In its dying days, the Tory government announced plans to hit out-of-work and unwell benefit claimants to save £3 billion a year.
Well don’t worry! That policy is living on as Labour’s work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, will stick to them. But ‘nice’ Labour cuts instead of Tory cuts. Keir Starmer, writing in the Daily Mail, has even promised not to “call people shirkers”. But for those people targeted, what difference does that make when the cost of living bites?
It seems first on the hit list is young people, whose benefits may be cracked down on if they don’t take up job offers or training. Young people today face work environments defined by poverty pay, bogus training and apprenticeships, and precarious hours.
The attacks on unemployed young people under David Cameron sent young people onto apprenticeships and training schemes that amounted to cheap labour for big businesses, with no prospects of actual jobs at the end of it.
‘Workfare’ for a new generation is not what we need. We need decent meaningful jobs and benefits we can live on. And if British capitalism in terminal decline cannot provide these, then we can’t abide with the system – or the politicians and parties that are wedded to and defend it.
