End the warfare on welfare

By Harvey Duke

If the Welfare State can be described as a safety net, preventing sick, disabled, unemployed, and elderly people from falling into destitution; then, Iain Duncan Smith is the madman slashing huge holes in the net. To him and his partners in crime in the Coalition Government, the people who fall through holes in the net have been ‘freed’ from ‘benefits-dependency’.

For many, what this means in reality is: no job, no income, homelessness, and absolute poverty. Since 2010, the government has cut billions of pounds from welfare, whilst demonising claimants almost every day through the pages of the Daily Mail or Daily Telegraph, or by supporting vicious attack-programmes like ‘Benefits Street’. More cuts are planned – one idea floated is to deprive all young people of housing benefits.

Blitzkrieg 

Abolition of benefits and making it harder to claim are the two main strands of the government’s Blitzkrieg on the poor. The targets include the most vulnerable in society – particularly people with mental health issues, and also those with life-threatening physical conditions like cancer. More than one person in a coma or otherwise unable to move because of their medical condition has been found ‘fit for work’ by notorious private company ATOS, one of the most immoral companies of all time.

In a twist worthy of George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’, the terms ‘incapacity’ and ‘disability’ have been airbrushed out of the benefits system. Incapacity Benefit has been replaced by something called Employment Support Allowance (ESA) – harder to get, and harder to keep from getting booted off of on the most spurious grounds.

It was originally set up under Labour and has become even stricter under this government. People who are tested for this benefit by ATOS are not given medical tests. They are given ‘Work Capability Assessments’; and if they fail – they are declared ‘fit for work’ even if their GP and psychologists and consultants disagree. If they pass the unfair tests, they are deemed to have ‘Limited Capacity for Work’ and can be placed in the ‘Work Related Activity Group’, and still face the prospect of compulsory interviews to ‘help’ them get into work. If they fail to attend an interview, perhaps because they are ill or did not get a letter (which happens every day), their benefits will be brutally cut.

A minority of ESA claimants will be placed in the ‘Support Group’ – again, another Orwellian term, because – although the amount of money is slightly higher, there’s no extra support. Although this group includes the most sick and disabled people, that’s not referred to in their classification: they are deemed to have ‘Limited Capacity for Work Related Activity’. They too can be booted off in the future at the whim of some official in ATOS who chooses, as most do, to ignore medical evidence.

At no stage in this truly horrific process are the terms sickness, incapacity or disability centrally relevant to decision-making. Thousands of people have died a few weeks or months after being found ‘fit for work’ under this system. The British Medical Associations GPs annual conference voted unanimously in 2012 to oppose the unfair testing of benefits claimants. Their motion noted that the tests “have little regard to the nature or complexity of the needs of long-term sick and disabled persons”. This decision was the result of campaigns by groups like Black Triangle, and trade unionists fighting austerity cuts.

Mental health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) report: ‘Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2012’ clearly links austerity measures to worsening mental health for the world’s population. Depression alone makes up ‘11% of all years lived with disability globally.’ Yet, depression is the most common condition which people have before being cut off ESA by ATOS. Of course, it’s much worse after. It was the case up to rule changes in October 2013, that if you were cut off and appealed, you continued to get paid a low rate of benefit until your appeal was heard.

Now, you get nothing and are forced to choose between no income or the equally brutal sanctions regime of Job Seekers Allowance. The WHO report states: ‘Mental disorders frequently lead individuals and families into poverty.’ Poverty itself can also create poor mental health. The report continues: ‘The current global financial crisis provides a powerful example of a macroeconomic factor leading to cuts in funding despite a concomitant need for more health and social services because of higher rates of mental disorders and suicide…’

For frontline workers trying to help the victims of cuts, this translates into: the young woman soaking wet from begging on the streets who can’t take any more and wants help to re-start benefits stopped weeks before; or the family who were twice victims of unfair sanctions, and none of them can read or write, or, thousands and thousands of other real victims.

Sanctions 

Benefits sanctions are amongst the most brutal of all attacks on the poor. Despite the best efforts of PCS members trying to avoid applying these terrible rules, DWP managers are clearly setting targets for sanctions, and the easiest to hit are people who have mental health problems (if an ATOS attack doesn’t get you, a sniper hit of a sanction will).

People who cannot read or write or have difficulties will also be sanctioned – first for 4 weeks, then for 3 months, and then – effectively, it’s forever. Let no one be in any doubt – this is what IDS means when he talks of freeing people from welfare-dependency. A ‘hardship’ payment of Jobseekers Allowance is just £84 a fortnight; and incredibly this can be cut even lower to pay off old loans. This is not enough money to live on – after food parcels run out, all many people can do is beg or scavenge for food: in one of the richest countries in the world.

There is a desperate need to rally all workers against these attacks. PCS have taken the lead nationally in condemning welfare cuts and sanctions. No workers can guarantee that they will not be the next victim – as we can all lose our job, and we can all get sick.

The magnificent struggle against the bedroom tax gives an example of what can be done with a mass campaign which has already made gains: without the demos, sleep-outs, public meetings and political pressure there would have been no extra ‘discretionary housing payments’. With the same kind of bold campaigning – the anti-ATOS protests of Black Triangle and others are another great example – the attacks of IDS and other rich politicians against the poor can be defeated. The whole situation provides another powerful reason for the creation of a new mass workers party based on socialist ideas; a party which can raise the demand of a society free from fear.