IN A savage attack on workers, youth and disabled people, Labour party leader Ed Miliband yesterday indicated that if Labour wins the next election its main aim will be the destruction of the Welfare State.
He said that a cap on social security spending would allow a future Labour government to ‘turn the economy around’.
Directly adopting Tory policy he said that people who have worked and paid taxes for longer should get higher benefits than unemployed workers and the youth.
In a speech in east London, Miliband said that in government: ‘We will have to be laser focused on how we spend every single pound.
‘Social security spending, vital as it is, cannot be exempt from that discipline.’
He did not claim that people had lost faith in capitalism – quite the opposite.
He said that ‘people’s faith in social security has been shaken when it appears that some people get something for nothing and other people get nothing for something – no reward for the years of contribution they make. We have to tackle this too.’
He advocated pariah status for the youth and the long-term unemployed.
He also adopted the Osborne claim that the welfare system and universal benefits ‘leaves hundreds of thousands of people in long-term idleness’.
In his attack on the unemployed, Miliband advocated the withdrawal of benefits. He warned against ‘the denial of responsibility by those who could work and don’t do so. This country needs to be a nation where people who can work, do. Not a country where people who can work are on benefits.’
He warned Labour ‘would put a limit on how long anyone who can work can stay unemployed without getting and taking a job.
‘For every young man and woman who has been out of work for more than a year, we would say to every business in the country, we will pay the wages for 25 hours a week, on at least the minimum wage…
‘And because it is a compulsory jobs guarantee, young people will have an obligation to take a job after a year or lose their benefits.
‘And we will do the same for everyone over 25 unemployed for more than two years.’
Moving on to attack disabled people, he boasted: ‘Towards the end of our time in government, we did introduce tests for the Employment and Support Allowance. That was the right thing to do.’
He added that ‘these tests should be connected to a Work Programme that itself is tested on its ability to get disabled people jobs that work for them’.
He stressed: ‘I want to teach my kids that it is wrong to be idle on benefits, when you can work.’
Continuing to attack universal benefits, he stated: ‘So it doesn’t make sense to continue sending a cheque every year for Winter Fuel Allowance to the richest pensioners in the country.
‘Equally, when it comes to the decisions of the next Labour government, it won’t be our biggest priority to overturn the decisions this government has made on taking child benefit away from families earning over £50,000 a year.’
