Benefit cuts DON’T force people into work – despite what Iain Duncan Smith says – Mirror Online

Last Updated: August 31, 2015By

Another good report with useful information from the Mirror:

A new report shatters Tory claims that slashing state support leads to rising employment.

Ministers including welfare axeman Iain Duncan Smith have used climbing jobs stats to justify their social security assault.

But a report published today explodes the claim, with academics saying “exploratory” analysis, found “sufficient evidence in the present report to cast doubt on one of the central claims used to justify welfare reform”.

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam and Glasgow universities added: “Welfare reform does reduce public expenditure and thereby the budget deficit but it does not, it would seem, lead to higher employment or lower unemployment.”

Source: Benefit cuts DON’T force people into work – despite what Iain Duncan Smith says – Mirror Online

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15 Comments

  1. Kay September 1, 2015 at 12:01 am - Reply

    Yup.

    I’ve been unemployed for 7 years, partly due to disability and partly due to unemployment itself – I can no longer do the job I used to due to disability and I have no idea what job I could do instead, I can’t go back into education due to lack of funds and lack of accessibility due to disability, I can’t use a telephone, I’ve a huge employment gap which I’ve no idea how to explain to a potential employer, and I’ve no references (I can’t even get a voluntary job due to lack of professional and personal references).

    Within the 7 years I’ve been unemployed I’ve received NO SUPPORT to help me back into work, sure I’ve been on schemes like Shaw’s Trust and Work Program but all that’s ever done is that I’m plonked in front of a PC and told to look for a job! No one seems able to help me find a way out of this horrible soul-destroying situation, I’m young but it feels like my life has been taken away from me by unemployment.

    So how is cutting or taking away benefits going to get me into work?

    Because making it so I can’t even apply for work or dress for an interview will help, hell making it so that I’m made homeless and starve to death, that’s really going to help.

  2. mili68 September 1, 2015 at 5:25 am - Reply

    Tweetwd @melissacade68

  3. Mr.Angry September 1, 2015 at 6:11 am - Reply

    Sadly this shower will not deviate from their beliefs, arrogance overrules common logic and of course they are always right are they not !!

    No matter how many researches take place by more learned individuals and academics the results will be ignored by the pompous arrogant toffs running this country.

    Sickening really

  4. toocomplex4justice September 1, 2015 at 6:34 am - Reply

    There is a 70k job waiting for my return if I were to recover from my condition. I’m not crazy and do not like my spending power being reduced to that of a child who has to ask for everything I need. Yet I have been put through 3 years of stress and poverty which has decreased the chance of my going back to work. I was never going to recover but Jobcentre thugs have made me deteriorate faster and I will cost the state more money sooner by needing more care. The admin and forms I had to fill in and the staff involved in the appeals I have had to make will have cost more than was saved by taking the food off my plate and roof from over my head.

  5. Michelle September 1, 2015 at 6:40 am - Reply

    Hi Mike, I know the report is being published today so it would be helpful to read that when it is released, I can’t find it as yet on their web site: http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/reports

    Interestingly, on the same site I did see this disturbing study yet to be completed: http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/ourexpertise/sanctions-support-and-behaviour-change-understanding-role-and-impact-welfare-conditionality

    • A-Brightfuture September 1, 2015 at 2:08 pm - Reply

      Perhaps someone could “have a word” with these student lawyers at the Bristol Law Centre, they seem to be winning cases left right and centre against the DWP.

      They could be the new “A Team”.

  6. Mk007 September 1, 2015 at 7:01 am - Reply

    Ow about slashing state support for ministers, MPs and Lords!

  7. Neilth September 1, 2015 at 7:55 am - Reply

    There is a distinct shortage of people who understand scientific method anywhere in Government. The whole concept of cause and effect and thus the inevitable unintended consequences of policies is enough to make anyone despair.

    They seem to think that if “A” is changing and “B” is also changing then the one must be impacting on the other. The truth is it may just be because of coincidence with no relationship at all.

    Many of these politicians are supposed to have studied Philosophy at University. Part of any philosophy course is Logic were they all away that day?

    They are working on they basis that:-

    If A is true
    And B is true
    Then C must be true

    Eg. No cat has 8 tails
    All cats have one more tail than no cat
    Therefore all cats have 9 tails.
    (Ok except Manxes)

    This kind of thinking seems to be at the heart of most of this governments policy and especially the outpourings of Gove, Hunt and IDS and the more they can be called to account for this the sooner we can see a return to provable policy initiatives.

    Sadly the inability to follow a theory through to its logical conclusion is not the sole province of politicians but, it seems, most journalists are unable to critically analyse which is why we see so much of the media unquestioningly printing press releases from all sources as if they were either true or even news.

    News media used to have a mantra about checking facts before printing. This obviously has a cost in time and effort so most now do not check their facts and print opinion as if it is the unvarnished truth.

    Unfortunately social media is probably making this even worse as it is full of baseless prejudice and ideas put forward as truths often by individuals with large axes to grind. THIS POST INCLUDED.

