THOUSANDS more working-class families are going to their local Citizen Advice Bureau because of the effects of unemployment, debts, threatened loss of homes and benefit cuts imposed by the Tory-Lib Dem government.
The Citizen Advice Bureaux (CAB) reported yesterday that, across England and Wales, it dealt with 6% more benefits problems from April to June 2010, compared with the same period last year.
CAB said that the overall rise in welfare benefits enquiries was mainly due to large increases in advice on sickness and disability benefits. The biggest leap in enquiries concerned the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) – Enquiries rose by 77%, from 25,528 problems in 2009 compared with 45,257 this year.
The ESA was brought in by the Labour Government in October 2008, replacing Incapacity Benefit and Income Support paid on incapacity grounds. The stringent rules imposed on those claiming ESA are being made even more draconian by Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
Gillian Guy, Chief Executive at the CAB, said: ‘We have previously published reports expressing our concern about poor knowledge of ESA rules among Jobcentre Plus and DWP medical staff, inadequate administration systems and the crude nature of the work capability assessment.
‘This autumn, claimants on the old Incapacity Benefit will switch to ESA. With so many flaws in the current system we predict the number of people who come to us for advice on this benefit will only continue to increase.’
The CAB reports that there were ‘significant increases in enquiries about most priority debts, which are those where the consequences of not paying are most serious’. Rent arrears debts to private landlords rose 18%, from 5,628 in 2009 to 6,621 in 2010.
CAB chief Guy commented that, ‘we continue to see very significant increases in problems with priority debts, those where the consequences of non-payment could result in losing your home, or a court ordering a bailiff to take your goods, for example.
‘Recent budget measures will have a significant impact on vulnerable households, and with the impending public sector job cuts we expect to see a new wave of people seeking advice about job loss and related benefits and the impact this has on their ability to repay debt.’
The CAB highlights the impact of hundreds of thousands of public sector workers being sacked and thousands of evictions resulting from not being able to make mortgage repayments or pay rent, plus the slashing of benefits for the unemployed.
This report and the CAB’s projections of future problems comes a day after the National Housing Federation, representing housing associations supplying ‘social housing’, warned that one million people on low incomes are at risk of losing their homes as a result of the government’s plans to cut housing benefits.
Workers in work and organised in trade unions will regard these reports as a warning, a call to arms to fight for every job, defeat pay cuts, stop the privatisation of the NHS and education, and defend the Welfare State.
Already groups of workers in both the public and private sectors have taken up this struggle, like the London firefighters and BA cabin crew. Every trade unionist must ensure that their union joins this struggle. It is the fight of every worker and one for a future for youth.
This fight must be taken to the TUC Conference in Manchester. Join the News Line-All Trades Union Alliance lobby on Monday September 13! (see advert page 2)
Every trade union leader, who opposes such a struggle and is collaborating with the employers and the Tory-Lib Dem regime, must be replaced by leaders who will organise this fight.
The likes of TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, who invited Tory premier David Cameron to its conference, and Unite’s Tony Woodley, who is refusing to carry out a mandate for strike action at BA, must be kicked out.
Only the mobilisation of the industrial and political strength of the whole trade union movement in a general strike can get rid of Cameron’s counter-revolutionary regime. It must be replaced by a workers government that will implement socialist policies.
