The latest and possibly most socially divisive Universal Credit (UC) cut, is now threatening to plunge an immense number of families into various forms of poverty.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushed his “levelling-up” credentials at the Tory Party Conference. This left many people wondering how such contradiction escaped the notice of those hooray henries cheering for this Ebenezer Scrooge-like PM.
The UK Government’s controversial new strategy for economic recovery solidifies fragile class barriers and pushes the poorest families, who are already struggling, into deeper deprivation and debt. Moreover, experts have warned that child poverty was already rising before COVID-19. Poverty is closely linked with increases in parental stress, mental illness, and domestic violence.
Of course, the ‘dancing and clapping’ Tory faithful cheered their bumbling leader. However, experts predicted that many additional UK children would be removed from their families and placed in care, as a result of the increase in child poverty caused by the removal of the £20-a-week UC uplift. The impact will see countless children placed on child protection plans, with thousands more officially classified as “in need” after being transferred to social services.
Tory ideology that drives their latest slash in UC exposes their out-dated and ultra-harsh Victorian approach. It’s a discriminatory credo that can punish someone for being an addict, terrify them for having no job, or simply humiliate them for being too poor to manage. The bias behind it is not that far removed from the road to the invidious, diktat that led to the Irish Famine and subsequent holocaust, at the hands of rich British politicians and greedy landlords. Ebenezer Scrooge would have strongly approved.
Meanwhile, the Tory DWP chief joyfully danced to ‘Time of My Life’ hours before cutting 6 million Brits’ benefits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrb12yqHun8
Therese Coffey danced, jumped and pointed ecstatically as she croaked out the 1987 ballad during the Tory Conference karaoke party. How far will Boris and his doting minions go to starve the UK’s poorest families?
The heartless PM has been accused by Labour boss Keir Starmer of “turning on the poorest”, by scrapping the £20 UC uplift, as Britain eases out of the Covid crisis. Naturally, words are power yet what exactly will Mr Starmer do in material terms to combat the Tories potentially lethal, ‘Let them eat cake,’ plans against the UK’s poor?
Back in September, Southport’s Damien Moore MP asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate the Department has made of the number of claimants who will be affected by the ending of the £20 top-up in UC in autumn 2021 in Southport. Mr Moore has welcomed the controversial UC scheme being rolled out across the country from its onset. Some frantic people have also previously written to Mr Moore for help.
Frantic mum’s letter to Southport MP over Universal Credit failure
It would be interesting to hear Damien Moore’s own justification for this latest government assault on the poorest and most needy families in society. Does he have a personal opinion on this injustice, or is he just directed ‘automaton-like’ what to say by inflexible Tory policy?
The charity Citizens Advice has warned that a third of people on universal credit will end up in debt when the extra payment is removed.
Scrooge certainly would be approved.
Well known passages from Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” seem particularly appropriate right now…
“At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, … it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
Scrooge -“Are there no prisons?”
“Plenty of prisons…”
Scrooge -“And the Union workhouses.” “Are they still in operation?”
“Both very busy, sir…”
Scrooge – “Those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
Scrooge – “If they would rather die,” “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
The Joseph Rowntree Society said a collective £440million will be wiped from incomes each month going forward. Families will lose out on £80 a month – or £1,040 a year.
The society warned it will also push half a million people into poverty, including 200,000 children.
Debt collection agencies will soon be in their element as thousands struggle to pay their way this winter. Thanks to the harsh Tory cut in UC, as living costs rise, it will be a cold bleak Xmas for many of the less fortunate in our allegedly caring society.
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