A chance for reform
by Max Wind-Cowie
Jenni Russel has written a brilliant piece in today’s Guardian, outlining just how unrealistic and inflexible our welfare system has become. She is absolutely right that a benefits framework that ignores the uncertainties of the modern labour market is flawed. It is simply no longer the case that finding a job, and being good at that job, is enough to guarantee your employment for the rest of your working life. Yet this remains the premise for our approach to unemployment.
Whichever party forms the next Government you can guarantee that welfare reform will form part of their legislative programme. The Progressive Conservatism Project has called for greater flexibility – both in the types of support available and in the way in which it is provided – in our report Recapitalising the poor. Not everyone will agree with our specific proposals, and there are many other important ideas for building a flexible and effective welfare system, but we could all do a lot worse than to take Jenni’s article as the clarion call for real reform. As the recession bites, and unemployment escalates, we will be increasingly compelled to make the welfare system work for the millions who, through no fault of their own, find themselves out of work. Benefits passports, start-up grants for small businesses and effective time-banking systems could all offer innovative means of helping people to find meaningful uses for their time and their skills – without becoming trapped in welfare dependency. For all the horrors of full-scale downturn there are opportunities too, it’s imperative that Government takes them.
Jonty Olliff-Cooper
Thank you Mike. Keen to continue the conversation on hello@demos.co.uk
Robert
I think I must have argued this many times, Labour main hit on welfare is of course the disabled people like myself.
I get IB now I'll have another two medicals to go through, I already have two every three years.
I broke my back cutting my spinal cord I've no bowel or bladder function.
Labour has told me a number of times this does not mean you cannot work, it might mean I was told you cannot find a Job, but the extra money your getting for being disabled is to much, you should be getting JSA.
Welfare reforms is not about getting me back to work, it's about saving £97 billion on DLA, how is this, well Labour are now putting out a green paper on this now. Thats Disability living allowance.
The big question has always been, why would anyone want to employ me with all my problems, when they can employ somebody from Poland or somebody without my problems.
Labour has looked at the American model removed all the cost the yanks pay and said that will do us.
I'd love to work but doing what, each time I go to the job center they ask what would you like to do, and then I'm told they will get back to me when they get something. but you never ever hear anymore.
How do you get 2 million disabled people back to work, god knows.
it's easy to move them to JSA though and just leave them
How do you get one million severely disabled back to work, well you hope that firms will have a social conscience sadly not many do in down turns
Andrew Preston
Jenni Russel's article is competent rather than brilliant, and is a slightly burnished version of what has floated around for ever. I'm unsurprised that Oliffe-Cooper favours discussion by private email rather than open discussion. Here are the comments on Denmarks flexicurity taken directly from Wikipaedia....
" The high benefits and training provision that this system requires also require a higher burden of taxation upon the higher earning members of the society. Denmark currently has the highest total taxation of any country in the world, but the Danes have been consistently ranked as the happiest nation on Earth."
I'd certainly be really, really interested what kind of a snow-job the so-called progressive conservatives would put on this..... tax the rich till they squeak..., raise benefits, pour money into the system.....
Bearing in mind that much of the 'thinking' of 'progressive conservatism' is based on the premise that 'the poor' are the problem , rather than undergoing any real examination of their own attitudes.... the crapjob, macjob, contract economy..., if it was up to conservatism there would not even be a minimum wage.
Real changes cost money, not posturing, and secret discussions to create scenarios which enable you to get yourselves into power.
The problem is that, as any reasonably intelligent person knows, what underlies the new generation of conservatives are rather a lot of loons ..... and nasty ones.
Max Wind-Cowie
Andrew, thank you for your comment. I understand that you are skeptical about progressive conservatism but I do think it's rather unfair to say that we believe 'the poor are the problem'. On the contrary, we believe that poverty is a problem - and a pressing one at that. We welcome ideas that can help to solve that problem, wherever they come from. Debate and dialogue are important to shaping ideas and policy and I think it would be self-defeating to brand anyone who engages in that debate a 'loon'.
Mike
Good ideas. This progressive conservative project at demos is actually pretty constructive and banging out some fairly progressive ideas. I've never been able to say that about a conservative party policies before. The timebank idea is great, like the old person young person timebank being proposed by labour.
I would have thought Denmark's flexicurity could teach the UK a lot of lessons about how to build flexible labour markets with security for workers