicritique]

Its not just the economic crisis that may have holed this policy: the whole scheme/defice was flawed from the beginning. Its not surpising it has collapsed it was cobbled together in thirteen weeks, yes thirteen weeks, by a banker, Matthew Freud, who admitted he knew nothing about welfare. If anything it showed the hubris at the heart of Brown's regime, I do hope McDonnell and Co go for the jugular with Purnell.

what is also shameful is that the BBC has been one of the main cheerleaders for these reforms.

the gaurdian reffered to mr freud as a welfare 'expert' so imo the bbc are not alone in propergating these reforms as you have already stated

 

[treelover]

yes, some of us banged off a letter about that

 

[jimadore]

NU-labour loves' big business and greedy bankers ,but hate the unemployed the sick and old? Purnell wont' go away ,the government will save money with social reform and kick the weak policys.

 

[treelover]

Workfare has arrived in Britain, smuggled in with slippery rhetoric

This harsh, ineffectual and woefully timed welfare reform is sailing ahead with barely a whisper of debate

Comments (106)

* Madeleine Bunting
*
This is shabby politics. The government has poured billions into propping up a bankrupt financial system, and only whimpers ineffectually about millions being paid out in bonus packages to bankers courtesy of the British taxpayer. But while its lavish generosity to one set of citizens seems to have few limits, it is hard at work on welfare reforms aimed at another set of citizens which pare back even further the meagre sums on which they are expected to keep body and soul together.

The only thing these two sets of citizens seem to have in common is their capacity to provoke popular resentment: the bankers and the benefit claimants are used as media bogeymen to frighten good taxpayers.

So the welfare reform bill sails into committee stage in parliament this week at an unseemly speed, inaugurating a system of workfare and considerably expanding conditionality in return for the jobseeker's allowance of just £60.50 a week now offered to the unemployed. No one apart from a desperate and despairing coalition of poverty groups and trade unions seem to much care that this curiously scanty bill gives the secretary of state for work and pensions sweeping and vaguely defined powers to remove benefits from anyone who does not or cannot comply with a raft of "work preparation" activities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/23/madeleine-bunting-welfare-reform

Madeline Bunting on 'workfare is coming to the UK' a surprisingly good article

 

[Dozy]

Purnell keeps referring to these reforms as "help", but surely any fool can see that even with the best intentions in the world, there is little hope of actually helping. Look what a pig's ear was made of the CSA. It was a reasonable idea in principle, but in practice it failed due to administrational incompetence.

What does James Purnell bring to the table that is any different? Purnell seems to be a lot dumber than the average politician. His motives seem to be self advancement rather than helping people.

It's help Jim... but not as we know it!

 

[treelover]

Just found some very interesting stuff on A4E, the now global 'welfare to work' training company which is going to become even more powerful under Purnell's reforms. I knew it was dodgy, offerred very poor quality training(in most cases) but these links show it in an even worse light.

http://www.freewebs.com/watchinga4e/index.htm

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=160577

the question must be though, why isn't the media more interested, the sums involved are collossal as is the waste of peoples lives.

 

[Cressi]

Have rang my MP and hope she can make it to committee room 14 tues 3rd March. At least she listens...........

 

[treelover]

a good blog post on the lack of opposition to the reforms

http://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/welfare-reform-making-opposition-effective/

 

[treelover]

WELFARE REFORM - WRONG BILL AT THE WRONG TIME
Filed under: welfare reform, Trade Unions — Andy Newman @ 10:15 am

The public sector union, PCS, have arranged a fantastic line up for their welfare reform meeting and lobby today. You can read all about it at www.pcs.org.uk/welfare (including a welfare for all statement to sign up to). It is excellent that the PCS union is driving forward the opposition to the Welfare Reform Bill, as the union representing the staff in the welfare system, they speak with authority; and all the unions have a responsibility to oppose these ill-thought out measures that will be hitting their members threatened with job losses.

Frances Grady, (TUC Deputy General Secretary) speaking for the TUC makes some excellent points, though these will need to be backed up by much more concerted action from all the unions.

Frances O’Grady will say: “It’s clear that aspects of the Welfare Reform Bill now going through Parliament are not fit for purpose. This is the wrong Bill for the wrong time: conceived in a boom, about to be implemented in a bust. The Government’s ideas would be flawed at the best of times; but with Britain deep in recession, these are emphatically not the best of times.

“Just think about the implications. A new regime for jobseekers, limiting the time for job search and retraining. Tougher rules for parents, undermining the Government’s pledge to halve and then end child poverty. The introduction of sanctions, stigmatising the most vulnerable as villains, not victims, and driving working people into poverty.

“And the privatisation and break up of a world-class public service, with private contractors profiting from joblessness. This is the reality confronting us. Why, after the near collapse of free-market capitalism, does the Government press ahead with an agenda of privatisation, marketisation and competition? Why, during the worst economic crisis for generations, is there seemingly one rule for the rich and another one for the rest?

