Friday 04 January 2013
Voters 'brainwashed by Tory welfare myths' (Independent)
"Survey shows public ignorance of the level of benefits and who gets them
Ministers were accused last night of demonising benefits claimants in an attempt to justify their controversial decision to increase most state handouts by less than inflation.
Polling commissioned by the Trades Union Congress suggests that a campaign by Tory ministers is turning voters against claimants – but only because the public is being fed "myths" about those who rely on benefits.
The criticism comes before a crunch Commons vote next Tuesday on the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, which will ensure that most benefits and tax credits will rise by only one per cent for the next three years. Labour, which will vote against the measure, will try today to answer Tory claims that it is "soft" on scroungers by announcing a "tough love" plan to force adults who have been out of work for more than two years to take up a government "job guarantee" or lose their benefits."
Editorial: Who said the nasty party had gone away? (Independent)
Friday 4 January 2013
Labour proposes 'tough but fair' jobs and welfare scheme (Guardian)
Labour urges temporary jobs for long-term unemployed (BBC)
Making work pay: Balls announces compulsory jobs guarantee for long-term unemployed (LFF)
Job Guarantees give hope to long-term unemployed (LFF)
Labour's job guarantee (PH)
Labour revisits old welfare ghosts with its jobs guarantee (Spectator)
The Trouble with a Job Guarantee
Ed Balls: Britain needs real welfare reform that is tough, fair and that works
Working reforms will introduce job guarantee plan for long-term claimants over 25, announces Ed Balls
"Shadow chancellor Ed Balls says the £1bn jobs subsidy would be linked to a cut in tax relief for higher earners' pensions. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer
Labour will move to protect itself from the politically damaging charge that it is soft on welfare claimants, by proposing that every adult aged over 25 and out of work for more than two years should be obliged to take up a government-provided job for six months, or lose benefits.
The "compulsory work or lose benefits" announcement by the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, and the shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne, comes ahead of what threatens to be a fraught second reading debate on Tuesday over Labour's refusal to back a government bill restricting increases in benefits and tax credits to 1% a year for the next three years – which is likely to represent a 4% cut in real terms."
Friday, 4 January 2013
Back to the future?
"On many forums, including the comments on newspaper articles, it has become commonplace for people to forecast a return to the workhouse. As a historian, in an amateur sort of way, I have begun to see genuine parallels between the plans and attitudes of the current governing classes and the climate of opinion which brought about the Poor Laws of 1834.".
January 9th, 2013
Labour’s real guarantee: Workfare
"Last week saw the Labour Party announce its own form of workfare: the Job Guarantee. Labour, who introduced workfare and welfare reform into the UK whilst in government, now guarantees a number of things: It guarantees that yet again politicians will give billions of taxpayers’ money to subsidise big private businesses – probably the likes of failing and government contract reliant A4E, and workfare-users ASDA – helping them to drive up their profit margins. It guarantees to further undermine real job vacancies as companies replace job roles with subsidised compulsory short-term placements."
Labour’s Job Plans, Concerns After Some Serious Thought
Isn’t it time Labour’s plan for jobs and growth was different from the Coalition’s?
Nigel
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