Frank Field and The Art Of Missing The Obvious

My Welfare Reform Minister Mark's Any picked up on Frank's article in The Times, in which Frank correctly suggested 'tearing up' the New Deal. I picked on one of his superficially politically attractive ideas towards the end of the article and commented thusly:

He's a typical right winger (yes I know he's a Labour MP). He sees the symptoms, he understands the magnitude of the problem, he genuinely cares and is quite sincere. But all he can suggest is even more authoritarian nonsense. Workfare jobs, probably a good idea, as long as it's a top up to CBI or a replacement for Housing Benefit. But paying people more dole if they have paid more tax is nuts - why not just cut tax a bit and let people self-insure?

There are various hurdles to be overcome before my suggestion rather than Frank's would ever be adopted, of course:

1. It involves tax cuts and an emphasis on self-reliance, an anathema to Nulabour and Blulabour alike.

2. It involves a move to a flat-rate Citizen's Income-style welfare system, without any moral judgments as to who is 'deserving' and who gets how much (under CI, all legally resident working age adults with no or low incomes would get £60 a week, cash, no questions asked).

3. It involves simplification, and thus a massive loss of pseudo-jobs in the civil service.

4. It involves scrapping asset-based means testing. If we adopted Frank's suggestion while retaining means testing (you get no benefits if you have more than £8,000 or £16,000 in savings - excluding the value of your home or your pension fund, of course), those who actually have worked and saved wouldn't see a penny of that notional extra entitlement unless they were reckless enough never to put some away for a rainy day.

Just sayin', is all.