Workers' Liberty

David Cameron has launched a fresh offensive against single parents, unemployed and disabled people with plans to force them into work. The Tory leader’s proposals include making the unemployed participate in “community work”, penalties for those who turn down “reasonable” job offers and cutting the number of people receiving incapacity benefit by 600,000 over the next five years.

By Jill Mountford

David Freud’s a banker, a big banker and, it goes without saying, he’s very wealthy. So the Government (the Department of Work and Pensions) chose him to write an “independent” report on welfare reform, him being independent and all — entitled “Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity”.

By Ruben Lomas

Foundation Hospitals, handing over schools to businesses, giving employers control of curricula in Further Education — no corner of the public sector or welfare state is safe from the Blairite project of subordinating every aspect of public life to the needs and drives of the market.

by Matthew Thompson, Stockport DWP PCS Branch Secretary (personal capacity)

You might think that people claiming benefits would want to be able to speak to someone in a local office about their case. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) however claims that claimants now prefer to deal with call centres and fill out forms online.

By David Broder

The Civil Partnership Act coming in to force on 5 December comes with the pretensions of offering gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples.

by Charlie McDonald, local PCS branch secretary

Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members working in dole offices and jobcentres in London have voted for a series of strikes. The first may take place on 16 November.

Charlie McDonald, PCS Department of Work and Pensions East London branch secretary

Public and Commercial Services Union members working in Jobcentres and dole offices in London have voted for a series of strikes. The first is due to take place on 16 November.

Charlie McDonald, PCSU DWP East London branch secretary

Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members working in jobcentres and dole offices in London have voted for a series of strikes. The first strike is due to take place on 16th November.

The Government is planning a new crackdown on unemployed people.

The details of the proposals, described by Gordon Brown as "new rights matched by new responsibilities", have yet to be revealed. The drive is aimed at people who are, in the Government's view, "persistent offenders" - that is the long-term unemployed, many of whom are, apparently, failing to go on the Government's New Deal.

The rebellion by 61 Labour MPs on 10 December against the government’s cuts in lone parent benefit marks a decisive change in the political situation. The overwhelming majority of Labour’s core working-class supporters see the cuts as unjustifiable. “We didn’t vote for this!” sums up their mood. Even amongst those sections of the middle class who were supposed to be uniquely attracted to Blair, the cuts have produced a level of opposition that can only be explained by recognising the enduring strength of those collectivist values the spin-doctors told us had been abolished by Thatcherism.

The most important political event in the labour movement since the General Election is the revolt of 61 Labour MPs on 10 December against the government decision to cut benefits for single parents and their children, followed by the open denunciation of the Blair leadership by Labour MEPs Ken Coates and Hugh Kerr. Given the neo-Stalinist structure and atmosphere in New Labour’s parliamentary party, this revolt is bigger, and has come earlier in the life of this government, than we had dared hope.

Unbudged by the rebellion of 61 Labour MPs against the government's cuts in one-parent benefits, New Labour ministers are now refusing to deny reports that they will make "substantial savings" in benefits for the disabled. And their plans for NHS spending indicate a 1.5% real cut in Health Service resources next year.

Over 100 Labour MPs have come out against the New Labour government's plans to cut benefit for single parents.

The Welfare State Network organised a lobby of Harriet Harman, the minister responsible, on Tuesday 25th. It is the first high-profile show of opposition to the Blair regime's pale-Tory policies, and every trade unionist and socialist must hope it pushes the government into backing down on its plan to impoverish further many of those who are already most hard-pressed.