Community Links

Last week I went to listen to Theresa May MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) speaking about welfare reform at an event organised by Policy Exchange. In our previous blog we referred to the latest research by Policy Exchange revealing that unemployment was closer to six million than the current official figure of 2.44 million. May argued that the majority of these people have been ‘lurking in the shadows for the past twelve years’ and that many of whom can work and do want to work but they have been ‘let down by Labour’.

Similar to our blog post she highlighted that recent mass unemployment brought on by the recession has ‘brought a new focus on our welfare system and in many ways has exposed its inadequacies’ May later went on to assure the room that a Conservative government would do more than just promise a radical reform in the run up to the general election, but they would deliver on reform because they are ‘not afraid to be honest about the state of worklessness in Britain today’.

All well and good, but how are they planning on doing this and what do they mean by worklessness in Britain today? Well firstly May told us about how they would no longer hide people away on Incapacity Benefit, instead if they are capable of returning to work then ‘they will be provided with the support they need to get them there’. Secondly we were told how the Tories ‘would not be bullied by those, often from the left who opposed change’ Thirdly, as they understand that Government cannot solve this problem alone, they are ‘committed to working with individuals, communities, the public, private and the voluntary sector to break the culture of dependency’

All still a little ambiguous to me, so I eagerly awaited the Q&A for a little prompting on a more detailed explanation of Tory policy proposals. The questions came: ‘how exactly are you going to simplify the benefits system?’, ‘what are the differences between the two party’s policies on welfare?’ ‘Will the Tories recognise the six million figure if they get into power next year?’ (Watch the video  for the responses)

 Unfortunately I left the speech, still not much clearer on what the Conservative thinking on welfare reform is. To achieve a cultural shift around worklessness, which is what May said was paramount to their reforms, understanding the root causes of inter-generational benefit dependency within families and communities is essential. Yet there is not much evidence of this happening. Whichever political party is our next government, if reforms are to work they need to address the complexity of ‘interlocking problems that no government has successfully addressed, and no pontificating can possibly help to solve’.

 They need to reach out into these communities and work with the long-term unemployed, understanding their current situations, how they have coped over decades on benefits and what economic activity is really going on in these communities. We know from Need NOT Greed that people do have a strong desire to work but are really struggling to make the transition to independence. People have taken their own small steps back into work through bits and pieces of informal work. If the system enabled them to do this formally they would. To really break this cycle of worklessness and benefit dependency we need innovative political thinking to inspire individuals and communities to help themselves: use the skills from informal work to bring people close to the labour market, understand the local economy and support its development and make the benefits system an enabling transitional process, not a preventative one. These are proposals that should be on party manifestos, vocialised at welfare reform speeches and not ‘lurking in the shadows’ for another twelve years.