18/03/2015
This is probably the most important General Election since 1945. Ni Bevan's brainchild of quality education for all; health care for all and a welfare system which supports the sick and disabled. Ni Bevan introduced these. Don't let David Cameron take them away One way to ensure a Labour victory is by mobilising benefit claimants. For those of you who do not realise, severely sick and severely disabled claimants are now required to sign on. It is the madness of the asylum to assume that the treatment of benefit claimants don't affect working people THEY DO!.
We have part time zero hours poorly paid workers who have to claim Housing Benefit to survive. The rules now mean that claimants claiming Housing Benefit can be sanctioned for up to 3 years, losing the rent, their home and probably any semblance of life. Homelessness will be rife amongst our members. As well as food banks there will be night shelters for children and their parents, amongst other things will become the norm. These sanctioned will be applied whereby those claimants will have their Housing Benefit if renting and Housing Costs if mortgaged are deemed by the DWP as "Not doing enough to get more hours and/or a better job and/or have hit hard times.
Don't be fooled for one minute into believing Old Age Pension(SRP) is not a benefit. It is its paid out of the welfare budget! Osborne has said he is going to cut welfare by a further 600 billion during the next parliament. This can only be achieved by cutting pensions. Even if he cut benefits he has already cut to nothing. This would save a fraction only, of this. So Old Age Pensions(SRP) is the only benefit left he can cut to achieve the cuts he requires in the welfare budget. SRP is by far the greatest portion of the welfare budget.
From insider information, this will be sold as those pensioners who have occupation pensions do not need the State Retirement Pension(SRP). It is only fair that pensioners should contribute, like others to the austerity. The Tories intend to means test the pension with a small disregard. For example, a pensioner who gets say £1200.00 occupational pension. Under the present rules will get her state pension of £800.00 per month. However, under the new rules she will lose all but £200.00(the disregard) of her state pension. Thus she will be £600.00 a month worse off! Its all in the wording.
This is how the Tories can make the promise that all pensioners will get £140.00. However, they never said how this would be made up. Its all in the words. Recently, the Tories introduced Personal Independence Payments(PIP) to replace Disability Living Allowance for severely disabled people. At the time Ian Duncan Smith announced that no pensioners over 65 years of age will be required to have their benefit reviewed and no doubt reduced or taken away altogether! However, he omitted a small three letter word after 65 NOW. Therefore, any claimants under the age of 65 on 08.042013 who are 65 now or 12 months younger still run the risk of losing their benefit.
Homelessness, destitution and starvation is now the punishment of the poor for being poor are being made to include: to pay for the tax cuts and corruption of the rich. If the Tories win in May watch out all employees. Employers will learn very quickly that they can treat workers abysmally and get away with it because disabled and abled bodied employees will no longer have the safety net of a benefits system.
In Liverpool the community branch which I am proud to be a member of is putting on a course called "Dealing with Destitution". This should be going out to all nationally.
Getting people out to vote Labour is the only way to prevent this. Do not sit on your laurels. You will pay for it! Do not let the Tories in by the back door as they got into Government in 2010.
