Tuesday 8 January 2013

Say No To The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett writes here that Green MP Caroline Lucas will be Say No To The Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill today.
Now would be a really good time to take a step back and ask why the welfare bill has kept rising. That's been because more people are making benefit claims due to the recession and as a result of rising rents and living costs, not because of overly generous uprating. And take the longer view, it's because Britain has moved towards being a low-wage job market, with insecure, unstable employment (including the obscenity of zero-hours contracts, with business taking an increasing share of GDP in profits, while the share available to workers has fallen by around 10% over the past four decades. What we need to do in the longer term is change the direction of the British economy - bring manufacturing and food production back to Britain, restore strong, diverse local economies built around small businesses and co-operatives paying decent wages on which their staff can build lives and communities. That's a longterm project - but today we can think about the British people - the nurses, the soldiers, the teaching staff, the local government workers, and yes, the unemployed - and say no to the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill.

3 comments:

howard thomas said...

I'm not for putting my foot on the head of someone who is drowning................but benefits rose last year by circa 5% while wages rose much less.
If public sector wage rises are limited to 1% and many in the private sector will get little or nothing, then does it make sense to raise benefits by the 3% rate of inflation?
Also never forget that wage rise are taxed!

Having said that there is also a major problem in this country that the wages that are on offer in many cases will quite simply not support a family's existance.

Adrian Windisch said...

Thats just what the Tories say. But its easier to cope on an average or low wage than on JSA.

howard thomas said...

It doesn't matter who is saying it.
If its right its right.
Or should that read 'if its correct its correct'?