The government is making unprecedented cuts across the public sector and is removing people’s social, economic and civil rights. The welfare state which was established to provide social security to those unable to work is being dismantled through privatisation and £30 billion of cuts.
The attacks on the welfare state by the Tory-led government are ideological and the cuts are blighting the lives of the least economically secure in society.
These cuts are not about balancing the books. Over the same period of time the government will also give away £30 billion in tax breaks to business. Disabled people are being disproportionately and brutally affected with the proposed abolition of the Independent Living Fund and cuts to the Employment and Support Allowance and Disability Living Allowance, and the imposition of the Work Capability Assessment – carried out by Atos.
It is shameful and immoral that private companies are making profit from disabled and unemployed workers but, even worse, it does not work. The public sector delivers services more effectively, efficiently and less expensively than the private sector.
The government’s approach cannot work: there are already 2.5 million people unemployed, and more than six million seeking additional work.
Pushing disabled people off benefits – without creating jobs or tackling employer discrimination – is simply a means of cutting disabled people’s living standards.
Brutal attacks
Evidence shows supportive social security systems that treat people with dignity and respect – rather than punitive systems based on conditionality, sanctions and low benefit levels – help not only individuals, families and communities but also the wider economy.
The social, individual and household consequences of these cuts contravene the right to independent living enshrined in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Hate campaign
To justify these brutal attacks on disabled people and those on welfare more generally, the government has engaged in a campaign of vilification to label those on benefits as lazy, feckless and as scroungers. Much of the news and print media have colluded in this hate campaign – leading to a sharp increase in attacks on disabled workers, including physical assaults.
Yet the government’s own figures show benefit fraud accounts for £1.5 billion a year, while £16 billion of benefits and tax credits are left unclaimed.
PCS on the front line
Tens of thousands of PCS members are involved in the administration of the welfare state and are committed to providing a service that meets people’s needs. Workers are facing huge cuts in their pay, pensions and rights at work – 40% of those who will administer Universal Credit will also be entitled to it.
PCS members are often on the front line, facing the anguish and anger of those suffering from government welfare policies. They did not create these policies; the union does not support them and is committed to campaigning against them.
PCS is committed to strengthening its campaigning alliance with Disabled People Against Cuts and the Black Triangle Campaign, which includes peaceful direct action against politicians who have supported welfare cuts and those companies that seek to profit from them.
The government is trying to divide people between those in work and those out of work; disabled and non-disabled people; and those in the public and private sector. The key to defeating these cuts, and austerity more generally, is unity.
Genuine debate needed
PCS is calling for a genuine debate over welfare.
The main political parties have become critical of the post-war model but apart from the increasingly discredited Tory attempt to return to Victorian attitudes to the “undeserving poor,” there is no coherent welfare policy to replace it.
PCS believes there is an alternative and has set out a different approach calling for:
- A welfare state where everyone has a decent standard of living free
- A government that commits to full employment
- A welfare system based on need not moral judgements
- A government that acknowledges and respects the work of dedicated DWP staff
- An end to low pay that leaves people dependent on means-tested benefits.
For further information see pcs.org.uk/welfare
