Defend our entitlement to Income Support

 and other benefits – it’s our money not the bankers’!

 

How dare MPs, defiant about paying back “expenses”,
squeeze those of us with least during this economic crisis?

 

Both main parties blame “incapacity benefit scroungers”, asylum seekers, single mothers, and older people living longer, for the economic crisis which politicians and bankers have created. In 2009, bankers’ bonuses will top £6 billion -- up £2 billion from 2008 – taken from £1 trillion taxpayers’ money. RBS’ Sir Fred Goodwin keeps his £342,500 pa pension. RBS’ current head gets £9.7m. Our money is being cut to pay for bankers and politicians, their deadly wars and extravagant lifestyle. 

 

The Welfare Reform Bill threatens us with destitution by abolishing Income Support, the main benefit which recognises unwaged caring work. It forces mothers and other carers to be “available for work” and, if there are no jobs, to work for our benefits i.e. £1.60 an hour. Traumatised women fleeing domestic violence get only a three-month respite from jobseeking. Asylum seekers, who are not allowed to work, were the first to be made destitute. Some get a subsistence amount; in October, this was reduced to £5 a day.   

 

As a result of our pressure, single mothers of children under five won’t have our benefit cut if we haven’t done “work-related activity”. We can win more, but could lose our entitlements if we allow it. Child Benefit may be next. It is already under threat in Ireland where similar measures are being introduced.

 

“I was a nervous wreck. You don’t know who you are anymore …. It took me three months to find somewhere to live. No way could I have got a job ... They would have looked at me like I was a nutter.” Survivor of domestic violence, M, Women Against Rape

 

‘Benefits don’t cover the cost of gas, electric, water rates for me and my daughter. That‘s why I go out now. If they cut our benefits you’d find more of us out there working in more out-of-the-way places. That’s terrifying.’ J, English Collective of Prostitutes

 

“Asylum seekers, some who only have supermarket vouchers, have invisible disabilities, and are very ill with conditions that you need to go to hospital for, but don’t have the money to get there. To sign on at reporting centres you have to walk very long distances and many mothers have babies they have to carry with them.”  J, All African Women’s Group

 

“As a mother on Income Support with an 11-month-old son, I am being forced to attend a compulsory ‘Work Focused Group Information Session’.  If I don’t go I face losing my benefits.”  JH, breastfeeding mother

 

“When I found the note from the Jobcentre under my door, it added to my feelings of fear, panic and distress.  It made me feel that if the people I thought were there to help me worked against me, there was no point in going on.’ X has mental health problems and is on Employment and Support Allowance (ex-incapacity benefit). 

 

 “If I was in waged work I would have to leave suddenly when my daughter was ill – not a lot of jobs let you do that. I’m already working caring for my child but now they are asking me to do paid work on top, which is devastating and exhausting. And how would my daughter feel knowing that I was no longer able to be there for her?”  SM, carer for disabled child

 

“It’s vital that the government are prevented from committing this social atrocity.” Oliver James, child psychologist, author of Affluenza and Guardian columnist. 

 

 “The DWP transferred me from Income Support to JSA when my youngest became 12. I had no choice. The Council told me my Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit ‘have been suspended . . . as your circumstances have changed.’ They asked me to provide proof of income to re-assess my claim, but I had none – only that I was not entitled to Income Support.”  Ms S, single mother

 “Life is very stressful. I live on cornmeal, biscuits, sugar, skimmed milk and a little butter and cheap cheese. I am selling any small personal belongings I can, and when I need money for heating I must beg from people.” J, seeking asylum

 

 “Motherhood is one of the most demanding and energy-consuming jobs there is. The relationship between a child and a mother is the root from which all human interaction springs.”  Sheila Kitzinger, childbirth expert

“They want to bring wages down by forcing more people to chase scarce jobs and allow employers to by-pass the minimum wage.” Kim Sparrow, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence

 

 “So much for Minister Jim Murphy’s 2006 assurance that for disabled people on ESA, job-seeking or training would remain voluntary.  Now we are being forced into unsuitable training, low-paid jobs or back to begging.”  Claire Glasman, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)

 

“Our supporters are using their child benefit to feed their children, to pay for childcare, to pay the ‘voluntary’ contributions to schools, and thousands of other child-related expenses from nappies to school books.”  Treasa Dovander, PACUB -- Protest Against Child Unfriendly Budget, Ireland