{"id":16295,"date":"2018-09-24T14:50:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16295"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:13","slug":"labour-could-scrap-tories-universal-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16295","title":{"rendered":"Changing the narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Labour has said it could scrap the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 disastrous Universal Credit<\/a> (UC) welfare reform as the party launches a year-long review of the benefits system.<\/p>\n

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Speaking before her speech at the Labour Party conference today (September 24), shadow minister for work and pensions Margaret Greenwood said she is \u00e2\u20ac\u015blooking into\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 ditching the scandal-hit scheme, saying \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not ruling anything out\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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UC, which has been hit by years of set-backs and has left many people destitute and relying on food banks<\/a> because of delays in payments, is just part of Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s review into completely overhauling the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015btoxic\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 welfare system.<\/p>\n

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Greenwood told the Mirror<\/em><\/a> the review will consider how to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bchange the narrative\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of the benefits system from \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpunishment to support\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Too humiliating\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI meet a lot of people in their middle years who say ‘I can’t face going to the Jobcentre because I find it too humiliating\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWell that’s absolutely wrong, because those people have worked 20, 30 years, they’re entitled to get support.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey shouldn’t be made to feel that somehow there’s a stigma attached to them.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you talk to people working in the social security system at the moment, I’ve had it described to me as the circle of hell.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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As well as potentially ditching UC, Greenwood said Labour plans to end the benefits<\/a> freeze by connecting payment rates to inflation and make the sanctions regime much fairer.<\/p>\n

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She also said it was her \u00e2\u20ac\u015bambition\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to stop private firms from carrying out tests for disability benefits.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Wasting millions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Head of Unite Community Liane Groves said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor years Universal Credit has been hit by delays and scandals, wasting millions upon millions of tax payer pounds and causing misery for families across the country.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right that Labour is looking at how to overhaul this disaster of an initiative and to fix an often cruel and arbitrary benefits system that after years of Tory attacks is not fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has long campaigned for an alternative to the Conservative policies of punishing people who need help while turning a blind eye to the richest few\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s myriad ways of avoiding paying their fair share.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour is the only party that has the will and vision to achieve a fair benefits system and an economy<\/a> that works for everyone, rather than just those at the top.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labour has said it could scrap the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 disastrous Universal Credit (UC) welfare reform as the party launches a year-long review of the benefits system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[265,872,44,462],"wps_subtitle":"Labour could scrap Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Universal Credit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25855,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16295\/revisions\/25855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}