‘The whole policy is wrong’: rebellion among Labour MPs grows over £5bn benefits cut
Dozens of MPs are angry at their party, despite frantic efforts by whips and government ministers to assuage them
Labour MPs opposed to the government’s massive £5bn of benefit cuts say they will refuse to support legislation to implement them, even if more money is offered by ministers to alleviate child poverty in an attempt to win them over.
Legislation will be introduced to the House of Commons in early June to allow the cuts to come into force. They will include tightening the criteria for personal independence payments (Pip) for people with disabilities, to limit the number of people who can claim it. Under the changes, people who are not able to wash the lower half of their body, for example, will no longer be able to claim Pip unless they have another limiting condition.
A major rebellion appears to be hardening on the Labour benches rather than subsiding, despite frantic efforts by whips and government ministers to talk MPs round.
One idea being floated as a way to win over rebels is for ministers to publish their long-awaited child poverty strategy shortly before the key Commons votes, and in it offer additional money for poor parents of children under five. Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall is understood to be examining a proposal focused on the youngest children that would cost less than the £3.6bn needed to scrap entirely the controversial two-child limit on benefit payments. It is now accepted in government that, given the state of public finances, the cap cannot be scrapped in the short term.
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NEU president slams Labour’s renewed austerity
NATIONAL Education Union (NEU) president Sarah Kilpatrick slammed Labour’s renewed austerity today, telling the NEU annual conference that Tory welfare cuts had killed her disabled father.
She accused ministers of “perpetuating and repeating the shameful pattern of punching-down and finger-pointing” by “balancing the books on the backs of the poor.”
On the first day of the conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, she described how her father had died at the age of 56 after being stripped of his disability benefits under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
She said that she had experienced poverty as a working-class child in Newcastle upon Tyne and was his carer for a number of years.
“As Iain Duncan Smith gleefully applauded the welfare cuts, I represented my father in a tribunal against the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] decision to remove his disability benefits,” she told delegates.
“He’d had his gas cut off. Couldn’t afford groceries. His elderly mother was adding tins of food to her shopping to bulk up what I was buying for him, but he isolated himself further still.
“He lost a lot of weight during that time and never really recovered.”
In 2013, her father became one of an estimated 120,000 people who died as a result of the Tories’ austerity programme, she said.
“When Wes Streeting brags to the Tories across the benches that Labour have done what they never could and slashed the welfare bill, this is what they mean,” said Ms Kilpatrick.
“Let’s be clear. Nearly two decades of economic permacrisis has not been caused by disabled people.”
Nor has it been caused by the elderly, refugees, the trans community or children in poverty, she said.
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/neu-president-slams-labours-renewed-austerity
Women will suffer most from UK government’s cuts to disability benefits
Original article by Mary-Ann Stephenson republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Cuts will push hundreds of thousands of women into poverty or force them out of workforce
While the staggering £5bn of planned cuts to disability benefits announced by chancellor Rachel Reeves at last week’s Spring Statement have rightly been the subject of much scrutiny, the disproportionate suffering they will inflict on women has been under-discussed both by politicians and the media.
The government’s own risk assessment found the cuts will push 250,000 adults and 50,000 children in the UK below the poverty line. Women, who are both more likely to be Disabled and more likely to be a carer for a loved one, will be worst affected.
Indeed, single Disabled women make up 44% of those due to lose out from the cuts, and face an average loss of £1,610 per year, the government’s Equality Impact Assessment found.
This demographic has already been significantly affected by austerity cuts to social security and public services since 2010. Such measures, taken together with tax changes, will cost Disabled women an average of £4,000 a year by 2028, according to an analysis that we at The Women’s Budget Group (WGB) published in September last year.
That means, for many Disabled women in the UK, Reeves’ latest cuts follow what has already been an 11% drop in their living standards over the past 15 years. Cutting their living standards further is unthinkable.
Women also make up the majority of the UK’s unpaid carers, who provide care and support to family members, friends, or neighbours. They, too, will be hit hard by the changes.
