Iain Duncan Smith appeared before the Work and Pensions Select Committee this morning to answer questions about the status of his Universal Credit project. There's an account of what happened on The Register website (marred somewhat by lazy language). UC is, apparently, proceeding slowly. In October it will be rolled out to six more jobcentres; but these will be in places, including Harrogate and Bath, where unemployment is relatively low; and it will still only take in single people with the simplest of claims. Despite some scathing questioning by Glenda Jackson MP, IDS and his mate Lord Freud got off lightly. This afternoon the committee were asking questions about the DWP's misuse of statistics. Many had anticipated that IDS would be skewered for his blatantly misleading figures. (See a blog piece here.) But it was a couple of civil servants who had to face the music. Apparently the ministers will be called in September.
Remember that spate of TV programmes, culminating in the appalling "Famous, Rich and Jobless", which made entertainment out of poverty? (There have been a few more since then, I know, but I refuse to acknowledge them.) It couldn't get any worse, you might have thought. But perhaps it's about to. On BBC1 tomorrow night (11 July) we have, first, "Great British Budget Menu" "in which leading chefs tackle food poverty by living with three families who are struggling to make ends meet." What fun. I should have given them my recipe for carrot and lentil soup. Having watched that you may be in the mood for "Nick and Margaret: We all Pay your Benefits". This is a "two-part special in which ...... Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford try to find out how much unemployment benefit is enough to survive on." They went to Ipswich. And they pitted workers against claimants. As we've pointed out before, this is a false dichotomy. I won't be watching.
I think the UC will cause a lot of problems for everyone. Instead of starting with something simple - help to make a claim online or over the telephone, simplifying forms for instance, it could be too complicated to be of any use. The second TV programme shows how claimants cope with a job I believe. I shall watch with an open mind...
ReplyDeleteI've been both employed and unemployed and when I had a job I had the money to go places, buy what I wanted but never had the time or energy to do anything. Being unemployed I don't have the money to go places and buy things but have the time. So I guess it's down to each individual to know if being employed or unemployed is for better or worse.
ReplyDeleteBBC News website report that 20 thousand JCP staff will be trained up, 6 thousand new computers brought in and a total of 10 areas will take part in the UC roll out, at a cost of 420 million pounds.
DeleteI'll not be watching this BBC prog, "Nick and Margaret: We all Pay your Benefits" either which I highlighted in a previous thread.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason I'll give it a massive swerve is such programs take a superficial tabloid look at unemployment. Pitting workers against claimants yet again panders to the 'them and us' mentality this rotten government is all to eager to exploit.
Someone could be out of work due to ill health, lack of training, lack of qualifications, lack of experience, confidence issues and so on. I'll wager this program will not look at such issues as they are far too complex to tackle in such a dumbed down format.
The same goes for the proliferation of zero-hr, short term and false self employment contracts making it difficult for someone to earn a consistently decent wage. Such programs ignore such major employment problems completely.
Work and Pensions Committee Video.
ReplyDelete'On 10 July 2013, the Work and Pensions Committee took evidence from Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and other government officials on Universal Credit.'
www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/house-of-commons-23260076
The crowds bay not from arenas anymore. but from their sofas, the unemployed the target of their media fed fed rage.
ReplyDeleteWhoops-a-daisy, Serco and G4S got a bit carried away and "overcharged" for prisoners who were either in prison, had left the country or were dead. Nice work if you can get it, eh...
DeleteA review of the afore mentioned BBC prog along with a short video clip, courtesy of the Mirror:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nick-hewer-margaret-mountford-investigate-2043331
Although the Mirror review makes the program seem more balanced and rounded than one may have originally thought, it is still tabloid style telly.
Would it not be great to instead see an in depth review into outsourcing especially in the light of G4s's Olympic security cock-up as well as the very recent revelations about Serco and G4s again, this time overcharging the taxpayer over tagging offenders? Not to mention A4e's shenanigans.
Or would such a program be seen as too challenging for the public to get its collective head around after being fed a diet of slanted headlines, biased reporting, lazy journalism and mind numbing reality / celeb / talent show trash over many a year?
That said, CH4 Dispatches (I think) tackled this issue a couple of years ago. It really does need revisiting!
Sometime in the 1980s (I think) Mathew Paris - a tory MP - was challenged to live on benefits following comments he made about people on the dole. The BBC programme attempts to change perceptions as the particepants swap lifestyles so here's hoping...
ReplyDeleteI think most people that have participated in the WP,know that it is not what is printed on the label.
ReplyDeleteA4E,G4S,Serco,Rehab-Jobfit and the list goes on,are all very tight lipped about what they actually provide,by this I mean they all have a basic description of what they are suppose to provide,but no real details.
A4E touted in a press release that they were able to find a Woman work after she had been unemployed for many years and this is brilliant,she credited the Staff at A4E for helping her to accomplish this,but the fact is she was hired by A4E,was she hired for the sole purpose so A4E could not only claim the largest payout but also trumpet their success?