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Good Society > Published by Guest, February 17th 2011 at 3:05 pm

Getting by on benefits is no easy ride

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By Anjum Klair

David-Cameron-Welfare-Reform-BillIn the process of selling the Welfare Reform Bill to the electorate, the government, with enthusiastic backing from the tabloid press, has been keen to portray claiming benefits as a lifestyle choice. However, there is now a long list of objective research, covered in a new TUC report, that reveals life on benefits is no easy ride.

Benefits in the UK are already comparatively lower than other industrialised countries. Since 1980, benefits have been up-rated in line with prices alone rather than whichever was higher of earnings or prices. The net effect of the change is that the relative value of benefits has declined significantly.

If Jobseeker’s Allowance had been increased in line with earnings over the last 30 years, the rate for a single person over 25 years of age in 2007 would be £113.26 as opposed to £59.15 in that year (JSA is now £65.45). This is a situation that will be exacerbated by the Government’s decision to up-rate benefits in line with CPI rather than RPI.

As a result, the welfare expert, Peter Kenway, concluded that the current value of JSA is not sufficient for the essentials of life, such as food, bills and travel.

JSA represents roughly:

• A fifth of the actual, average expenditure of single adults;

• Half of the actual, average expenditure of single adults in the poorest households;

• Half of the government’s (income) poverty line for single adults;

• Two fifths of what a consensual view among members of the public (ratified by experts) say is needed to reach a minimum standard of living.

Numerous other studies have come to similar conclusions to Kenway.

The Government’s plans to further reduce the value of benefits in an attempt to save money is thus not only morally questionable, it will also prove a false economy.

For example, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimate that child poverty costs £25 billion each year – £12 billion is spent on dealing with the social fallout from child poverty and a further £13 billion is lost through the economic damage done by child poverty.

And, of course, benefits are an important route to the reduction of inequality. As Wilkinson and Picket show in The Spirit Level the costs to society, the economy and taxpayers rises significantly the more unequal the country.

The spending cuts of the early 1980s resulted in benefits severely losing their value. Since then a wide range of research has shown that life on benefits has become even tougher and that inequality has risen with significant costs to the taxpayer and wider society. We cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes of the early 1980s in 2011.

Unfortunately, the government seems determined to do just this.

  • http://twitter.com/meganclareprice/status/38253574697922560 Megan Price

    RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/gIY1du

  • http://twitter.com/dontmindwaiting/status/38253912091918336 jennifer roberts

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  • http://twitter.com/treeofman/status/38254602881077248 TreeOfMan

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  • http://twitter.com/aspiemum/status/38254850466643968 aspiemum

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  • http://twitter.com/justmysay/status/38259504869015552 jbw

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  • Katrina Gilman

    RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/gIY1du

  • http://twitter.com/clivemcr/status/38275236214341632 clivemcr

    RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/gIY1du

  • http://twitter.com/grannygal/status/38295021635510272 grannygal

    RT @clivemcr: RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/gIY1du

  • http://twitter.com/steve_trow/status/38342746821369856 Steve Trow

    RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/gIY1du

  • Mr. Sensible

    The government’s welfare reform program is based entirely on tabloid headlines.

  • http://twitter.com/brokenofbritain/status/38376291660992512 Broken OfBritain

    Getting by on benefits is no easy ride | Left Foot Forward http://fb.me/N2KxUNx9

  • http://twitter.com/oldmankelv/status/38376341514616832 Kelvin John Edge

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  • http://twitter.com/darkestangel31/status/38376449815740416 DarkestAngel

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  • http://twitter.com/nickbloke/status/38378267387895808 Nick H.

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  • http://twitter.com/caer23/status/38394916740534272 Caer

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  • http://twitter.com/thepeasantpoet/status/38396741745246210 —

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  • Peter

    Don’t, as they say, knock it ’til you’ve tried it!

    The “Benefits life-choice” as portrayed in the Media is nothing of the sort. Ask any Teacher, Doctor, Social Worker or anyone else who deals with today’s poor.

    The “benefits scroungers” are mostly people who are multiply impoverished in every aspect of their lives.

  • http://twitter.com/mrsrammadamma/status/38639539895533568 Tippy RammaDamma

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  • http://twitter.com/bendygirl/status/38912834935078912 BendyGirl

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  • http://twitter.com/fizzy08/status/38913261265096704 fizz

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  • http://twitter.com/leni_lava/status/38915017747345408 kirst

    RT @BendyGirl: RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride http://bit.ly/gU5EMY

  • http://twitter.com/jrf_uk/status/38923930857259009 JRF

    Getting by on benefits is no easy ride http://bit.ly/gU5EMY via @leftfootfwd

  • http://twitter.com/pinkpolitika/status/38925303933833216 pinkpolitika

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  • http://twitter.com/bhanudhir/status/38926229994352640 Bhanu Dhir

    RT @jrf_uk: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride http://bit.ly/gU5EMY via @leftfootfwd

  • http://twitter.com/vivomediauk/status/38941239831310336 vivo media

    RT @jrf_uk: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride http://bit.ly/gU5EMY via @leftfootfwd

  • http://twitter.com/dearengland/status/39298838657376256 dearengland

    RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride http://bit.ly/gU5EMY

  • Robert

    Well yes but if you have worked on the min wage benefit can sadly be a better deal.

    And of course it was Blair that kept benefits lower then needed with his 75p increase across the board, while giving themselves a 60% pay rise.

    I get IB £136, DLA £110 I pay not tax and no stamp, which is more then I get working, mind you I’d give it all up to be without pain.

    But the benefits rises from Blair’s lot was shocking, I’ve just had the Tories idea of a rise, guess what it the biggest in fourteen years.

  • http://twitter.com/churchpoverty/status/39638786291802112 ChurchActionPoverty

    Blog – Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/ij5xIX

  • http://twitter.com/ukfreenews/status/39639818145107968 UKFreeNews

    RT @churchpoverty: Blog – Getting by on benefits is no easy ride: http://bit.ly/ij5xIX

  • http://twitter.com/ravensrod/status/42142687511453696 Ferret Dave

    RT @leftfootfwd: Getting by on benefits is no easy ride http://bit.ly/gU5EMY

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/09/miliband-must-stop-spreading-myths-about-benefit-claimants/ Miliband must stop spreading myths about benefit claimants | Left Foot Forward

    [...] Getting by on benefits is no easy ride – Anjum Klair, February 17th [...]