All Campaigns subcategories:
NHS keywords:
Mental health
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Search site for keywords: Universal Credit - Housing - Welfare - General election - Workers - Wages - Tories - Benefits - Mental health - Rents - Cuts - Claimants - Housing benefit
Housing arrears double, suicide risk soars - scrap Universal Credit!
Cut tax scroungers, not benefits, photo by Socialist Party Wales (Click to enlarge)
General election now to reverse welfare attacks
Corinthia Ward, Birmingham Central Socialist Party
Universal Credit claimants are being pushed into serious mental health problems, with some even considering suicide, according to public health researchers in the North East.
Housing workers in Gateshead have even had suicide prevention training. Meanwhile, council tenants on Universal Credit have over double the rent arrears of those still on old-style housing benefit, according to BBC Panorama.
Socialists have opposed this disastrous welfare system - which lumps benefits together while reducing and delaying them - right from the start.
The Tory government, not wanting yet another humiliating u-turn on an unpopular and disastrous idea, put £2.7 billion into 'tweaking' the scheme in the October Budget. This money could have been much better used to fund actual welfare payments, by scrapping Universal Credit altogether.
The fact the Tories went ahead with pushing through Universal Credit shows their complete disregard for the working class and poor.
Missed or wrongly calculated payments take up to seven weeks to come through - leaving some families nothing but £30 a month to live on after rent. This results in many having to use foodbanks while waiting weeks for the money they're owed to come through!
Uncertainty over bill payments, and having to choose between food or a roof over your head, is pushing more people to the brink, causing anxiety and depression.
Yes, there are the poorest in society, many unable to work due to illness or disability. But also big numbers of those in work who, because of low wages and the high cost of living, are forced to rely on benefits to get by.
With a million people on Universal Credit so far - expected to rise to eight million if fully rolled out - the situation will only get more severe.
What we need is Corbyn to demand that Universal Credit be completely scrapped, and those already left short be paid what they are owed immediately. We need all cuts to welfare reversed, a £10-an-hour minimum wage as a step towards a real living wage, the end of zero-hour contracts, and caps on rents.
The Tories are on their last legs - Corbyn and the union leaders can mobilise workers to push them out. Workers should not be subsidising bosses' poverty wages and landlords' overpriced housing!
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999