{"id":4071,"date":"2015-05-06T15:57:15","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T14:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4071"},"modified":"2015-05-06T15:57:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T14:57:15","slug":"radical-welfare-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4071","title":{"rendered":"Radical welfare cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The UK could very well join the US in being the only developed countries in the world that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offer statutory maternity pay<\/a>, if the Tories emerge victorious on May 8.<\/p>\n

 
\nWork and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith controversially refused this week to detail their \u00c2\u014112bn in welfare spending cuts next year if his party takes the helm, but documents leaked to the Guardian yesterday<\/a> (May 5) reveal what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to give under the Tories \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and in this case, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than any of us had ever imagined.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe DWP documents were drawn up by Whitehall officials last year, warning that the government risked exceeding a legal welfare spending cap next year after failing to control costs. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much low-hanging fruit left\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with respect to welfare spending, the documents read, warning that the proposed cuts would be \u00e2\u20ac\u015bvery\/highly\/extremely controversial.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIndeed.<\/p>\n

 
\nBeyond abolishing statutory maternity pay altogether, other proposed cuts outlined in the documents included barring under-25s from claiming incapacity or housing benefit, forcing single parents receiving income support to seek work when their youngest child turns three (instead of the current 5), and freezing benefits payments at current levels across the board.<\/p>\n

 
\nWelfare reforms that represent the worst of the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sinister legacy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the bedroom tax and fit-for-work tests, both of which having been, in all too many cases<\/a>, fatal<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c should be further escalated next year, the documents revealed.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe DWP documents proposed even stricter tests to make it harder for the sick and disabled to claim benefits. As if fit-for-work tests weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already strict enough, leading to absurd situations in which, say, a marine veteran amputee with terminal lung cancer <\/a>was deemed able to work.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe leaked documents drawn up last spring were predictably dismissed by the Tories, with a Conservative spokesperson saying that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bif we wanted to implement policies like these, we would have, but we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nGiven Iain Duncan Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stubborn secrecy over the details on the billions in welfare spending cuts they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve pledged as part of their campaign, one can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but qualify the spokesperson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement with \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwe haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet<\/em>.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00c2\u014130bn black hole<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nIf Duncan Smith won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spill the beans over his own party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spending plans, then the Institute for Fiscal Studies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an independent tax think tank \u00e2\u20ac\u201c surmised a few guesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nTaken straight from the Tory manifesto, the only welfare cut the party has specifically outlined as part of its \u00c2\u014112bn hacking of the welfare bill per year was a two-year freeze on working-age benefits. But, says the IFS, this comes nowhere near the total cuts it has pledged to make \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the freeze only amounts to \u00c2\u01411.3bn in savings.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf the Tories are to achieve their aim of eliminating the deficit by 2018, the IFS argues, then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a \u00c2\u014130bn black hole in their plan. With all the tax cuts they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve promised, which mostly benefit the already wealthy, the think tank criticised the party for proposing spending plans that, far from saving any money, would amount to a net giveaway.<\/p>\n

 
\nIFS director Paul Johnson stressed that if the Tories were to come anywhere near their \u00c2\u014112bn welfare cuts target, then \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsomething quite radical\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 would have to be done to the benefits system.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd it was these same documents leaked to the Guardian that reveal what that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsomething quite radical\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 might look like.<\/p>\n

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Competing visions<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nLabour plans for spending and saving, on the other hand, are \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in an age of austerity politics \u00e2\u20ac\u201c quite \u00e2\u20ac\u015bradical\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in their own way.<\/p>\n

 
\nResponding to the latest leaks, Labour work and pensions spokeswoman Rachel Reeves said:<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour has a better plan to control the costs of social security. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll save \u00c2\u01411bn by cutting housing benefit fraud and overpayments and control housing benefit spending by tackling rip-off rents, getting 200,000 homes a year built, increasing the minimum wage to \u00c2\u01418 an hour and giving tax rebates to firms who pay a living wage.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not only a concrete plan for savings, but it reveals the philosophical chasm separating the two main parties, a chasm that Unite head of political Jennie Formby explained.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories and Labour could not be more different in their respective visions for a future Britain,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite head of political Jennie Formby. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Conservative party reveals this vision in their spending and savings plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c according to them, those who are already marginalised, already kicked down by austerity and a low-pay economy, should continue to bear the brunt of the failures of the coalition government and the big businesses which cosy up to them for tax freebies and favours.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLabour, on the other hand, sets out a vision for a fairer society, one that the vast majority of the electorate believes in as well.They believe, and have shown in their manifesto pledges, that those who have gotten a free ride throughout the recession\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe bankers, the propertied class, the low-pay, high-profit employers\u00e2\u20ac\u201dowe a debt to the society which helped them create their success.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA more equal society, where those who need help will get it, is a more prosperous one. This election isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t only about accounting and balance books, though budgets are important. This election is about clear, competing visions. This is what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at stake tomorrow \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hope for a more equal and progressive future, or five more years of the divisive, unjust Tory future that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already had.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The UK could very well join the US in being the only developed countries in the world that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offer statutory maternity pay, if the Tories emerge victorious on May 8.   Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith controversially refused this week to detail their \u00c2\u014112bn in welfare spending cuts next year if his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[105,224,44],"wps_subtitle":"Maternity pay could be history if Tories win","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4071"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4091,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071\/revisions\/4091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}