Point 2 from Cameron's Blueprint for Britain was this:
" We will reassess 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit to see if they are fit for work. Every out-of-work claimant capable of doing so will be expected to work or prepare for work."
Note the sheer arrogance:"We will reassess...". Wot? Three hundred Tory MPs are going to "reassess" nearly nine thousand claimants each, are they? Even if they had the time to do it, are they all medically qualified?
Let me remind you at this juncture that the Tories dreamed up Incapacity Benefit (or whatever it was called back then) in the 1980s to reduce the number of people claiming unemployment benefit, and the number of claimants had already risen to 2.6 million by the time the Tories were last in government in 1997, so there's hypocrisy involved here as well.
What does "expected to" mean? Nothing. I "expect" my kids to do their homework, but "expecting" alone doesn't help much. The phrase "prepare for work" is even more chilling of course, because what this means is that the Tories can shovel loads of money to businesses that run these "back to work" schemes. Businesses which might just find a place or two on their board of directors for a Tory MP. A bit like David Blunkett over at Action4Employment Limited.
Hey, here's a plan: start by being honest (yeah right) and instead of rebranding Incapacity Benefit as Employment & Support Allowance, just merge all "key benefits" into a single working age benefit at a flat weekly rate, and end the ludicrous rule that long-term IB claimants get paid a higher rate. Then increase people's willingness to work by scrapping the ludicrous distinction between "out-of-work" and "in-work" benefits; and reducing (or scrapping) means-testing; and increase employer's willingness to employ more people by reducing (or scrapping) all the rules and regulations and reducing (or scrapping) Employer's National Insurance and the National Minimum Wage.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Ten reasons to hate the Tories (2)
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6 comments:
The first thing to do it end pregnancy as the gateway to free housing (actually it's not free, we pay for it)
Their proposals for an £8,000 'insurance' policy to pay for residential care for the old don't seem to add up either.
Are they trying to throw votes away or what?
IG, I'll look at that in Part 6.
DPM, of course it doesn't add up! But vote-buying doesn't need to add up (in financial terms).
Every out-of-work claimant capable of doing so will be expected to work or prepare for work.
Fine but there need to be jobs first and they need to select on experience and ability, not NVQs.
Yes, Mark, I have to say that the principle of ESA is good one [astonishingly for any Labour policy] though the jury’s still out in the biz if it’ll operate advertised. Unfortunately, it does still contain the element of ‘you get more if you prove you’re ill’, which the impeccably Left-liberal Mrs. Northwester often points out that, just like Incapacity benefit, gives alcoholics more cash that to sober people, as alcoholism is classed as an incapacitating condition.
Just because the Tories brought in something bad doesn’t mean we can’t put it right later – look at appeasement and disarmament, for example.
And your solutions are rather simple, non-statist, and easy to pass as repealing legislation. I can see a problem with that, can’t you?
Inspector Gadget, pregnancy’s way more than gateway to free housing. I expect you’ve meet them a lot – into their third or fourth generation in some places. In some cases it’s more than half a lifetime for a good, solid breeder.
James, I think we’re going to have to admit to something statist like workfare for this. The unions’ll hate it - which is a plus - and more than a few grungy now jobs going to immigrants might be lost, but there’s a hell of a lot of cleanup that needs to be done after two industrial revolutions in these islands. A few well-publicised sanctions (refusal to pay any benefits at all for a while) should get the word around. You could give their contracts to job-finding companies with no-placement-no-fee policies, and say £5 per week per placement passed to the company. Give them three choices by post and if they don’t sign up for any within a fortnight, then sanction their benefits. .
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