Tagged with Unemployment

Does the party of the welfare state talk tough because it doesn’t know where the centre ground is?

Rachel ReevesSometimes I suspect that not a syllable escapes the lips of Rachel Reeves unless it somehow encapsulates the pitch for the latest Channel Four eat the poor documentary while simultaneously disgusting a sizeable chunk of Labour activists. Most recently, her declamation that Labour is not the party of the welfare state and doesn’t represent those out of work – or in work and on benefits, for that matter – has horrified many socialists.

Worse than that, it has horrified many people who fall into those categories and are still considering how to vote on 7 May. Moreover, Ms Reeves has got previous as long as your arm. In her very first interview on her appointment as work and pensions spokeswoman, back in 2013, she promised to be tougher than the Tories on cutting the welfare bill. Vote Labour, get IDS, only that bit nastier. Continue reading →

Fast Facts: Gender social inequality and austerity in Europe

23700472_sEurope’s austerity fetish and longer term neo-liberal reforms promoted by Big Business, Governments and the EU Commission hurt women disproportionately. Here’s a few facts to illustrate the point.

Europe wide 

  • The gender pay gap is around 16%
  • It ranges from more than a quarter (27%) in Estonia to around a fiftieth (2%) in Slovenia. The latest figures from Eurostat suggest that at least until 2010, the gender pay gap appears to have been narrowing. However, there was no further progress in 2011. Continue reading →

Government fiddles unemployment figures by excluding everyone ‘sanctioned’

‘A winning hand of four aces - one of them handmade!Sanctioning’ is a particularly harsh and brutal way of treating unemployed people. They have all their benefit removed even for the most trivial infringements, e.g. being 5 minutes late for a job interview or for a work programme session. Their benefit (£71 a week JSA) is removed for 4 weeks for the first infringement, for 3 months for the second, and (almost unbelievably) for 3 years for the third.

This quickly reduces the victims of this abhorrent policy to destitution and leaves them with no alternative but to beg for board and lodging from family or friends. There is no appeal against these decisions which could well be regarded as a breach of the common law by deliberately reducing a person to penury by administrative edict against which there is no redress. Continue reading →

Everyone, including DWP staff, think universal credit is a disaster

IDSUniversal credit was supposed to be introduced by Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) and the Department for Work & Pensions in September, but the roll-out date continually gets postponed. The aim is to replace several in- and out-of-work benefits – job seeker’s allowance, income support, employment and support allowance, tax credits, plus housing benefit and support for childcare costs – with one single payment. However there are snags, big ones: Continue reading →

Want people back in work? Then don’t cut benefits.

austerity-isnt-workingThe recent focus on capping benefits to satisfy the Tory tabloid blood lust against all social security recipients is not only unfair and unreasonable, but according to recent evidence bad for the economy. Job seeker’s allowance at £71 a week is already almost the lowest level in the EU, and reducing it further would not only be grossly unjust (since with unfilled vacancies currently at 400,000, even if every single one were filled, it would still leave 2,200,000 unable to get a job because there weren’t any available), but also uneconomic.

Unemployment benefit plays the important role of allowing people to get, not just any job, but an appropriate job that fits their skills and experience. The latter also benefits the employer as well as contributing to make the national economy more productive.

Continue reading →