and about time too
It’s not easy for me to live with myself when I find myself agreeing with any tory policy, let alone one which supposedly attacks one of the cornerstones of the welfare state, but I can’t help thinking that the government’s plan to impose a £26,000/year cap on household welfare benefits is the right way to go about reforming the system. Am I watching Jeremy Kyle too much or is there really a growing underclass that has never worked and never wants to work? Reform is long overdue irrespective of the transient colour of the flag flying over Parliament.
Approximately 67,000 families will lose an average of £83 a week, more than half of these being Londoners, and the policy will save an estimated £300m a year. Even for a wishy-washy liberal like myself, I can see that common sense dictates that those who don’t or won’t work should not be better off than those who do and whose taxes pay for their benefits. I realise that the, admittedly arbitrary, cap is going to cause problems for both very large families and those who live in expensive housing areas but it’s simply wrong that those who choose to live in such areas or choose to have large families, and who rely on the state, should be spared the decisions that the rest of us have to make every day. Again, at the risk of sounding like the infamous Chingford skinhead, maybe they have to get on their collective bike and move somewhere where their lifestyle can be accommodated and afforded, even if it’s the Daily Mail’s Somali family who choose to live in £8000 a month Hampstead as opposed to £80 a week Hull. Having said that, I wouldn’t wish living in Hull on anyone!
With public opinion on their side ministers won’t lose any sleep over pushing this bill through, and in reality there won’t be anything more than a token opposition to it, but I would also ask the powers-that-be to not continue ignoring our national need for a more progressive taxation system – both personal and corporate, a more equitable pay policy – from the statutory minimum wage to the excesses of the boardroom, to ensure child benefit will be paid intact and to the needy, pension protection, banking reform and regulation, and essential services being available at the point of need without discrimination. See, I’m still a socialist at heart.
