WELL UNFAIR REFORM

“The Welfare Reform Bill was designed for the land of the never-ending boom. We are now stuck in the quagmire of recession.” - Frank Field, MP.

With unemployment in Britain passing the two million mark and steadily rising, the government is seemingly still clinging to a fantasy that they can boot everybody off benefits and into non-existent jobs. The Welfare Reform Bill received its first airing in the House Of Lords this Wednesday, proposing a dismantling of the welfare system on a scale Margaret Thatcher would be proud of if she still had any marbles left.

This is a multiple attack on the most vulnerable in society. Income Support will go - affecting amongst others, maternity and carers’ allowances, and especially single parents. Mothers will face a fine - leading to prison - if they refuse to name the father of their child on the birth certificate, and up to seven years for giving false information. Non-payment of child maintenance may lead to the seizure of passports and driving licenses. Drink and drug addicts will have to submit to testing and rehabilitation, and those who can’t find jobs after a two year period will have to ‘work for their benefits’. There will be sanctions for non-attendance at job centres and work-focused interviews for the over 60’s. The list goes on. Inevitably immigrants, who, because of institutionalised racism, are the lowest paid and often the first to lose their job, will also be disproportionately affected.

Of course there’s good side to all this for someone: employers will be able to bypass the minimum wage by workfare, and privatised prisons will continue to profit from an increase in ‘criminals’. That this Bill is being waved through by MPs who have been busy lining their own pockets with taxpayers money – during a time of economic crisis where vast amounts have gone on bailing out the banks - shows how completely divorced from reality they are.

* The Policing and Crime Bill is also currently going through Parliament, further criminalising prostitution as new offences, longer sentences and forced rehabilitation for sex workers and clients is put on the table. Safe brothels will be closed and police and prosecutors will be able to keep 50% of all monies seized, heightening their vested interest in staging raids. The bill will inevitably force prostitution underground, yet another blow to vulnerable sex workers whose numbers can only increase as a result of the benefit cuts.

www.prostitutescollective.net