To all media: Press Release: 24/July/2006
Sheffield Welfare Action Network (SWAN)
The Welfare Reform Bill: A move to a 21st Century version of the Workhouse?
Today the Govt’s Welfare Reform Bill is having its second reading, Sheffield
Welfare Action Network (SWAN) has been campaigning against the Bill since it
was first floated and has serious reservations about its content
The government is targeting millions of disabled people with the threat of
losing up to 30 pounds per week if the claimant does not comply with their
plans. The proposed replacement to Incapacity Benefit (IB), the Employment
Support Allowance (ESA), will only rise above £56 a week (JSA levels) if the
claimant meets very strict requirements.
The reforms also propose ever more medical assessments through a more
stringent Personal Capability Assessment (PCA)
The government also proposes to abolish housing benefit and replace it with
a fixed housing allowance so that claimants get a flat allowance rather than
the full rent charged by the private landlord
Summary here: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/ibchange.htm
Our concerns
While welcoming any genuine help for those who can and want to work, SWAN
asserts the new system will not only be unsuccessful in its aims, but will
cause further stress and illness for claimants. SWAN will ask why are the
reforms ‘target led’ with the aim of getting one million back into work? If
the reforms are so positive, why do there have to be sanctions and coercion?
This punitive approach will mean many thousands of the most vulnerable in
our society who simply cannot work will face ever more coercion and
harrassment. Further, as some excellent research on our website indicates
where are all these many jobs going to come from? unemployment is now rising
and employers themselves admit they discriminate against people with
disabilities. The reforms also do nothing about the extremely robust medical
assessments, which although described as ‘the toughest in the world’ still
wrongly fail 80’ 000 people a year (source: BBC). Abolishing housing benefit
will mean disabled
people will, if in the private rented sector, have to leave their homes,
(losing their informal networks of support in the process) and move to
unsuitable areas. In our view, the reforms do nothing to provide people who
are disabled with suitable jobs free from discrimination and do nothing to
gain the trust of claimants or give them pressure free time to heal.
Jayne Edwards of Sharrow, Sheffield said "I want to work but I can't and
people really look down on me, like I'm faking it or it's my fault. The very
idea of being forced to work, to attend interviews when I can hardly stand
up is making me worse, its just cruel!
Already, one has to fill in 40 page forms which go into the minutae of your
personal life and where one has to detail exactly your medical condition,
however embarrassing.
You can be spied on by fraud investigators to see if you are secretly
working. Even if you have nothing to fear, this creates a climate where the
claimant feels a far from benign state is omnipresent in his/her life. In
Swan’s view, if the bill goes ahead, it can only get worse: the new welfare
reform bill will mean disabled people will have to accept certain forms of
medical interventions such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) or face
benefit cuts, there will be ‘Work Advisers’in G.P’s surgeries and no matter
how ill you are, the disabled will have to attend a number of interviews to
‘discuss’ what work the person can do. One can argue as a commentator has
that ‘this is a move to 21st Century version of the workhouse.
A more humane system
SWAN argues there is a strong need for the welfare system to be made more
humane,
At our recent national rally concurring: Sheffield Green Party Councillor,
Bernard Little said:
"the whole of our benefit system is built on the myth that if we are not in
paid work we are up to no-good. Swinging the lead. Shirking. Pretending we
are ill. And this cruel myth hits the most vulnerable the hardest .We need
to have a far more flexible benefit system that breaks down the barrier
between paid and unpaid work. That recognises the reality of life with it
ups and downs, good days and bad days, our sickness and health. A benefits
system that recognises that we are all different."
Sheffield Liberal Democrat councillor and group leader Paul Scriven agreed,
stating "The benefits system should not be used by government to further
alienate and penalise disabled people. It should be used to support and
empower them to lead full and independent lives as possible. The changes
that the government are introducing are trying to be used as a tool of
conformity rather than using the benefit system to empower and support
disabled people."
SWAN will continue to campaign vigorously against these reforms and will be
a significant part of the emerging campaign against the Bill and for a
decent more flexible and less punitive welfare system.
Regards
John Rogers
For SWAN
contact details
www.swansheffield.org.uk
[log in to unmask]
tel Chris Taylor 07903453006
Note SWAN is planning to become a national organization in the near future
(1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4995078.stm
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