by Peter Watt
I don’t know what Labour’s position on welfare reform is. I know that the Tories want to cut welfare bills and make work pay. I know this because they keep saying it and because they have just spent the last few weeks pushing changes to the welfare system that appear to confirm this. It doesn’t matter at this stage whether the policies will actually achieve this or not because at this stage what matters is that their rhetoric is matched by actions that appear consistent with their words.
But Labour has in the past also talked tough on welfare and that it would like to reduce welfare bills. The problem is that it is currently fighting a battle in which it is opposing the government’s attempts to achieve this. So Labour appears confused.
The truth about the current crop of welfare reforms will not be known for some time. Both the government and the opposition have talked up the changes brought in on April 1. The government wants the changes seen as being a turning of the corner in the ever increasing rise in welfare payments.
The opposition wants the changes to be seen as evidence of the inherent nastiness, unfairness and cynicism of the government. The truth is of course somewhat more complex. The so called “bedroom tax” for instance is probably flawed as there is not enough social housing stock for people to actually downsize to.
People will therefore either be worse off or have to move to smaller premises in the private sector which will of course cost the state more in housing benefit. But other aspects of the changes seem reasonable like the benefits cap; even if the government is crudely talking up the tiny numbers of families able to actually claim hundreds of thousands in benefits.
