Proposed cuts to housing benefit will result in higher levels of poverty, debt, rent arrears and homelessness and should be delayed, national charity Citizens Advice says today.
The warning comes in evidence submitted to the Department of Work and Pensions’ Social Security Advisory Committee, whose consultation on the changes ends today (Friday 10 September). The committee is expected to publish its recommendations to government in the late autumn.
Cuts announced by government include a cap on housing benefit payments from April next year.*
Citizens Advice strongly opposes the cuts, but says that if they do go ahead, the government must take steps to cushion the impact and smooth the transition for those households affected. It calls for a delay in introducing the new cap until October 2011, or at the very least only applying it to new claims from April, in order to ensure that people locked into existing tenancy agreements do not find themselves suddenly trapped with an unaffordable rent, and to give them time to find somewhere else to live.
And this ideological onslaught on the public sector and welfare doesn’t need to happen. To repeat, there doesn’t need to be any cuts whatsoever!
George Osborne is putting beggars back on the street in the same way that his hero, Thatcher, did. What a brave new society to look forward to, a very nasty and destructive one. The message people should take is organise and resist or be destroyed. The Con/Dems could have found the money to fill the deficit hole by cutting the £70bn for Trident. And the £4bn a year for futile imperialist wars. Around £130bn is lost through tax avoidance and evasion, how about the Con/Dems tackling that immense problem? Millions could be saved by ditching privatisation and consultants….Even better, tax the rich!
But somehow, as with the previous NL administration, the wealthy and corporate capitalism are exempt from the butchery of this draconian budget. But then this is an ideological attack that means every one else is being sacrificed instead.
See as well –
TUC Spending cuts will make Britain more unequal
Agreed, but taxing the rich won’t happen because they vote Tory. Going after the evil tax evaders won’t happen, because they make large contributions to certain political parties. Plus, going after the most vulnerable in society is simple, because they are an easy target.
Horrific, but true.
We’re all fucking peasants as far as they can see.
Jackie, unfortunately, it is easy to attack the powerless in this society as opposed to the powerful, the politics of distraction used by the ConDems aided and abetted by the right-wing media emphasise “benefit scroungers” this is a divide and rule tactic used by the establishment. I think we have to constantly argue that the poor are not the enemy but finance sector, banking bailouts, neoliberalism, warmongering, capitalism and profit.
I saw Osborne on TV today and thought he was avoiding the questions and using ‘false dilemmas’ – ‘we have to cut welfare or face cuts elsewhere,’ when there are other options available. (Trident, Tax evasion, etc.)
And Danny Alexander – I thought he was a decent type – how does he sleep now?
The whole ConDem programme is awful. Much worse than Thatcher. For example Thatcher gave council tenants secure tenancies and allowed them to buy their council houses on the cheap while Cameron wants to make all new council tenancies insecure and summarily evict such tenants from their homes if they “under occupy” them or end earn more money than a certain threshold!
To me it looks as if the Conservatives actually intend to destroy the welfare state root and branch under the pretence of tackling the country’s deficit. The changes these villains intend to make are not temporary. What is taken away now will not be restored once the financial crises is dealt with and the deficit reduced; the clock is going to be wound back to a pre-second world war or even Victorian era.
How can the Liberal Democrats support this cruelty which seem contrary to everything they claimed to have stood for and what their own manifesto stated pre-election? Whenever Nick Clegg is quizzed about cuts he always answers in the same way: he says the he “believes in work” as if we won’t need welfare in a few years because everybody will have a decent job and then talks about the “pupil premium” or similar as if that small thing makes up for all the truly awful things that the Conservatives intend to inflict on the nation.
Sad.
Problem is, none of the contenders for the Labour leadership wish to recoup the money from the wealthy or implement the policies that would produce a more equal society. They pay lip service to the latter, but without the uncomfortable policies that would make them unpopular with the millionaire owners of the right-wing press, it’s just hot air.
The best we can hope for is Ed Milliband’s proposed private sector high pay commision, but in all honesty it just sounds like another toothless talking shop.