Why DOESN’T the DWP care about Social Security any more?

Last Updated: August 8, 2014By

Parked on the dole: Closing Job Centres and handing responsibility for finding work to private companies would condemn thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of people to a life on benefits (if they don't get sanctioned and starve).

John D Turner raises a useful language-related issue regarding the current state of the Department for Work and Pensions.

In his article, Time to put the S(ocial) S(ecurity) back into DWP? he points out that “there is something vaguely Orwellian and misleading about the Department for Work and Pensions’ title.  Either you are fit for work or on a State Pension.

“I can well imagine the average voter, with no experience of receiving social security, assuming that if you do not fit into either the work or pensions group then you must, in some way, be playing the system.  There are, after all, some people around who still talk about the Social, the DSS and/or even the DHSS.

“Perhaps, changing the name to the Department for Work, Pensions and Social Security would be a small contribution towards changing attitudes towards people on sickness benefits (and lone parents on benefits not requiring them to seek work)?  And, may be we could also resurrect the original Jobcentre Plus Mission Statement:

“Help for those who can work and support for those who cannot.”

Bravo!

It won’t happen under the current pirates, but we should certainly demand it from a future Labour administration.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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7 Comments

  1. Smiling Carcass August 8, 2014 at 8:01 pm - Reply

    They don’t care just because of that- THEY DON’T CARE!

  2. Nick August 8, 2014 at 8:24 pm - Reply

    the current pirates, as we have here in the uk are the same as in the middle east with the same thought process sod the public there a disposable item and if they die tough luck we’ll throw some food out for them in the mountains but if they live in the uk there’ll be able to visit a food bank

    The bottom line is we do not care and were never going to care
    I might sound hard mike but to my mind pretty, accurate those in power here in the uk and those in the middle east have only got death on their minds and that will never change

  3. Samuel Miller (@Hephaestus7) August 8, 2014 at 8:56 pm - Reply

    If memory serves, the DWP once used the pejorative term ‘handouts’ in a press release, reconsidered and then pulled it. The Daily Express newspaper has often used the term ‘handouts’ and I’ve taken it to task, pointing out that it isn’t a handout if you pay National Insurance.

    I’ve suggested to John Turner that the Welfare Reform Bill should also be renamed.

  4. philipburdekin August 8, 2014 at 9:56 pm - Reply

    Why should they care anymore, maybe because THIER bosses are a complete bunch of idiots who don’t care either and they have no one to please but themselves because they treat us all like shit and get away with it. Not even the laws of the land are any good.

  5. robert fillies August 8, 2014 at 11:01 pm - Reply

    Social insecurity is what this lot are all about.

  6. amnesiaclinic August 9, 2014 at 10:15 am - Reply

    Perhaps they ought to go back to DSS – Department of Slavery and Sanctions!
    x

  7. casalealex August 9, 2014 at 12:50 pm - Reply

    Social security is a concept enshrined in Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states, Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. In simple terms, the signatories agree that society in which a person lives should help them to develop and to make the most of all the advantages (culture, work, social welfare) which are offered to them in the country.

    Social security may also refer to the action programs of government intended to promote the welfare of the population through assistance measures guaranteeing access to sufficient resources for food and shelter and to promote health and well-being for the population at large and potentially vulnerable segments such as children, the elderly, the sick and the unemployed. Services providing social security are often called social services.

    The above makes it patently clear that ‘social security’ and ‘welfare’ have been abandoned, and changed to Dept of “Work and Pensions”, so that there is now no longer a ‘safety net’ for those unable to work, due to jobs being scarce, and people being disabled and unable to work, etc.

    DWP – The Department is therefore responsible for welfare and pension policy, and “aims to help its ‘customers’ become financially independent and to help reduce poverty”.

    As we are fully aware, the ethos of the DWP, as proved, on innumerable accounts, is to label people as ‘scroungers’ etc., and to make peoples’ lives indescribably disadvantageous, by making them more stressful and feeling hopeless; even so far as to many giving up and committing suicide.

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