class war

Inheritance figures reveal the stark inequality of Great Britain

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http://politics.co.uk/blogs/2013/10/29/inheritance-figures-reveal-the-stark-inequality-of-great-bri

Image of Victorian LondonOfficial figures for inheritance paint a depressing and completely unsurprising portrait of Great Britain – a place where the rich get richer and the poor get stigmatised.

The UK remains a country where those who least need it receive the most.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show 1.6 million adults (3.6% of the population) received an inheritance worth over £1,000 between 2008 and 2010. Half received less than £10,000, but one in ten received £125,000 or more.

In fact, the luckiest fifth recieved a total of £57 billion – that accounts for 76% of all inherited wealth during the period.

Who did it go to? No prizes for guessing.

Rates of inheritance were higher for individuals living in households which already had the highest levels of wealth, according to the ONS.

Those in the wealthiest fifth of households had an increased chance of receiving inheritance. Those in managerial – rather than routine – occupations had an increased chance of receiving inheritance. Those who owned their main property outright, rather than holding a mortgage, had an increased chance. White Brits had an increased chance compared to non-white Brits. Those whose parents were mortgage owners, rather than renters, had an increased chance.

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‘Public ownership a winner’ say Communists

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http://www.communist-party.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1834%3Apublic-ownership-a-winner-say-communists&catid=132%3Apress-statements&Itemid=167

Communist Party trade union organiser, Anita Halpin, has welcomed the upsurge in strikes and demonstrations against the Tory-led government’s austerity and privatisation. 

Addressing the Party’s Executive Committee in Cardiff this weekend, she accused the Tories, Liberal Democrats, and big business of `waging class war’ on workers, the unemployed and their families. 

Ms Halpin pointed to industrial action ballots and strikes by higher education staff, teachers, civil servants, fire-fighters, probation officers, and postal workers against privatisation and pay cuts and in defence of pensions, wages, jobs, and public services.

In particular, she urged solidarity with Ineos oil refinery workers at Grangemouth who have been locked out after protesting against the victimisation of Unite trade union convenor, Stephen Deans.

“The refinery is too important to the Scottish economy to remain in the hands of such a bullying, reckless, and union-busting management,” she argued, while calling upon the labour movement to demand that the SNP government in Edinburgh to take the plant into public ownership.

Britain’s Communists also reiterated their call for the Labour Party leadership to pledge to renationalise the railways, energy utilities, and Royal Mail after the next General Election.

“Such a policy would be a vote winner, now that so many people have had enough of the soaring pieces, mass sackings, and fat cat profits that always go with privatisation”, Ms Halpin insisted.

The CP leadership welcomed the formation of nearly 80 People’s Assembly groups in towns and cities across Britain. It was agreed that these should work closely in a “broad democratic alliance” with trade unions and trades councils in their locality to combat austerity policies, defend public services and build solidarity for workers in struggle.

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Lord Neuberger: Legal aid cuts threaten to deny justice

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24545584

Image of Legal aid protestersProposed cuts to legal aid could deny justice to those who need it most, the UK’s top judge has warned.

Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger said reduced access to legal aid could lead to inefficient claims costlier for the court system.

If people had to drop claims, it would be “a rank denial of justice and a blot on the rule of law”, he said.

The Ministry of Justice said the annual £2bn bill for legal aid was “costing too much”.

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“The courts have no more important function than that of protecting citizens from the abuses and excesses of the executive – central government, local government, or other public bodies.”

Warning of the potential harm from government cuts to the legal aid budget, Lord Neuberger said: “Cutting the cost of legal aid deprives the very people who most need the protection of the courts of the ability to get legal advice and representation.”

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Bedroom tax: ministers ‘overstated likely savings by a third’

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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/bedroom-tax-ministers-likely-savings

Analysis suggesting savings could be £160m less than official projections of £480m dismissed as ‘vested interests’ by employment minister

The government faced fresh calls to overhaul the unpopular bedroom tax on Monday, after new research into the first five months of the scheme suggested ministers may have significantly overestimated the savings it is likely to generate.

The analysis – which ran real data collected by four housing associations since April through a model used in 2012 by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to assess the likely impact of the policy – found that savings were likely to be £160m less than the official projections of £480m for the first year.

But employment minister Esther McVey dismissed the findings, which she claimed reflected the housing associations’ “vested interests”.

Despite heavy criticism – the Labour party has vowed to repeal the bedroom tax and opinion polls suggest it is unpopular – ministers have persistently argued that it was essential to push ahead with the policy, officially known as the spare room subsidy, to bring the UK’s soaring housing benefit bill under control.

But Monday’s report, written by Professor Rebecca Tunstall at the University of York’s centre for housing policy, says flaws in the DWP model means that it is likely to have overstated the likely savings by a third.

Tunstall said: “The savings estimated by DWP assume that of the 660,000 households affected, none of them will move to a smaller home, but we know from our own research that over a fifth want to downsize to avoid the penalty.

“Tenants are already on the move, and with nearly half of those who have chosen to stay already in rent arrears, we can only see that figure going in one direction.”

In particular, the DWP appears to have underestimated the number of tenants who move from social housing into private rented housing in order to avoid the bedroom tax penalty. Rents in the private sector can often be double those in social housing, therefore generating higher housing benefit payments.

The DWP estimated that between 10% and 30% of social housing tenants would move into the private sector. But the research suggests that figure is likely to be nearer 41%.

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Forcible relocation of vulnerable women and children

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Let’s call it what it is – they have no option but to be moved hundreds of miles.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/young-single-mothers-focus-e15-newham-rehoused

Young mothers evicted from London hostel may be rehoused 200 miles away

Image of Newham mothers facing eviction

Twenty-nine young single mothers facing eviction from the UK’s largest hostel for homeless young people in London have been told they may be rehoused as far away as Manchester, Birmingham and Hastings as a result of cuts and welfare reforms.

The exodus, which represents potentially one of the largest displacements of vulnerable people since the coalition’s social security reform programme began, was triggered after housing support funding for young parents at Focus E15, a specialist hostel in east London, was cut by Newham council.

The mothers and mothers-to-be – all under 25, many of them teenagers – have been served with eviction notices by the housing association that runs the hostel. They have been warned that the scarcity of affordable homes locally means they may have to move to temporary accommodation between 70 and 200 miles away from their home borough.

Newham council said that although it would do everything it could to rehouse the women locally, the pressure of welfare reform coupled with high housing demand meant it would have to look outside the borough.

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