How many times have we heard government ministers statecoldly: “A life on benefits is no longer an option.” Employment minister Chris Grayling joined that club thisweek. “Say goodbye to a life on benefits,” he enthused, as if he were plugging a remedyfor embarrassing itching. He followed this with a more predictable comment that thosein “genuine [...]
Lucky for the coalition that Libya is dominating the newsthat it was able to slip in a major change to social policy that erodes furtherthe miserable living standards of the lowest of low-income families. As Community Care reported, welfare minister Steve Webb (pictured) hasannounced a clampdown on Social Fund crisis loans from April. Intended for people [...]
If it can be argued that the government’s child benefit capis targeted at better-off households, the same cannot be said of any cuts tothe emergency fuel top-up payments made to pensioners and low-income families during coldsnaps.
A solemn face for solemn times. And few come moresolemn than the funereal visage of Ed Miliband – a fitting contrast with brotherDavid, whose perma-grin suggests he spends too much time in too many weddingpictures.
So desperate was chancellor George Osborne to appear toughon scroungers, tough on the causes of scrounging, that his welfare reforms becamewedged halfway between the red devil and the Tory blue sea.
I blame man-of-the-moment Nick Clegg. The Lib Dems’ leader started it by calling calling Gordon Brown a “desperate politician”. He could equally have levelled that charge against David Cameron, because two of the Conservatives’ campaign moves this week have the mark of the last-chance saloon.
Of course it is laudable that the government wants to move one million people from benefits to employment by 2015. Of course there are people whowant to milk the system. Of course “something should be done”.
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