    • Very scared September 2, 2015 at 2:42 am - Reply

      They understand alright, they know exactly the intended effect their policies will have and what is spouted forth is the s***e rhetorical lies and propaganda to fool the gullible masses. Tragically it seems to have mostly worked. We fight on…

  8. Tony Dean September 1, 2015 at 8:50 am - Reply

    The actual report just released earlier is available for reading/download here:-

    http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Welfare_Reform_Committee/Reports/WR2015R04S04W.pdf

    Welfare Reform Committee
    The Impact of Welfare Reform on the Scottish Labour Market. An Exploratory Analysis.
    4th Report, 2015 (Session 4)
    2
    Executive Summary
    4. This report examines the impact of welfare reform on the Scottish labour market in
    order to explore whether there is any merit in the claim that welfare reform
    increases overall levels of employment and reduces unemployment. This is one
    of the key arguments used to justify welfare reform.
    5. Previously published estimates show that when the pre-2015 welfare reforms
    have come to full fruition they will take £1.5bn a year out of claimants’ pockets in
    Scotland, equivalent to £440 a year for every adult of working age.
    6. The report explores the labour market impact of the reforms primarily by taking
    account of the big variation in the financial losses from place to place across
    Scotland. If the reforms are having an important impact on the labour market, it
    should be possible to observe a much greater impact in the places where the
    reforms have hit hardest.
    7. Across Scotland, the places where the financial losses from welfare reform have
    been greatest have experienced the largest reductions in unemployment (JSA)
    claimant rates.
    8. There is however no evidence across Scotland of an impact on incapacity (ESA)
    claimant rates, or that welfare reform has resulted in higher levels of employment
    or higher levels of labour market engagement.
    9. On closer investigation it is also apparent that the larger than average reductions
    in unemployment in the places hit hardest by welfare reform also happened in
    previous economic upturns. This makes it impossible to attribute recent trends to
    welfare reform.
    10. The recent upturn in the UK economy nevertheless differs from its predecessors in
    creating higher employment in relation to the modest growth in output. This could
    mean welfare reform is encouraging low-wage employment but this interpretation
    is not consistent with the local data.
    11. On balance, the evidence in the report provides little support for the view that
    welfare reform is having important and positive impacts on the labour market in
    Scotland.

  9. Nick September 1, 2015 at 9:58 am - Reply

    The only thing that comes out from IDSs logic is that he fails to recognize that however hard some people try in life there will still be failures and all IDS and the DWP will do and that’s to depress those who cant make it to their death

    What IDS is actually saying is if you don’t work you will be better off dead as he leaves himself no wriggle room for any other type of interpretation in his choice of words

    IDS does not understand that mental issues can be very complected and involve many other factors other then work and by him speaking to specialists in this field does not mean everyone with mental issues will be cured because they wont as mental disease is the most complected of all illnesses

  10. James September 1, 2015 at 1:04 pm - Reply

    We all knew this already though didn’t we? Just as we knew that the Bedroom Tax wouldn’t “free up” 250,000 under-occupied social homes and cut the Housing Benefit bill (big fail, only 50,000 social tenants downsized and Housing Benefit spending went up by £2 Bn) and that cutting and capping benefits to the poor would drive private rents down (they’ve risen exponentially) that harrying the sick and disabled via the Work Capability Assessment and similar wouldn’t drive armies of them into flexible well-paid jobs sited in specially adapted premises working for compassionate and sympathetic employers (another big flop).

    Iain Duncan Smith and David Freud should be put up against a wall.

  11. Edward E. Smith Ph.D September 1, 2015 at 3:19 pm - Reply

    I’d want a very thorough investigation to find all their co-conspiritors in politics, academia and the media first, though.

  12. Daniel Margrain September 1, 2015 at 3:59 pm - Reply

    I’ve never known any government policy to shift in response academic findings that run contrary to the former’s ideological based dogma – EVER. Despite of the good intentions of the academics concerned, they really are wasting theirs and everybody else’s time with these kinds of reports. At the end of the day, there is a class war going on in this country and the ruling class are winning it.

    If they feel they are able to get away with it, I’m in doubt whatsoever that the Tories and Blairites in the Labour Party would have no hesitation in socially and ethnically cleansing the poor on mass from the cities, towns and communities of this country.

    Ideally, from their perspective, it would make life easier for them if some kind of major natural disaster would happen like Katrina. In that way they would be able to rebuild entire communities in their own image with the poor simply expunged from the view of the rich thereby resulting in the latter not having to deal in anyway with the former.

    Even the thought of coming into eye contact with a disabled, sick or poor person is regarded as unbecoming for the likes of the Tories and their fanboy elites who support them. I include here, the metropolitan media class, the super rich banking elite, the new middle class and the working class snobs made good.

    The rest of us are no longer welcome here. That’s the truth. It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when we all cared for and supported each because as gross as the inequalities were 30 or 40 years ago, they are nothing compared to today. The gap is so wide between those at the top and those at the bottom that neither group can see each other. If you are out of sight then you really may as well not exist.

  13. mrmarcpc September 8, 2015 at 3:23 pm - Reply

    Benefit cuts to genuine people don’t help them, they hurt them, does anyone actually believe that they help the people who they hit? If people do then that tells you all you need to know about the average British person’s IQ – virtually nonexistent!

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