Reblogged from Kate Belgrave:
No
surprise at all this weekend to find a
well-heeled politico like Rachel Reeves peddling the notion that people who have
the least owe society the most – and must be made to pay it. Absolutely
everyone who is anyone is on that bandwagon now. Wherever you look (and I look
in lots of places), you find variations on the Reeves theme: that people who
don’t have money could and should rise to the costs and hardships imposed on
them by a vicious ruling elite.
And here is an example. I’ve been wanting to write something on this one for
a while.
A month or so ago,
someone sent me a link to this story. It’s a story about South Liverpool
Homes’ “radical” (their funky word) plan to cap the bedroom tax for SLH bedroom
tax tenants who agreed to
take part in an A4e “Employability Training Programme.” In other words – SLH
would cap the bedroom tax for people who were on jobseekers’ allowance, or
employment and support allowance, if those people participated in a course that
would supposedly help them find work and then to pay the tax.
So.
This is a nasty little notion. It suggests that the bedroom tax could be paid
and even would be paid, if only social housing tenants got off their arses. It
suggests that the bedroom tax is not a policy to be fought. Instead, it is a
price to be paid. The whole thing of course comes couched in the uber-bright, if
brittle, work-makes-you-free liberation-language that sets the tone for so much
of today’s grisly political discourse. We have someone called Wayne Gales,
Director of Operations at South Liverpool Homes, feeling “really excited to be able to
offer this fantastic opportunity for tenants… Supporting tenants to get back
into work so that they are no longer affected by this unfair tax is really
important and we hope that through this ongoing initiative we can really make a
difference, thus a win-win situation for everyone.” Of course, the thrilled
Wayne et al “continue to lobby against the bedroom tax and are doing everything
we can to support those who are affected,” but – yeah. Readers
of this site will know that I’ve had my doubts about that side of things for a
while. Certainly, I’ve spoken to SLH tenants who aren’t exactly feeling the
love – from any direction. Earlier this year, they
told me that they were doorstepped for bedroom tax money only a month after the
tax was introduced. They are also wondering what they’ll do now that their
discretionary housing payments have run out and their new DHP applications have
been refused. “The
local authority feels you’ve had sufficient time to make alternative
arrangements to enable you to meet your shortfall,” these refusal letters
say (Liverpool City Council hands out the DHPs). You get my point. There’s not a
lot of win-win going on here.
Of course – there won’t be much win-win for any us if the political class is
allowed to keep spreading the loathsome idea that some people deserve life’s
essentials more than others. Because that is the subtext of “initiatives” like
this SLH one. And it’s an ideology that will end up taking us all out. It says
that people will be helped if – and only if – they meet a narrowing set of
criteria set out by the political class. It says that the vicious ruling elite
isn’t responsible for the vile policies it imposes on people – the people on the
receiving end of those policies are responsible. This sort of “initiative”
absolutely absolves the political class. Never lose sight of that point. That is
the point to fear.
Basically, what we’re hearing from SLH is that people are more deserving of a
place to live if they work. We’re not hearing much about the ongoing chances of
people who can’t. The whole thing assumes, too, that an A4e programme would
actually help people into work – something that I absolutely would not assume,
given A4E’s pisspoor
results in that field, particularly in Merseyside. The results of the SLH
“initiative” to date make interesting reading. Vaguely. SLH says it recruited
seven people to the first course several months ago and that precisely none of
the four who completed it went onto paid employment. Nonetheless, the future is
perceived to be bright. For A4e, at least. Twelve people will start an October
course and the aim is to sweep more into A4e’s net: “Moving forward and assuming
we can demonstrate meaningful outcomes, its ambition is to expand capacity to
offer similar support to all interested tenants, not only those affected by the
bedroom tax.”
Right. SLH says that “there are no intentions” to make attendance at such
courses a condition of tenancy, but I like to keep an open mind on these things.
A very open mind. I think I’d even take bets on all this. As everyone knows,
endless conditions are being attached to the receipt of measly JSA payments now
and Osborne has plenty more to come. I can absolutely see a future where
everyone has to beg and grovel for any sort of accommodation. Except those who
are setting the pace, of course. Let’s not forget that all this “people on
benefits must pay” and “you lot must work and in crap jobs for rubbish pay”
stuff is happening as the real thieves openly take the piss. “The
amount of tax lost through non-payment and avoidance increased last year to
£35bn, according to official figures released on Friday,” the Guardian tells
us. Wonder where they all live.
