By Aaron Barbour
There is a lot in the news this week about the benefits system,
here are a few links to a selection of press articles:
‘Welfare for All’
www.compassonline.org.uk/campaigns/campaign.asp?n=3451#post
Social Security Advisory Committee’s response to the welfare reform green paper
www.ssac.org.uk/pdf/finalresponse.pdf
Britain’s Jobless: Who cares?
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7736303.stm
Case study of multiple complex problems faced by “workless” families from the BBC website
www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7746174.stm
Comment about the Welfare-to-Work targets
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/02/welfare-employment-targets
Comment about welfare policy need to change in times of recession
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/02/welfare-policy
What have you read? Can you suggest any other interesting articles to add to the list?
Hi Maeve
I came across the Community Links website through a CPAG posting about the Community Allowance and was completely impressed by this idea ,as a welfare rights adviser I have come across so many people simply wanting to live a decent and honourable existence and it angers me to see how claimants are treated ..the Community Allowance is a simple (as all the best ideas are) and an excellent solution to the problem of undeclared and necessary work.
I am hopeful that it will be possible for the idea of the Community Allowance to be used to improve the lives of people after all we live in a world where there are vast differences between income and to help the poorest people improve their income and life chances would redress this imbalance to some extent.
Robina
I completely agree with Robina and that does not appear to be what the white paper consists of unfortunately, although there is a lot of enphasis for support, the proposals are not practical and are not hloistic enough. People want the reform, it is well overdue but there needs to be changes in benefit laws to remove the barriers to employment which currently keep people in fear of coming off benefits and into employment. We need to introduce more incentives to encourage progression and meanwhile there needs to be a guarentee that people will not fall into poverty in this transition, what are your thoughts?
I’ve worked in the area of Welfare Rights for many years and I do agree there is need for change but there is a real need to treat claimants with respect and ensure that there particular needs are addressed if you are going to try to move them into work.
I am a lone parent and could only move into work when my child was young because I had support from my family and because I recognised the need to try to gain skills as soon as I was able to do so and finally because I was lucky enough to have been able to study for a degree.
So there need to be sufficient resources to address these issues you cannot have half baked support it has to be robust and long term.
Welfare reform is well overdue but consult with people around what is actually needed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7764369.stm