New Labour’s new vision of a privatised benefits service

New Labour took another step in dismantling the welfare state with the passing of the controversial Welfare Reform bill into law in what campaign groups are calling an all out assault on the poor, vulnerable and most needy.  The bill, which sets out changes to the benefits system, overcame its final hurdle on Wednesday 11th November when the House of Lords backed down in opposing the legislation, specifically over the government’s plans to fine jobless single parents with pre-school age children if they do not prepare for work while receiving benefits.

Jim Knight, the welfare reform minister, defended the plans in the Lords as “reasonable” to expect parents to take up compulsory training while their three- and four-year-olds were in government provided childcare – and right to hit them with financial penalties for not doing so.

The Welfare Reform bill is part of New Labour’s attempt to reduce the government’s financial burden by forcing claimants off incapacity benefit through the new means tested Employment Support Allowance (ESA). More controversially it will also transfer more of the service to private companies who will be paid more the less benefits they award, along with increasing punishments for claimants who refuse to work for their benefits, cuts on carers’ allowance and compulsory two parent registration on birth certificates, including survivors of violence. The Department of Work and Pensions aims to reduce those eligible for ESA, through an inability to work due to sickness or injury, by 1 million by imposing more stringent criteria for claiming, and bullying potential claimants back into degrading and useless work.

Radical campaigns groups from across the country met in Manchester on November 14th for a planning meeting to co-ordinate a nationwide strategy against the implementation of the new act and discuss a campaign of action. A coalition of grassroots organisations including The London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP), Disabled People’s Direct Action Network and Feminist Fightback have already staged a week of actions to highlight the draconian measures forced through Parliament, essentially turning the unemployed into second class citizens.

With the latest attack on benefits has seen the re-emergence of claimants groups. Both LCAP and it’s Edinburgh equivalent ECAP, along with Nottingham Claimants Action, have been at the forefront of raising awareness amongst unemployed workers about their rights and entitlements, as well as participating in direct action against benefit agencies. In London there is the newly formed Hackney Unemployed Workers and Newham Claimants Union, and the formation of Unemployed Workers Movement in Merseyside, where unemployment is 6.15%, almost 2% above the national average. An Unemployed Workers Union has also been established by the Unemployed Workers Centre in Salford with an appeal for the formation of a national campaign.

According to government statistics unemployment reached 2.46 million in September, with the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in October 2009 increasing by 12,900 to reach 1.64 million, the highest number of claimants since April 1997.

As part of the national campaign there will be public meeting in London on November 21st on “How will the Welfare Abolition Bill affect us?”