Just to recommend David Freud’s comment piece in the Times today. You’ll read few clearer explications of the welfare dependency problem and of the reforms enshrined in today’s White Paper. In spite of Freud’s role as a government adviser, he even hints at one of the more malignant Brownies*: the willful shifting of claimants off JobSeekers’ Allowance and on to incapacity benefit (“…about 2.6 million still on incapacity benefit. In origin this phenomenon no doubt reflected government massaging of the unemployment figures.”)
In terms of potential, at least, the welfare reform plan being announced today is one of the more important political events of the past decade. There is so much it could improve: from the lives of those in sink estates to the health of the macro-economy. But there are still a couple of major questions hovering over it.
The first is one of practicability: I, for one, am confident that welfare reform can be introduced during a downturn, but we still need to hear more about whether, say, private companies remain keen to get involved in welfare-to-work schemes.
The second question is one of political will: already, the rumblings are that Brown is using this just to pick a fight with the left of the party; that a true commitment to welfare reform may not exist in No.10. Ever since Frank Field was tasked with “thinking the unthinkable”, there have been so may false starts on welfare reform. We should hope that’s not the case this time around.
*UPDATE: See my comment below on this.
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