On the 24th April, Torbay
Fightback activists gathered at Torquay Job centre to protest the largest
attack on the welfare state in living memory. Hundreds of flyers were
distributed to claimants and members of the public, with some claimants
discussing issues with the Fightback members.
In January the ConDem coalition voted in another round of
austerity measures aimed at setting the working classes, the deprived and most
vulnerable the task of reducing the budget deficit – whilst the millionaires
were allowed to get off (to offshore tax havens in some cases) virtually scot
free. It has to be pointed out these attacks have been phased in by the British
bourgeoisie over a number of years and didn’t just start with the ConDems
To start, the government has placed a cap of 1% increase
per annum for a period of three years on all welfare benefits. This has
jettisoned the link of benefits to inflation that had previously been in place.
When we consider that the present level for JSA is £71 (if you are 25 or over,
£56.25 if under), an already impoverished situation is bound to get worse. The
Department of Works and Pensions has insisted that this is not a cut, but is
committed to establishing a further £10 billion ‘saving’ in the welfare bill in
the coming period.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Works and
Pensions, has promised to introduce a ‘Universal Benefit’ which will impose a
£500 ceiling on all benefits for every household. This is currently being
trialled in different boroughs in the country because the DWP does not have in
place the infra-structure to implement it immediately. However, the cuts will
still take place. These cuts will affect JSA, working tax credits, and pension
credits. The Disability Living Allowance will be replaced by a ’Personal
Independence Payment’.
The cuts to child credit payment will affect 2.5 million
single women workers and a further million whose partners are in work. This in
effect will be throwing millions of children into poverty. The Child Poverty
Action Group has said that these changes will cut 4% from benefits over the
next three years. The overall plan is to subsume all payments into the one
‘Universal Benefit’ payment. The government will thus cut its welfare bill. All
the guff about lazy ‘shirkers’ versus hard-working ‘strivers’ is just so much
camouflage to hide the attacks. According to another report, this time by the
Children’s Society, “up to 40,000 soldiers, 300,000 nurses and 150,000
primary and nursery school teachers will lose cash, in some cases many hundreds
of pounds” (Guardian 5/1/13) So much for targeting ‘shirkers’!
The government has placed a cap of £500 per household per
week on the rent of a family home. In places like London this is impossible for
many to find. According to the government’s own figures on risk assessment,
this will affect some 2.8 million people. 400,000 of the poorest people will be
included. 300,000 households stand to lose more than £300 per week.
The government in its ‘war on welfare dependency’ will
hit the young hardest. The government intends to refuse housing benefit to the
under 25’s. This is to effectively throw thousands of young people onto the
streets.
The government is also cutting its subsidies to local
councils by 10% while leaving local authorities to implement the cuts in
Council Tax payments. This will mean an average £10 per week that social
tenants will have to find to supplement their rents. Those occupying dwellings
which have a spare bedroom will have to find a minimum of £10 per week under
the so-called ‘Bedroom Tax’ since they now fall into the “over occupancy”
category. This will again hit young people the hardest. The homeless charity
Shelter say that only 1 in 5 of rental homes are affordable to single people on
benefits.
The attacks
are only just beginning. The benefit cuts are part of a wider push to make the
working class pick up the bill for their crisis. If the
working class is to mount any resistance to this offensive, it must reject out
of hand all attempts to make it feel responsible for the crisis of capitalism,
and all the nauseating campaigns about shirkers and strivers, which are aimed
at dividing the working class. Unemployment and poverty are the product of
capitalism in crisis and the working class can only defend itself by developing
its unity in the struggle against this system.
Torbay
Fightback is planning further Job Centre activity as part of its battles
against benefit cuts.
If you have a story to tell about how benefit
cuts affect you, or would like to be part of any future protests please get in
touch at torbayfightback@activist.com
Torbay Fightback has been involved in many campaigns since
its formation in the autumn of 2012. However there comes a realisation that in
order to make necessary changes in our society it is no good being insular or
isolated. Therefore the time has come for Fightback members and supporters to
look at the broader picture and how to help build a mass movement against
austerity. To do so means being part of the basis of such a movement, and it is
viewed that the Trade Union movement, which is at the heart of the struggle is
the best way to proceed.
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