austerity

‘Disturbing’ disability benefit reforms in Labour’s budget will see hundreds of thousands denied help

Spread the love
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/disability-benefit-reforms-autumn-budget/

These measures will not affect current claimants, but they will impact those applying for the first time from next year, and anyone who comes off the benefit and then later reapplies for it or whose circumstances change

Hundreds of thousands of people with health conditions could miss out on financial support after the chancellor confirmed plans to tighten the disability benefits system.

In her autumn budget, Rachel Reeves said that Labour will honour proposals brought forward by the Conservative government to reform the work capability assessment.

This is an assessment which people with health conditions and disabilities undergo to determine their capability for work and if they will get an extra amount of universal credit.

…

Previous figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed that 457,000 people will face lower benefits or higher work search conditions by 2028/2029 as a result of the reforms, which are expected to save the government around £3bn.

Disability charities have called the plans “devastating”. Richard Kramer, chief executive of Sense, said: “The government’s decision today is deeply disturbing for disabled people. They have chosen to continue the previous government’s harmful plans to reduce access to benefits.

“This risks undermining the wellbeing of disabled people, and the consequences could be devastating. Disabled households are living in crisis, their current welfare benefits barely cover the essentials and spiralling food and energy costs have pushed many into debt and despair.

“But instead of choosing to give disabled people proper financial support and beginning to transform lives, the government has played into the dangerous narrative that disabled people should be forced to work and tightened the work capability assessment. They did this knowing that not all disabled people can work.”

The DWP previously confirmed that the reforms will cut the number of people due to be put onto the highest tier of incapacity benefits by more than 424,000 people, equating to a loss of almost £400 every month per person.

“This contemptible measure is purely about saving money at disabled people’s expense. It will force still more disabled people into poverty,” Kramer said. “We are demanding that this dismal decision is urgently reversed. We need the government to realise that benefits are a lifeline and disabled people need more financial support not less.

…

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/disability-benefit-reforms-autumn-budget/

Continue Reading‘Disturbing’ disability benefit reforms in Labour’s budget will see hundreds of thousands denied help

The giant warships sinking Britain’s budget

Spread the love

https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-giant-warships-sinking-britains-budget/

The navy’s aircraft carriers in Portsmouth. (Photo: Jonathan Brady / Alamy)

If chancellor Rachel Reeves is serious about public finances, she must stop the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers causing a black hole in the military budget.


The navy’s aircraft carriers in Portsmouth. (Photo: Jonathan Brady / Alamy)

As Labour presents the public with large tax rises and cuts in services, Britain’s armed forces are wasting billions of pounds of public money on projects with no practical use in present or potential future conflicts. 

It would be nothing short of a scandal if they are given more taxpayers’ money to spend.

Prime candidates for the chop, and an immediate target for the government’s promised Office for the Value of Money, should be the two aircraft carriers: HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales – the largest ships ever built for the Royal Navy.

Independent analysts are starting to question the future of the carriers, something that was unthinkable not so long ago. There is speculation that at least one could be mothballed.

Shortly after he retired as chief of the defence staff, General (now Lord) David Richards described the ships as “unaffordable vulnerable metal cans”. They were “behemoths”, he told me.

…

https://www.declassifieduk.org/the-giant-warships-sinking-britains-budget/

Continue ReadingThe giant warships sinking Britain’s budget

Over 50,000 demand wealth tax as alternative to austerity in Autumn Budget

Spread the love
Rachel Reeves says that there are difficult choices ahead, that the poor have to make sacrifices and thanks for her new clothes.
Rachel Reeves says that there are difficult choices ahead, that the poor have to make sacrifices and thanks for her new clothes.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/over-50000-demand-wealth-tax-as-alternative-to-austerity-in-autumn-budget

THE Labour leadership faced demands today to tax the rich instead of inflicting more painful spending cuts in its Budget on Wednesday.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned that her fiscal announcement will involve “difficult decisions” because of a £22 billion “black hole” left by the Tories in the nation’s finances, which has since led her to talk of finding £40-50bn in spending cuts and tax rises.

Today Labour MP Richard Burgon presented a 50,000-strong petition in Parliament calling for wealth taxes as an alternative.

…

The petition calls for a 2 per cent wealth tax on assets over £10 million, which could raise £24bn a year.

