Local Government & Welfare Reform

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Barnsley & Welfare Reform
the case for restoring Northern social justice

Dr Simon Duﬀy ￭ The Centre for Welfare Reform ￭ ...

This is NOT a
party political
broadcast

As said by an employee of A4E at a think
tank in London:
!

“Barnsley couldn’t exist on its own.
Barnsley needs Chelsea .”

At the peak of its powers
Ancient Athens had a
population of less than
300,000 of whom 30,000
were voting citizens.
Barnsl...

Q: What went wrong?
How did we lose faith
in our own capacities?
How did we lose power
to the foolish and the
greedy?

A: We fell asleep. We
forgot that the North
built the wealth of the
country. We forgot that
it built the welfare state.
We...

Argument
1. The welfare state is a good thing
2. But it’s designed wrong
3. Many of our beliefs about it are false
4. It i...

1
The welfare state is a good thing...
...and it is utterly essential.

After meeting with community groups in the
North of England a Finnish researcher asked:
!

What’s the problem with ‘welfar...

There are many reasons why all modern states have
developed welfare systems:
• Justice demands we create a fair society - ...

Fear and insecurity breeds
scapegoating, terror, war and
revolution. Current rhetoric implies
we may now no longer need th...

Disabled people experienced the full
force of the hatred and prejudice
unleashed by economic
uncertainties and fear. They ...

2
The welfare state is a good thing...
it’s just designed wrong.

The welfare state is NOT the problem. But our
thinking about the welfare state is.
!

Debates about the welfare state usua...

The dominant intellectual tradition which framed the design of the
welfare state was Fabianism:
We have little faith in th...

1. The first principle is that any proposals for the future, while they should use
to the full the experience gathered in ...

The underlying design assumptions of Fabianism are powerful,
but ultimately damaging:

• Meritocracy - most people lack th...

The price we have paid for the success of the Fabian tradition is
steep. Costs include:
• Power and resources are centrali...

Beveridge set out to defeat five giants, but have we created Five
New Giants in their place?
1. Elitism - power and contro...

At the same time we are increasingly
aware that none of this is sustainable.
!

The state is good and necessary - but
its ...

Pruitt Igoe Urban Housing Project: 1952-1968

3
The welfare state is a good thing...
...but our beliefs about it are false.

Much of what passes for common knowledge about
the welfare state turns out to be utterly false and
misleading. Here are 6 ...

Over 40 years public expenditure has varied little. The recent
modest increase was the result - not the cause of the econo...

Benefits are not strictly government expenditure - instead for
economists they are part of a system of income adjustment. ...

Benefit fraud is only 6% of tax fraud, yet it is covered by the news
600% more. Government fraud - a benefit system so com...

The poorest 10% of families pay the highest share of their income
in taxes - about 45%.

The number of people who simply rely on benefits and who do
not make an eﬀorts to find work is tiny.

So called ‘deprived’ communities do not even get their fair share
of public spending, and what they do get they can’t cont...

These welfare myths are not random. They exist
for a purpose...

Overheard at a public policy conference in London:
!

The welfare state exists for the benefit of the poor.
!

This statem...

4
The welfare state is a good thing...
...but it’s biased against the poor.

Paradoxically the welfare state serves least well
those who are used to justify its existence...
the poorest families, dis...

The welfare state is designed in ways which often
disadvantage the poorest:
• The poor not only pay the highest taxes, the...

The system is a vast poverty net:

5
The welfare state is a good thing...
...but it can be corrupted.

Today ‘welfare reform’ is a central political project.
!

The current government - building on the work of the previous
go...

The terms ‘austerity’ and ‘fairness’ are used to
justify cuts in public spending and welfare
reforms.
!

but these cuts ta...

Most cuts are targeted in just two areas - benefits and local
government (60% of which is social care):

Child Benefit freeze

Abolition of Sure Start Maternity for second
and subsequent children

Change to CPI indexation of be...

The cuts in benefits and the cuts in social care
fall disproportionately on two overlapping
groups: people in poverty and ...

This report sets out a cumulative
impact assessment of the cuts on
people in poverty and disabled
people.

Harsh measures are justified in terms of the
current economic crisis.
!

But politicians try to avoid confronting the fact...

The extreme growth in house prices is primarily the result of a
bubble - an artificial price increase that oﬀers easy bene...

Current interest rates reflect a desperate eﬀort by the government
to not let the bubble burst at great cost to home owner...

This artificially low interest rate is a hidden subsidy to the better
oﬀ even greater in size than the cuts to benefits an...

‘Welfare reform’ has become code for a redistribution of
resources away from the poorest and towards the better oﬀ.
!

In ...

6
The welfare state is a good thing...
...and it should support citizenship.

The on-going corruption of the welfare system into
an increasingly unjust and damaging system was the
very opposite of wha...

A better system would support and encourage citizenship for all.
It would respect the capacities of communities and citize...

Services would be accountable to citizens: they are not gifts
from the government.

Other elements of a better system may include:
• Human rights at heart of
system
• Minimum universal securities
as rights
...

It’s time to explore a new settlement for the welfare state and
ensure its underpinnings are strong, constitutional and le...

7
Citizenship will only thrive…
!

…in powerful local communities

A community like Barnsley has all
the resources it needs to thrive.

Barnsley
Population
Under 18s in ward
18-64 in ward
65+ in ward
Dwellings
People per dwellings
Activities limited alot
Act...

Powerful and eﬃcient models for tackling
problems and releasing social capital exist.
!

Many of them are Northern:
!

•
•...

How women in Halifax tackle the
most vicious social problems together - and far more eﬃciently
and eﬀectively than public ...

How people with mental health
problems in Doncaster took back
control and showed how to reform
mental health services.

The choice before us:
!

complicity with injustice
!

or
!

resistance, innovation
and a new settlement

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

New constitutional settlement with local
government’s role enhanced and protected
Foundations in human ri...

Justice lives in poverty.
She survives. She measures
What is necessary.
She honours what ought to be honoured.
She seeks o...

Further reading:

For more information:
!

Web: www.centreforwelfarereform.org
!

Twitter: @CforWR and @simonjduﬀy
!

Blog: www.simonduﬀy.in...

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