Tax wealth, scrap disability cuts
Anthony Slaughter, leader Wales Green Party
Labour’s cuts to disability support have been widely condemned by the public and charities, yet are still set to go ahead.
Let’s be clear – balancing the books off the backs of the most vulnerable, while the richest corporations and individuals continue to grow their wealth is repugnant. No civilised society should be considering it.
If the cuts go ahead, hundreds of thousands of people in Wales will see even greater hardship, with Welsh communities hit even harder thanks to greater levels of ill health and disability. According to the Bevan Foundation, we also have twice the rate of young people receiving PIP as the south east of England.
We know people receiving these benefits already face enormous hardships. 50 per cent of people claiming Universal Credit with limited capability for work don’t have enough to heat their homes, pay their bills and put food on the table. I regularly hear from people how frightened they feel about their futures should these cuts go ahead.
Austerity
Years of Conservative austerity has already devastated our social fabric, with disabled people already bearing much of the brunt. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has called on the UK Government to take “corrective measures” to reverse the effects of benefit cuts by Conservative Governments back in 2013.
Pushing people into deeper poverty will not fix the causes of people needing this help. Housing insecurity, poor quality jobs, huge wage inequality and a soaring mental health crisis are the root causes of our unhealthy society.
This is an attack on Welsh communities. So why is Welsh Labour failing to take a stand? Why isn’t a welfare system based on dignity and respect something worth fighting for? Their response has been nothing short of negligent, failing to acknowledge the severe impact they will have on disabled people in Wales.
Deeply disappointing
Last month, I wrote to the First Minister asking her to take a principled stand for disabled people. The response from Jane Hutt was deeply disappointing, merely saying that there will be consultation events happening in Wales. We don’t need consultation – we need the cuts cancelled.
Labour told us that two governments either end of the M4 would improve things for us. Instead, one government is viciously targeting vulnerable people, and the other is too cowardly to call it out.
Greens will aways support the rights of disabled people to live full and fulfilling lives, never afraid to challenge the government’s harmful words and actions.
The well-being of future generations depends on the decisions made today, and it is the government’s duty to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their circumstances, have access to the support they need to lead fulfilling lives.
We need a compassionate and equitable approach to government. We cannot punish ill people back into health, and the government’s responsibility is to support people who need it.
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Two things you don’t address in this overly simplistic anrticle Anthony: the enormous cost of wilful benefit fraud, and the Laffer curve.
Blah blah, blah. PIP fraud is practically non existent but you keep peddling those right wing lies Adrian.
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/zero-percent-fraud-rate-for-pip,-dwp-figures-show
The reason we don’t get a wealth tax is because people insist on calling it a wealth tax which is a gift to those who don’t want change. If the focus instead was on fair taxation for all it would be much harder for the Sunaks to argue their 22% effective tax rate vs the 33% paid by the Starmers is justified. Closing this gap is a de facto wealth tax that the Telegraph can’t weaponise because it’s based on fairness not envy.
How about a substantial cut in MPs and lords wages, allowances and expenses!! These people are living in the land of milk and honey and know absolutely bugger all about surviving in the real world. Wouldn’t it be nice if the general public could make up rules and cuts that only applies to politicians, lawmakers, royalty, the stinking idle rich etc instead of them ruling and robbing us all the time!! Why do we let this 5% screw us all the time?
The MPs we have are not exactly top-flight individuals. Many are only there because they wouldn’t survive in the real world. If you cut pay the standard would drop even further.
There was time when youngsters were advised to become a policeman if they were not all that bright. It seems that has changed to become a politician instead. No qualifications needed to run the country. Unbelievable.
Believe it or not there was a time when MPs did actually live in the real world.
Gone are the days when former Trade Unionists who worked on the shop floor became Labour MPs.
Gone are the days when Business people and people who served in the military became Tory MPs.
The Standard of current MPs can’t get any lower than what it already is.
There are people out there who would make much better MPs for less money than what the current crowd earn.
Being a former miner i have always voted Labour until the ast general election and i voted Plaid Starmer to me was untrustworthy he seemed slimy and sly and i was proved right there is no way he and this Labour government are socialists they are right wing. Neil Kinnock was in labour leader he said of Thatchers Tory government do not be old sick disabled or unemployed under Tories you can now say that under Labour and as for Welsh Labour they are as mad as a box of Frogs especially under Drakeford and Labour has proved when it… Read more »
I genuinely can’t believe there are many people who want to see disability benefits cut. But the rising costs projected by the OBR showed annual government spending would have risen by a further 35 billion per year by the end of the parliament. This is an incredible sum of money to find, and particularly challenging when government finances are the worst they’ve been for a long time. Every school, council and hospital would have faced budget cuts to fill the Black Hole created by additional spending on disability and incapacity benefits! A wealth tax might well be a solution but… Read more »
I wonder whether the deep rooted dependency culture suits governments in that they have created a means of controlling a part of the population while giving the rest something to moan about thus distracting them from ever thinking clearly about what should really change. I brand myself as socially conservative but find this victimization of people who genuinely need a “safety net” repugnant. Why haven’t successive governments been more assertive in their pursuit of those who are fiddling the benefits system ? At the same time they could have been working out ways of reducing and ultimately erasing all those… Read more »
I don’t know what dependency culture is. Is that an academic concept or more of a Tik Tok/ Twitter/ YouTube concept? Who is dependent on what? It sounds like a vague and not especially well thought out or researched notion. There are a few points that could be raised about who does or does not genuinely need a ‘safety net’, but a big one is that the way the British economic model has been structured since around the 1970s (arguably earlier), is that the opportunity for people who are not in tip-top, working condition has shrunk enormously. The types of… Read more »
Had you read my first sentence before writing a “response” you would pick up on my suspicions about cause and effect. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a great deal of manipulation going on in UK society in general and that it has taken root in the benefits, ill health and unemployment arenas because those areas are just ripe for fostering division and distraction.
Yeah it just feels like another canary down the mine. Gives me the sick feeling in the pit of the stomach that the West (if not global civilization) is about to collapse. It’s beyond shocking at this point. It’s expected that the people in power have no interest whatsoever in running a country and seem to be just squeezing as much out of the system for themselves as possible before breaking point occurs and the disenfranchised masses turns into the angry mob with pitch forks. Which I think is not too far away. People who support this kind of treatment… Read more »
The real question is why are we paying £30 billion a year interest on money created out of thin air during quantitative easing. This serves no purpose other than enriching private banks for doing nothing. The European Central Bank doesn’t do this and nor does the bank of Japan. That is more than enough money to reverse the counter productive Pips cuts.
Oh deary me… The UK, like most countries, pays interest on its debt because it borrows money from various sources, including bond holders, to fund daily spending. The lenders obviously charge interest…. The EU also borrows money but in a slightly different capacity. It issues bonds to finance its budget, which are then repaid by the member states. So the EU, like the UK, incurs interest on its debts, though the primary focus of the EU’s borrowing is on its budget and its member states’ contributions, rather than direct borrowing for domestic needs. Member states contribute to the EU budget, and the EU uses… Read more »
The OP isn’t talking about bonds.