When a person receives the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – a benefit to help with the extra costs incurred by long-term ill health or disability – their unpaid carer may be entitled to the Carer’s Allowance benefit. The government plans to reduce the number of people eligible for PIP, which in turn will reduce the number of people eligible for Carer’s Allowance.
A couple where one person loses PIP and the other therefore loses Carer’s Allowance could be over £12,000 worse off annually, according to calculations by anti-poverty charity The Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Reeves failed to acknowledge this knock-on impact in her speech. Worse still, the Equality Impact Assessment of these changes that was published as the chancellor was still speaking, also made no reference to it (although these impacts were included in the distributional assessment published at the same time).
What’s more, restricting the eligibility for PIP may increase the number of unpaid carers if a Disabled or chronically ill person is no longer able to rely on the benefit to pay somebody to provide their care. This may force women who are currently just about managing to stay in work to reduce their hours or quit their jobs altogether to take on additional care duties for loved ones.
Forcing women out of the workforce in this manner is not only detrimental to their health and wellbeing, it directly undermines the government’s claim that the measures are necessary to reduce economic inactivity.
At the same time, cutting PIP may push some disabled people out of the labour market if they can no longer afford the adaptations and services that enable them to work.
Years of austerity have already weakened our economy and eroded our living standards, leaving us ill-prepared for economic shocks. Cutting vital social security and public services is not the path to improving living standards.
Ahead of the Spring Statement, the WBG, along with more than 40 women’s organisations across the UK, wrote an open letter to the chancellor highlighting the gendered nature of these cuts – and urging her to consider more equitable ways to raise revenue.
Rather than targeting some of the most vulnerable members of our society, the government should be looking into taxing those with the broadest shoulders in our society.
A 2% wealth tax on assets over £10m could raise up to £24bn a year – far exceeding the savings from the proposed disability benefit cuts. This measure has already been called for by Tax Justice UK, which campaigns for a fairer tax system, and Patriotic Millionaires UK, which describes itself as a nonpartisan network of British millionaires.
A wealth tax of this kind could be used for much-needed investment in the foundations of our economy, including our social infrastructure – from childcare and education to social care and local government services.
Moreover, it’s what the public wants. Some 77% would rather the government increase taxes on the very richest than cut public spending, according to recent polling by YouGov for Oxfam.
Investing in social security and public services is not just a cost, but an investment in our society and economy. By choosing to cut benefits instead of implementing a wealth tax, the Government is not just balancing numbers on a spreadsheet. It is making a political choice – one that will deepen inequality and harm those who are already struggling.
Original article by Mary-Ann Stephenson republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Coming Soon: Rosebank and Jackdaw
I’m looking at Rosebank And Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea. It looks as though the UK government is going to shit on the UK population and especially young people as they so often do.
Since Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea were blocked by the Scottish Court of Session, the decision falls to the UK government led by Likud Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Rachel Reeves has said
“We said in our manifesto that they would go ahead, that we would honour existing licences, and we’re committed to doing that, and go ahead they will,” Reeves said.
“North Sea oil and gas is going to be really important to the UK economy for many, many decades to come.
“And we want to make sure that fields that have already got licences can continue to exploit those reserves and bring them to market.”
What the Labour Manifesto 2024 says
We will ensure a phased and responsible transition in the North Sea that recognises the proud history of our offshore industry and the brilliance of its workforce, particularly in Scotland and the North East of England, and the ongoing role of oil and gas in our energy mix.
We will embrace the future of energy production and storage which will make use of existing offshore infrastructure and the skills of our offshore workforce. Labour will not revoke existing licences and we will partner with business and workers to manage our existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan. Crucially, oil and gas production in the North Sea will be with us for decades to come, and the North Sea will be managed in a way that does not jeopardise jobs. And our offshore workers will lead the world in the industries of the future.
We will not issue new licences to explore new fields because they will not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure, and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis. In addition, we will not grant new coal licences and will ban fracking for good.
