Welfare is not dead

Welfare is not dead

The picture above shows yesterday’s Daily Mirror front page, and if you like me had enough free time yesterday to read the left wing news, look at left wing blogs and laugh at left wing tweets.  You would know there was a hell of a lot of scaremongering about the death of the NHS and the welfare state in general.  I am not going to deal with NHS reform other than to say health care is still free who cares who provides it as long as it is to a high standard.  My point being is that I was frustrated with the level of misinformation floating around about the new reforms and thought I would blog about a few details of the new welfare reforms.

I will start with the bedroom tax, first thing to note about the bedroom tax is it is not a tax as it is not taking any of your own money away.  It is just taking away on average £14 of a person’s housing benefit if they have a spare room, it is also called the spare room subsidy not the bedroom tax (mainly because it is not a tax).  Also the rule has applied in the private sector for about 20 years , if you receive housing benefit for a private sector property the government does not pay for spare rooms.  In my opinion it is only logical the same should apply for public sector properties as a matter of fairness.  Also people can claim up to £400 in housing benefit, even if you factor in the spare room subsidy housing benefit is still very generous in this country.

Moving on to the universal credit, forget about the cap for a moment and just focus on the administrative cost of benefits.  Before universal credit for every one pound of benefit, it cost the government £4 in administrative costs, the universal credit will deal with these extra costs.  I am aware however very few people if any have complained about the savings in administrative costs and most of the complaints have been aimed at the benefit cap.  The cap for a couple will be £500 per week and the cap for a single adult will be £350 per week.   The cap is very close to what a person working on minimum wage would earn and to be honest why should someone out of work be able to earn more than someone in work.

The changes will be hard on some claimants but our welfare system needs reform to break the culture of dependency and replace it with a culture of responsibility.  The state welfare system is only supposed to be a safety net not a comfort blanket.  The financial crisis was caused by governments, financial institutions, and individuals living beyond their means, it has forced everyone to cut back.  Now those who claim benefit will no longer be able to live beyond their means while the state picks up the tab, the new reforms will force those claiming benefits to face the hard choices just like your average working family.  After all is it fair that benefits rise faster than public sector wages?  Is it fair that we have a welfare system that promotes irresponsibility?  Is it fair to trap people in a web of welfare?  I personally would say no.