13.04.1995

Benefit attack

THIS WEEK the government pushed through a double whammy of attacks on claimants. On Tuesday it won a court ruling banning people who are not “habitually resident” in the UK or Ireland from receiving unemployment benefit.

On Thursday invalidity benefit was to be replaced by incapacity benefit. Social security doctors begin the task of interviewing and examining claimants with the aim of depriving 220,000 people of entitlement. Most are not expected to find work.

Although on paper many may be medically ‘fit’ for certain types of work, the new criteria ignore such factors as age, mobility and - most crucially - available jobs.

This must be one of the most disgusting attempts by even the Tories to cut costs and blame the working class for its economic crisis. Many workers will be forced into a life of desperate poverty. This can only increase the alienation of people who are considered worthless in profit and loss terms by this brutal capitalist system.

Helen Ellis