‘WE WANT the Tories Out!’ They are planning billions more savage cuts in benefits and services’ said Scott Dore, Workers Revolutionary Party general election candidate for Ealing Central and Acton yesterday.
‘It came out today that civil servants have drawn up plans for the next government to bring in what they admit are very highly, or extremely controversial, cuts in welfare spending, attacking single mums, the poorest and the most needy. They are planning to abolish maternity pay, ban under-25s from claiming incapacity benefit or housing benefit, increase the Bedroom Tax and bring in stricter tests for disabled benefits.
‘It’s more important than ever to bring down this Tory government. But Labour is also planning more cuts and it will not be accepted by the working class. We’ve had tremendous support for our campaign during this election, but it’s more important than ever to bring this Tory government down to go forward to a workers government that will carry out socialist policies and have a socialist planned economy that will benefit everyone.’
Acton mum Joy Treleven, a former health worker who is now a student, was out campaigning with Scott yesterday. She said: ‘They’re planning to increase the Bedroom Tax, hitting the poorest hardest. And taking away maternity pay is disgusting.
‘I’m voting for Scott because of his policies, especially for students – scrap fees. They are suppressing the education of the young generation. We need a revolution.’
‘These cuts would tear apart the fabric of the social safety net that any of us might need if we lose our job or fall seriously ill,’ said TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady yesterday. She was responding to leaked DWP documents spelling out even more savage cuts in welfare following today’s election.
O’Grady continued: ‘The Conservative proposals on social security are arbitrary, cruel and don’t deal with the real problems. The only fair and sustainable way to manage spending on social security is through living wages, fair rents and full employment.’
A PCS spokesman told News Line: ‘The last government caused misery for sick, disabled and unemployed people. The next government must reverse these cuts and provide the support they need and deserve.’
The cuts proposed by officials at the Department for Work and Pensions include abolishing statutory maternity pay, barring under-25s from claiming incapacity benefit or housing benefit and increasing the bedroom tax in certain cases. The DWP was responding to concerns that the coalition’s failure to cut enough spending on key benefits would leave the next government ‘vulnerable to a breach’ of the welfare spending cap that MPs passed by 520 votes to 22 last year.
DWP officials drew up what one described as a ‘very, highly or extremely controversial’ list of cuts to benefits in response to warnings that the next government would struggle to keep welfare spending below a legal cap of about £120bn a year.
Options laid out in the DWP documents include:
• Freezing all welfare benefits at the current level
• Making employers contribute more to the cost of statutory maternity pay – or as an alternative abolishing it entirely.
• Limiting welfare payments by family size.
• Forcing single parents on income support to seek work when their youngest child reaches the age of three (currently five).
• Making it harder for sick people to claim state aid when they are out of work by introducing ‘stricter’ fit-for-work tests and/or tighter limits on eligibility.
• Increasing the bedroom tax on certain categories of renters.
• Barring under-25s from claiming incapacity benefit or housing benefit.
