IDS’ Same Old Deal on Benefit Reform Will Punish The Sick

Baldyman must have had to think extra hard about his new ‘radical’ proposals for people on Jobseekers Allowance, aka the dole. It seems that he thought all the way back to 1997 when new Labour launched the New Deal (1), which including mandatory 30 hour a week activity for the long term unemployed.

Whilst IDS is promising 4 weeks hard labour, New Labour splashed out over $6 billion on job creation schemes like the Environmental Task Force and subsidised wage slavery. It was eventually scrapped because it was shit. It was replaced last year by the all new Flexible New Deal, which is also now likely to be scrapped, because it’s shit.

What Iain Duncan Smith’s new scheme is likely to be called is still up in the air as are the finer details, however we can reveal exclusively on the void that it will be shit.

The first New Deal led to people sitting around in offices for 30 hours a week (2) because work placements couldn’t be found for them. It did however make a lot of people rich on the back of the poor. Meanwhile those noble Brits who were actively avoiding employment, estimated by the DWP at only around 100,000 people, blagged, scammed and skived their way through just like they have with every other piece of shit the state has foisted on them. And just like they will again.

For the other million or so on the dole, well it fucked up people’s college courses, led to depression and even abuse by private training providers (3) and wasted a lot of people’s time. One thing it didn’t do was lead to a significant number of people finding work.

Ever keen to outdo New Labour scum though, this is likely to be more shit than anything so far. The original New Deal included a training option, which although predictably shit, did provide some basic skills provision or English Language tuition for the handful who managed to blag themselves onto one of the courses.

This is the essential difference between New Labour and the current shower of scum. New Labour ground your face in the dirt if you were poor supposedly for your own good, Baldyman and his rich chums just like kicking the poor. It makes them feel better about the size of their electoral mandate.

The most truly brutal aspect of this policy is not just the unemployed who are likely to humiliated and exploited on enforced community service. That’s not good enough for the Bullingdon boys. It is the sick who will bear the brunt of this scheme.

One of the tories latest radical plans for welfare include testing everyone currently claiming Employment Support Allowance (aka the sick) with the intention of moving up to a million people onto Job Seekers Allowance. ESA is paid to those, who up until recently, had been declared by their doctors as too ill to work. However GPs, who will soon be running the NHS, are no longer considered to be clever enough to make that kind of decision and it is now left to private company Atos Origin’s computer (4).

Atos Origin are an IT company who have been paid billions to come up with a test that shows most people on benefits are skiving. These tests have been widely slated and not just by us. The Citizen’s Advice Bureau and Macmillan Cancer Support (5) are amongst some of the dangerous radicals who have condemned these tests which have led to people with serious conditions, including potentially terminal illnesses, being declared fit for work.

This declaration not only leads to a benefit cut from around £95 to £65 a week, but also means that they will become eligible for the new forced labour scheme. If they don’t find a job quick enough they will also be forced to pay anything up to twenty five quid a week of their rent due to the 10% Housing Benefit cut for people on the dole for a year. As we have warned, after essentials such as water and fuel this could leave people with a pound or two a day to live on.

So there you have it. The kick in the tail. Whilst all Baldyman plans for the unemployed is the same old deal, they will now be joined by the sick and disabled as they clean the streets and dredge canals.

That’s cancer patients, forced to do physical work and not being given enough money for food. Welcome to Hell.

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