PCS launches new Social Security report in parliament
Our new social security report addresses the staffing crisis at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and sets out a vision for rebuilding a system that genuinely provides support for all.
Chairing the meeting in parliament to launch the report yesterday (2), PCS national president Martin Cavanagh welcomed the latest iteration of the union’s alternative narrative to social security.
He said: “The purpose is for us to explain what a social security should look like and how it should help people rather than the punitive regime we’ve seen over successive governments.”
Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary, introduced the report and set out why it is so important to our members.
She said: “Many thousands of our members also claim in-work benefits like Universal Credit to make ends meet, in fact more than one in ten of our DWP members are also entitled to claim Universal Credit from the DWP because DWP pay is so low.”
She said that social security is under constant attack and countered some of the myths about the system.
Fran argued against the baseless claim that the UK has a generous benefits system, saying: “If you are unemployed on what is the standard allowance of Universal Credit you get £92.05 per week, less than £12 per day, or £72.90 if you’re under-25.
“If you are unemployed in Germany, Ireland or France you receive double or treble what you get in the UK.
“If benefits had simply kept pace with wages over the last 45 years, the standard allowance of Universal Credit would be around £160 per week today.”
She also rejected the reasoning put forward by ministers when they said that cutting Personal Independence Payments would make sure “those who can work should work”.
She pointed out that PIP is an in-work benefit. “It’s a benefit paid to compensate for the increased living costs of being disabled regardless of whether or not you are in work.
“Many PCS members claim PIP to be able to work. If you cut PIP, there is a real risk it drives working disabled people out of work.”
Fran and other speakers at the meeting were keen to highlight what PCS, along with supportive MPs and groups like Disabled Peoples Against Cuts (DPAC) have achieved so far. We almost entirely reversed the cuts to Winter Fuel Payments, forced a U-turn on proposed cuts to Personal Independence Payments and the government also finally U-turned and scrapped the two-child limit – a move which will lift nearly half a million children out of poverty.
Ellen Clifford, speaking on behalf of DPAC, said: “What we achieved over the summer was massive given the level of attacks that disabled people were contending with, but it was also not enough.”
She welcomed the fact that the PCS pamphlet makes it clear that significant cuts did go through and will be adversely impacting on our communities for generations to come because young people are being targeted by cuts.
PCS parliamentary group chair, John McDonnell, was one of the seven Labour MPs suspended from the whip for defending the social security system. Referring to the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, he said: “It was a victory but we should never have been there in the first place.”
John laid out the challenges we face such as defending the triple-lock for pensioners, tackling child poverty and the housing crisis and mobilising for the increase of carers allowance. He also criticised the government for attacking the Motability scheme in its Budget announcement.
Representatives from the PCS DWP group were also in attendance including Angela Grant, DWP group president, who highlighted the impact low pay is having on our members.
She said: “Our members working in DWP are the working poor.
“You want to grow the economy, you put money into people’s pockets at their time of need and give the money to the people that will spend it in the economy.
“The pamphlet shows the ways we can fix the economy.”
Fran concluded the meeting by saying: “Social security is about providing a fairer, more decent society for all. I think the majority of people in this country want that too. We can build on that goodwill, build on our campaigning successes and make the case for social security.”