{"id":7021,"date":"2015-12-04T15:09:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T15:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7021"},"modified":"2015-12-07T16:50:59","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:50:59","slug":"cuts-by-a-new-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7021","title":{"rendered":"Cuts by a new name"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After months of criticism from all sides, Chancellor George Osborne finally caved in on tax credits in his autumn statement last week, pledging to reverse cuts that would see Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poorest working families more than \u00c2\u01411000 worse off every year.
\nNewspapers hailed the move a u-turn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while the Telegraph<\/em> wrongly noted that Osborne had \u00e2\u20ac\u015bushered in the end of austerity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.
\nBut halting cuts to tax credits, which were due to hit in April, may have been the only good news for working people who will still suffer under another five years of austerity. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because many of these families who had braced themselves for tax credit cuts will still feel the same pain \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the only difference is that the cuts will be felt later rather than now.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere was always going to be a phasing out of tax credits as people moved over to Universal Credit, the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flagship programme that rolls six benefits into one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite researcher Sian Errington explained.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening now is that instead of cutting tax credits immediately, the government is cutting Universal Credit. As people move off tax credits and into Universal Credit, which will be slowly rolled out over the next few years, many will lose out quite dramatically.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nThe Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated<\/a> just how brutally millions of families will be hit.<\/p>\n

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Working families will lose<\/strong> <\/em>
\nOnce Universal Credit is introduced, 2.6m working families will lose an average of \u00c2\u01411,600 every year. While nearly 2m working families stand to gain \u00c2\u01411,400 a year from the introduction of UC, the hardest hit will be the 1.2m non-working families who will lose \u00c2\u01412,500 annually.
\nBut Errington warned that beyond cuts in autumn statement last week, the Welfare Reform Bill, which is currently going through the House of Lords and is anticipated to be passed, will also result in benefit cuts from as early as April 2017.
\nThese changes include a significant reduction in the benefit cap from \u00c2\u014126,000 a year to \u00c2\u014123,000 year in London and \u00c2\u014120,000 outside the capital.
\nErrington noted that some groups will lose out more from changes to benefits than others.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThose living in expensive areas \u00e2\u20ac\u201c urban areas predominantly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will be hit hard by the benefit cap cut, and have already been hit by cuts in housing benefit,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLow-paid households will lose out by the introduction of Universal Credit in particular.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nErrington pointed to evidence<\/a> suggesting that the biggest losers will be single mothers.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWomen are overrepresented in amongst lower-paid occupations in the labour market, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more likely to be lone parents,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she noted.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo these women are more likely to be claiming housing benefit, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more likely to be claiming tax credits and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also more likely to work in occupations affected by austerity cuts such as public services.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nYoung people will also be struggling under changes to benefits because many will be denied access, Errington added. For example, automatic housing benefit will be withdrawn for young people aged 18 to 21.
\nPerhaps it is a sign of the times then, that Liverpool recently opened a food bank exclusively for young people<\/a>. Liverpool\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deputy mayor Nick Small, noted that the city suffers from high levels of food poverty resulting from draconian benefit sanctions, which disproportionately affect young adults.<\/a>
\nDeadly poverty<\/strong><\/em>
\nAnd according to Errington, sanctions are set to get worse under the present government. While sanctions now only apply to those not in work, the DWP is piloting sanctions for the lowest paid workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a chilling development in a sanctions regime that has already thrown so many people into deep and often deadly<\/a> poverty.
\nIn-work sanctions would mean that if struggling workers on low pay earn below a certain threshold and claiming Universal Credit will be made to sign a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098claimant contract\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pledging to try and increase their earnings, for example, by working more hours. If they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meet their \u00e2\u20ac\u0098obligations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 they face being sanctioned, where benefits are stopped.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt will be very difficult for many people to increase their per hour earnings, so this would basically mean taking on more hours,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Errington explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the support for this? The government has been very evasive on what additional help their will be to enable low-paid workers to earn more \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and there are no obligations on employers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nWhile the details on in-work sanctions aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet clear, Errington noted that we can probably expect the programme to be put in place for all Universal Credit claimants once the pilot programme, which work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith confirmed<\/a> was now being conducted in parts of the North-West, is complete.
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner welcomed the government being forced to change their plans on tax credit cuts but condemned the additional cuts and changes to benefits, which he said would throw millions more into poverty.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s climb down over tax credit cuts is welcome \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it means millions of households will not be losing on average over \u00c2\u01411,000 a year in April,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt shows that campaigning, from the grassroots up to the Labour leadership, works. Now we need to focus on the next fight.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey still want to make an eye-watering \u00c2\u014112bn of cuts to benefits,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe suffering of millions of working people under the previous coalition government is only the beginning.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBy 2020, food banks could be a permanent feature of society, with poverty and income inequality growing, with children suffering the most.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMake no mistake \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this government is not interested fixing the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finances. This is only a smokescreen so it can pursue an ideology that seeks to completely dismantle our social security system.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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After months of criticism from all sides, Chancellor George Osborne finally caved in on tax credits in his autumn statement last week, pledging to reverse cuts that would see Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poorest working families more than \u00c2\u01411000 worse off every year. Newspapers hailed the move a u-turn \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while the Telegraph wrongly noted that Osborne had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,447,231,105],"wps_subtitle":"War on poorest continues ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021"}],"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=7021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7026,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021\/revisions\/7026"}],"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=7021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}