“The contrast could not be starker. Bailouts for the bankers, punishments for the poor – welfare for Wall St, workfare for working people. That is unacceptable; and we will resist it.
“So what are the answers? How do we create a welfare system that delivers in this downturn? The TUC is campaigning for a change of direction: for policies that give ordinary working people the help they need when they need it. We have already secured some important concessions – not least the welcome scrapping of plans to make disabled people look for jobs or risk losing benefits.

http://www.socialistunity.com/

More on it all, opposition stepping up, but maybe too late?

 

[treelover]

Week of Action on ‘Welfare Abolition Bill’ March 7 – 15th

LCAP | 01.03.2009 21:29 | Gender | Social Struggles
Call to Action: The London Coalition Against Poverty, Disabled People’s Direct Action
Network and Feminist Fightback are calling on all groups and individuals
concerned with the eroding of our welfare rights to take part in a week of
action against the ‘Welfare Abolition Bill’ .

The London Coalition Against Poverty, Disabled People’s Direct Action
Network and Feminist Fightback are calling on all groups and individuals
concerned with the eroding of our welfare rights to take part in a week of
action against the ‘Welfare Abolition Bill’ .


As the government has bailed out banks and rewarded the bosses with big
bonuses they have been stealthily pushing through a bill that will
virtually abolish welfare for single parents and disabled people. Poor
people are being forced to pay for the financial crisis caused by the
rich.

The Bill proposes a number of draconian changes including:

• Introducing a compulsory work-for- benefits system in a US-style
workfare scheme
• Privatising more of the work of Jobcentre Plus to companies which will
be paid more the less benefits they award
• Increased punishments for claimants
• Cuts on carers’ allowance
• Compulsory two parent registration on birth certificates, including
survivors of violence

The third reading is expected near the end of March. We need to stand
with those targeted to oppose the passing of this bill by taking dissent
to the streets, to the government offices, to the bankers and the bosses.

A toolkit with more information on the bill, leaflets, a press release and suggestions for action is available here: http://www.lcap.org.uk

Join the planning email list here:
http://groups.google.com/group/no-to-welfare-abolition

Take action now:

Forward the call to action and links to the toolkit to e-lists you are on or organisations you think might be interested.
Call an emergency meeting of a group you are involved in to plan an action.
Get together with others to leaflet your local Jobcentre Plus.

If you're in London (or can come down)...

* Come to the lobby of Parliament this Tuesday. Meet LCAPers at St Stephen's Gate at 11.30am, or come along to committee room 14 at 12.30-14.30.
* Join LCAP and Feminist Fightback to leaflet at job centres in Hackney in the next few weeks. Email [email protected] if you have time to spare to leaflet.
* Come to the next planning meeting (hosted by Feminist Fightback) on Thursday 5th March, 7pm, The Angel, City Road (50m south of Old St roundabout)

more here,


btw does anyone know anything about this?

'We have already secured some important concessions – not least the welcome scrapping of plans to make disabled people look for jobs or risk losing benefits.'

 

[LoveMeDont]

The Guardian is claiming today that the Government has been withholding a report that shows the private companies are failing to meet their targets of getting people back into work. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/08/welfare-tony-mculty-parliment

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

The Guardian is claiming today that the Government has been withholding a report that shows the private companies are failing to meet their targets of getting people back into work. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/08/welfare-tony-mculty-parliment

i'd heard rumours about this but i didn't realise that the true situation is quite so bad. that's fucking outrageous when you look at how much money they're currently spending on private provision of welfare to work services, and especially so in light of their plans to expand the role of the private sector. will those spineless labour back benchers ever manage to find some resolve and oppose the welfare reform bill? its really now or never imo.

 

[treelover]

Yes, and will the BBC report on it, don't hold your breath

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

i live in hope

cheer up matey, we have to inject some sort of humour when the fuckers get caught out so bad.

it is fucking laughable after all

 

[lewislewis]

The Guardian is claiming today that the Government has been withholding a report that shows the private companies are failing to meet their targets of getting people back into work. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/08/welfare-tony-mculty-parliment

Just picked this up from Plaid Cymru mailing list-

PLAID DISTURBED BY ALLEGED COVER UP OF WELFARE STATISTICS

Plaid Cymru spokesperson on employment, Hywel Williams MP, has expressed his amazement by reports that the Government had allegedly hushed up figures that show the failure of their flagship privatisation of welfare schemes.

The Government intend to use the Welfare Reform Bill, which has its 3rd reading in the House of Commons next Tuesday, 17th March, to privatise work-finding schemes.

However, figures revealed in the Observer yesterday (Sunday) suggested that, in schemes that already exist, just 6% of incapacity benefits claimants were found placements by private firms as compared to 14% by state-run job centres.

Hywel Williams said:

“I’m not sure which is worse – the failure of private firms to find jobs for people who are most in need of returning to the job market, or the Labour government’s attempts to hide these figures until after the scrutiny of the Welfare Reform Bill by Parliament.

“We in Plaid Cymru do not subscribe to the free-market dogma that says that the introduction of the private sector leads to automatic efficiencies or improvements in service.”

Hywel continued:

“Jobcentres are staffed by experts with a great deal of experience in their fields, and experience of finding people employment which is suitable for their needs and interests, not forcing them into the first vacancy available.”



I await national news coverage with baited breath

 

[ViolentPanda]

I await national news coverage with baited breath

Just as long as you're not awaiting it with held breath!