Wednesday 26 June 2013

Where are we now?

Behind the government's rhetoric, things aren't getting better for working people. They’re getting much, much worse.

Let’s take welfare reform. The challenge for welfare reformers is not whether you can dream a dream. It’s whether you can deliver. For all their tough talk about "welfare reform", the reality is that the benefits bill is rising by £20bn more than planned because David Cameron is doing nothing to address the long-term drivers of social security spending. And right now the welfare revolution we were promised is simply falling apart.

Last year, Norman Tebbit attacked the government’s "abiding sin" of simply seeming "unable to manage its affairs competently". A year on, things are not getting better for working people. They’re getting much, much worse.

Labour is proposing a radical alternative. A 'triple lock' on welfare spending with an overall cap on the budget, a household benefit cap and a limit of two years to the time you can spend on the dole. But we’ll back this with a jobs guarantee that will channel investment into support for private sector jobs for young people and the long-term unemployed. Labour councils all over Britain are trialling the idea and it is proving an incredible success. And we’ll move to put the something for something back into social security with extra help to find work for those who have cared for others or paid in for a lifetime.

But would they carry on in the same direction if they were the government?

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