The principle of the workhouse

5/07/2009 03:07:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 2 Comments

"the principle underlying welfare reform is the principle of the workhouse... you make claiming benefit so degrading and so difficult that people don't want to do it.... that was the principle of the workhouse and that is the principle that the very lovely James Purnell is introducing into welfare"
Diane Abbott 'This Week' 4/12/08

As, the 'very unlovely' James Purnell is too busy claiming for his weekly grocery bill , rent and cleaners to deal with the state he left his flat in, let alone comment about his hypocrisy, I'm directing you to this post by Brainblogger which is a poignant insight into the impact of such reforms upon the lives of disabled claimants.

Income Support rate for single adult over 25: £64.30 per week.
Carer's Allowance : £53.10 per week

2 comments:

Andy said...

James Purnell is a bum faced little squit with a haircut straight out of the 'Sweeney'.

The problem as I see it is the Labour scored a lot of political points dealing with 'traditional' unemployment early on but their big business paymasters don't particularly like low unemployment, after all it skews the employment market in favour of the employee.

So Labour had to find a new way to get the employment market back to the advantage of the employers and their way of doing it has been to put lots of new pressures on ill and disabled people to find work. Get a banker (irony alert) to write a report that 2/3 of people on IB can work and dress it up as 'not abandoning' the disabled and you're there.

I take it you saw the more recent revelations about his expenses claims where he claimed the full amount of rent (and some months more than that) even though his partner was paying half? Compare that with the treatment of a Housing Benefit claimant where a couple's income would be assessed jointly...

He really is 'first up against the wall' material.

Robert said...

OK whom do we vote for, thats the next question thats coming, who do we vote for, Labour are saying this and that and we are rightly bitter, the Tories are saying except for cancer benefits should be time limited, they also say we should have one benefit which of course would be JSA. they also believe in insurance private insurance.

Labours bad but my god imagine two years of benefits and back to work or the work house.