It's cruel and it's unfair

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing particularly against any individual Tory. I confess I don’t like the fact Citizen Dave, the people’s toff talks about addressing inequalities in this country, whilst stashing away over £30m in personal wealth, but that’s another issue.

No, let’s look today at this supposed desire to address inequalities and make Britain more efficient. According to the Public Accounts Committee, the government has "no clear plan" of action for tackling errors and fraud in the welfare system.
.
More than £2bn is being spent on benefit overpayments and no progress has been made in reducing it and it is also claimed officials had not got to grips with £1.3bn in under-payments, despite the hardship these cause. All this is despite the fact that the Tories have set a target of a 25% reduction in the cost of fraud and error by 2015. With these kinds of results, they have a long way to go.

Meanwhile, the popular media like to ‘carry on’ about social security scroungers but forget that tax evasion costs this country 15-times more than welfare fraud. Tax evasion is around 3% of total tax liabilities, while benefit fraud accounts for 0.8% of total benefit expenditure.
George Osborne made political capital out of saving £4bn on the benefits bill, and was happy for those making the claims he targeted to be called lifestyle choice fraudsters and layabouts – all, supposedly, because of the need to tackle the hole in the government's deficit. But he wouldn't have needed to make these cuts if he tackled the biggest category of fraud in the UK economy – that of tax evasion.

But of course we should not expect the Tories to attack business people, or the toffs when they try and save a little bit of tax. After all, for them it is all a bit of a game – can we dodge paying the taxman by not declaring all our income?

Meanwhile, John is a carer looking after his wife with chronic epilepsy. They live in social housing and would like to move, but they can’t get a transfer. John wants to work, but needs to be around his wife 24-hours a day. He doesn’t smoke, rarely drinks and his weekly treat is buying his family a small bag of donuts from the local supermarket – a treat they all look forward to as it is the only family event they can afford.

If John were to employ a professional carer 40 hours a week to look after his wife and charge the government, it would cost between £240 and £300 per week. Unfortunately, the rules don’t allow John to do this, so he had to claim Carer’s allowance – and how much the government gives him as a ‘thank you’ for doing the job? I meagre £53 per week – paltry by any stretch of the imagination.

But do the red tops cause an outcry about John’s allowance? Do they scream and shout when an unmarried mother’s benefit fails to turn up and she has to go to court because she stole a loaf of bread to feed her young child? No, she is another one of those state scroungers that want it all on a plate.

Let this blog send out a clear message to any Tory reader. Yes there are a small number of people who rip off the system – and they should be punished. But the vast majority of claimants are decent law-abiding people who just want a chance in life. Tory plans to bring about Universal Credits will not help them today (if at all) and the Work Programme is nothing more than a repeat of Labour’s mistakes. The DWP's own research has stated that "one quarter (27%) of claimants who leave unemployment to obtain a job return to claim unemployment benefits within 13 weeks, whilst two out of five (40%) return within six months". In addition: "just over half (53%) of workers return to JSA within 3 months of taking a permanent job either because they resigned or were sacked".

It is time the government opened their eyes and saw there are very clear injustices happening in this country and they are doing nothing to resolve it.

Carers must not be ignored

It seems there is going to be an early day motion put before the House of Commons on the issue of cares and caring. It says:

That this House calls on the Government to make an early statement on its policy intentions toward carers; notes the selfless hard work and commitment displayed by the approximately six million carers in the UK; recognises the incalculable difference carers make to the lives of their loved ones; acknowledges that carers save the country an estimated £87 billion each year; and supports an immediate review of the current carers allowance level.

If this government sticks to the same patterns as previous administrations it will pay lip-service to this much underrated group. In 2005 I was asked to investigate how many young carers existed in one local borough in the UK. Before conducting the research I asked how many they thought existed and they said there were approximately 17 scattered throughout the borough, but they admitted their figures were possibly a little on the conservative side.

Over a month I (and my team) interviewed several hundred people and discovered the figure was closer to 160 young people! Pretty outrageous by any standards, but not oversurprising when you look at the lack of awareness nationally about the extent of carer numbers.

Now, I have to admire this council for their bravery, because they invited me back – this time to explore how many older carers (people over 65) existed in the borough, with a responsibility for looking after someone with a learning difficulty. Again their figures were ridiculously under the mark and the actual number was closer to 9 times greater than the one they first indicated.

What this means in practice is that services are seriously underfunded and result in carers being unable to access respite facilities, support groups, or other aids that could make their own lives so much easier. For example, I wonder how many young carers are sitting GCSEs or AS/ A2 level examinations right now, whilst worrying about the disabled parent they left behind at home before walking to school or college. I certainly know of one young man who will soon sit an exam and before leaving home will cook breakfast for his mother, get her up from bed and settled downstairs. Then, after the exam he will rush to the local supermarket, buy the groceries and then rush home by lunch-time in order to get his mother some lunch.

A pat on the back is no longer enough for these people – they need recognition, support and financial assistance. As a matter of principle, the Labour Party should make the issue of carers and caring a central issue in it’s social welfare campaign, with policies reflecting the urgent need to establish adequate respite facilities for all carers and for them to have up to 12-weeks respite a year; an income or welfare benefit that is, at least, consistent with the statutory minimum wage; and, fully-funded carer support groups and young carer groups, with sufficient staffing to support carers in a manner appropriate to their needs and wishes.

A new Labour leader will hopefully promote a socialist vision of our society – this cannot be achieved if we ignore the needs of our carers.