‘The government, using the language of strivers versus skivers, argues that the current welfare system is not fit for purpose.’ Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
If you have an experience you wish to share, email: cif.editors@guardian.co.uk
AND please don’t forget to mention The Black Triangle Campaign and why you support our fight against the “skivers & scroungers” narrative and the defamation of disabled people!
Solidarity!
This article titled “Benefit cuts – share your story” was written by Natalie Hanman, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 22nd January 2013 15.04 Europe/LondonThis is going to be a year of huge benefit cuts affecting millions of people on a wide range of incomes and from a wide range of backgrounds.
While affluent families will no longer receive child benefit, those still getting it will find it has been frozen. Millions of private renters will have their housing benefit capped, other tenants may have to pay a new “bedroom tax” if they are deemed to be under-occupying their home, and millions of families will have their council tax benefits cut. The 3.7 million working people on child tax credit and the 2.5 million on working tax credit, including nurses, school teachers and soldiers, will be hit by the government’s welfare reforms as they see their incomes shrink during 2013. Thousands of disabled people will lose disability living allowance, which allows them to be active members of society.
Universal credit – which rolls up most benefits into one and will be capped at £500 a week, including housing costs – will also be implemented later this year, and the 1% cap on working-age benefit rises comes into effect after the welfare benefits up-rating bill was passed in the House of Commons..
Political opinion is, inevitably, divided over the issue. The government, using the language of strivers versus skivers, argues that the current welfare system is “not fit for purpose” and that it punishes “hardworking taxpayers”; Matthew Oakley from the thinktank Policy Exchange has argued on Comment is free that we should be forging “a something for something system that all parts of society believe is fair”.
It’s often said this is where the majority of public opinion lies – but John Harris argues that isn’t necessarily true. And the latest Guardian/ICM poll does reveal growing doubts about this key plank of government strategy: just 36% agreed with the coalition’s argument that “squeezing benefits is fair”, compared with 58% who thought squeezing benefits and tax credits “is unfair, seeing as it will hurt the vulnerable, including many who people who do work hard for low pay”.
Comment is free will continue to publish a plurality of voices on the biggest changes to welfare spending since the introduction of the welfare state 70 years ago, from commentators on different sides of the political spectrum to academics and policy experts. However, we also want to give a voice to people at the sharp end of these changes. Will you have to give up your job when the loss of tax credits means work no longer pays? Are you involved in a campaign against any of the proposed measures? Do you have an example of where these cuts have led to effective savings that you support? We want to hear from you and together build a human picture of these policies, making Comment is free the place that people can visit to discuss and debate an issue that will get more and more personal in the coming months.
• If you have an experience you wish to share, email: cif.editors@guardian.co.uk
• To suggest ideas or people we should be commissioning, post your comment on our daily You tell us thread
