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From The Socialist newspaper, 26 June 2019
It's official - Universal Credit forces women into prostitution
PCS has a clear demand for the replacement of Universal Credit with a fully resourced, supportive social security system, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
A PCS union member in the DWP
A Tory minister has been forced to retract an official statement from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) that there was no link between Universal Credit policies with people being pushed to go into to the sex trade to survive.
Will Quince, the minister for family support, claims to have been shocked by the evidence that has been supplied to the Social Security Select Committee that contradicted the official departmental line.
But this is not just an unfortunate impact. It is part of the whole design of the Tory welfare cuts to push working class people into poverty. And some women driven further into poverty are forced into prostitution to make ends meet.
This is another reason that we need to mobilise to defeat these attacks as no one should be forced into the sex trade to survive.
The Government was already slammed in a UN report in May which recommended that the impact of austerity on vulnerable groups should be examined to restore a social security safety net. This included specific mention of reversing cuts such as the two-child payment limit, and the five-week waiting period for universal credit.
Claimants who had been forced into the sex trade especially cited the minimum five-week wait for Universal Credit as a factor forcing them into prostitution as well as the cuts in the level of the benefit.
This UN report had also highlighted that austerity disproportionately hits women and especially single parents. It is clear that the current welfare policies are driving people further into poverty and many especially women are being forced into desperate measures to survive and feed their kids.
PCS has clear demands to scrap all the punitive measures that have been brought into the benefit system and for the replacement of Universal Credit with a fully resourced, supportive social security system.
PCS members are active in the TUC campaign to Stop and Scrap Universal Credit at local level.
PCS members have a key role in formulating the demands of what sort of social security system we want to deliver and what is needed to lift working-class people out of poverty to put an end to this barbaric scourge.
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In The Socialist 26 June 2019:
Climate change
How can we build workers' action to support the climate strikes?
Climate change protests reach important stage
Socialist Party news and analysis
No to Boris, no to Hunt: general election now
Universal Credit forces women into prostitution
Charging scandal in Warrington and Halton NHS Trust
Union action can tackle 58% working poverty rate
Unsafe, unaffordable housing scandal
International socialist news and analysis
Ratcheting up of Iran-US tensions
Workplace news and analysis
Coordinate the fightback! Come to the 2019 NSSN conference
Unions and campaigners discuss fight to end education crisis
Striking workers defy the race to the bottom at Glasgow and Aberdeen airports
Bridgend NSSN meeting determined to fight for Ford workers
Unison conference: Socialist Party members call for anti-cuts fight and build left challenge
Salisbury South Western Rail strikers determined
Midlands mental health workers walk out against privatisation
Notts college contract dispute
Colloids workers strike to support sacked rep
Harrogate academy workers strike against cuts
Socialist history
35th anniversary of the Battle of Orgreave
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Angry Barking fire victims demand action from landlords and authorities
Hull trade union festival a great success
Stop the Devon and Somerset fire service cuts
Opinion
Opinion: capitalism's Fukushima showed same recklessness as Stalinism's Chernobyl
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