By Dale Bassett
The outcry over the new DWP green paper on welfare reform is disappointingly predictable. “Is this a clever time to summon many of the sick, and all single mothers with children over the age of 12, to oblige them to work?” asks Polly Toynbee. Well, allowing for Ms Toynbee’s hyperbole (no-one is suggesting that the sick are forced from their beds to stack shelves at Tesco), the answer is yes – this is the right time.
As the Pre-Budget Report made very clear last week, the public finances are in a disastrous state. Last year social protection ate up £187 billion pounds – more than a third of the Government’s entire budget, and almost twice as much as the next-largest item of spending (health). This figure will rise substantially as the recession increases unemployment.
This alone demonstrates that delaying on welfare reform is not an option. But in fact any measures taken now to de-incentivise work – including an increase in benefit entitlements, as some are advocating – will only exacerbate the problem. Getting people back into work will be an essential tool for fighting the recession. Employment may result from growth, but it also stimulates growth.
Critics of the Government’s welfare reform programme suggest that its result will be that people who need benefits will not be able to get them. This isn’t true. The green paper itself says that the object of welfare reform is that “for those who are capable of working, there will be no right to a life on benefits”. The key words here are “capable”, “right” and “life”. No-one wants those who are genuinely incapable of working to be denied welfare (which is one reason why the Government’s Incapacity Benefit reforms are so essential). Similarly, no-one wants to prevent the newly unemployed from getting a helping hand while they look for work – the point is that healthy claimants should not assume that they will be entitled to state help, ad infinitum, with no strings.
Far from suggesting that those who are ill-equipped to find suitable work are flung out onto the streets, the green paper places an important emphasis on developing skills:
“We believe a lack of skills should no longer mean that people simply remain on benefit. We will take legislative powers to require those who need it to undertake training to help them get into work.”
It proposes that new Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants should have a skills screening at their initial interview. Where a need is apparent, the claimant will be given help from local skills services. At a time of economic crisis, this focus on improving workers’ skills is essential and will benefit them directly, as well as employers and the public finances.
The Government must defend these proposed reforms vigorously and push for their rapid implementation. The coming months and years will be difficult for many. But delaying welfare reform will not help those individuals who are laid off, and will serve only to hamper the UK’s return to growth and prosperity.
Dale Bassett is New Media Politics Executive at Reform