It also suggested equalising capital gains tax with income tax rates and ending state subsidies for fossil fuel giants, which could raise another £21bn.

Ms Reeves stated that the upcoming Budget will focus on “strivers,” invoking the rhetoric of austerity architect George Osborne, though a speech by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer today stressed Labour would raise taxes to invest in public services.

Labour MP John McDonnell tweeted: “Simple request to whoever is now running Labour’s communications strategy, drop the ‘strivers’ language as it inevitably has led in the past to reference to ‘skivers’ prefacing attacks on welfare benefit claimants and cuts in social security support.”

Over 120 charities under the End Child Poverty Coalition have called on the Chancellor to use the Budget to finally ditch the two-child benefit cap.

The coalition says that doing so would lift 300,000 children out of poverty.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/over-50000-demand-wealth-tax-as-alternative-to-austerity-in-autumn-budget

Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingOver 50,000 demand wealth tax as alternative to austerity in Autumn Budget

82% of pensioners below or just above poverty line ‘to lose winter fuel payment’

Spread the love
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/82-of-pensioners-below-or-just-above-poverty-line-to-lose-winter-fuel-payment-b1186701.html

Age UK has published its own Equality Impact Assessment of the Government’s cut to eligibility for the winter fuel payment.

Four in every five pensioners living below or just above the poverty line will lose the winter fuel payment under planned benefit cuts, according to a charity.

Age UK said its analysis suggested that 10.7 million UK pensioners will lose the benefit, of whom almost one in four (23%) live in poverty – with a household income of less than 60% of the median – or just above the poverty line.

The charity found that 80% – or 800,0000 – of UK pensioners aged 80 and over living in poverty or just above the poverty line will no longer receive the payment, as well as 78% – or 1.1 million – of pensioners with a disability living in the same circumstances.

…

According to the Government’s own equality analysis, an estimated 780,000 pensioners still eligible to receive the winter fuel payment will lose it under planned cuts.

In a document last month, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) also said that more than two thirds – around 71% – of those with a disability and 83% of those aged 80 or over would miss out.

…

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/82-of-pensioners-below-or-just-above-poverty-line-to-lose-winter-fuel-payment-b1186701.html

Continue Reading82% of pensioners below or just above poverty line ‘to lose winter fuel payment’

Jeremy Corbyn: Peace and solidarity must guide us in building a united international left

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-and-solidarity-must-guide-building-united-international-left

PEACE: Former Labour Party leader and now independent MP Jeremy Corbyn speaks at a London rally for Palestine, September 11 2024

Speaking at the Podemos congress over the weekend, JEREMY CORBYN MP outlines three crucial areas for building a powerful leftist movement across Europe: opposing austerity, promoting peace and combating the far right

AS we look to build a united left across Europe, there are three key issues that can form the basis of a strong, powerful movement: anti-austerity, peace and opposition to the far right.

Europe is heading toward a renewed era of austerity. We have witnessed attacks on wages and conditions all over Europe. Working-class living standards have fallen. Wages have stagnated. Meanwhile, there are more billionaires than ever before.

Inequality is not inevitable. It is the result of decisions that governments take to take money from the many and give it to the few. Last week, the British government celebrated its 100-day anniversary.

In that time, it has made two supposedly “tough” choices. One is to keep children in poverty by retaining the two-child benefits cap, refusing to lift 250,000 children out of poverty. The second decision was to cut the winter fuel allowance for 10 million pensioners.

We are told that these have been “tough choices.” Every day, my constituents make tough choices. Tough choices like deciding whether to heat their homes or put food on the table. Tough choices like taking out a loan to pay for this month’s rent. Tough choices like selling their home to pay for their family’s social care.

The government knows that there is a range of choices available to them. They could introduce wealth taxes to raise upwards of £10 billion. They could stop wasting public money on private contracts. They could launch a fundamental redistribution of power by bringing water and energy into full public ownership.

Instead, they have opted to take resources away from people who were promised things would change. There is plenty of money, it’s just in the wrong hands — and we will not be fooled by ministers’ attempts to feign regret over cruel decisions they know they don’t have to take.

Austerity is not a tough choice. It is the wrong choice. The British government tells us there is no money. At the very same time, they are committing to raising defence expenditure to 2.5 per cent of GDP.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-and-solidarity-must-guide-building-united-international-left

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn: Peace and solidarity must guide us in building a united international left