THE TWO – CHILD BENEFIT LIMIT HAS PUSHED WHOLE HOUSEHOLDS INTO POVERTY. LABOUR MUST REPEAL IT!

(This is taken from an article in The Guardian by Amelia Gentleman).

One of the Conservatives’ flagship austerity initiatives, the two-child policy was designed to teach parents that “children cost money” and to discourage them from having a third child, according to the Conservative work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith, wh o added that it would help ensure parents did not “assume” that taxpayers would pick up the cost of deciding to have more children.

The policy pushes whole households into poverty, affecting the first two children born into these families as much as the older child born after the cut-off date. Figures released in July suggest the initiative affects one in nine children; there are almost 1.6 million children in 440,000 families made poorer by the policy.

Research conducted by the Larger Families project, a group of academics led by the University of York who look at the impact of the two-child limit and the parallel benefit-cap policy, suggests that the initiative has failed in its two apparent aims: nudging parents back into work and reducing births among people in receipt of benefits. “The two- child limit hasn’t discouraged poorer families from from having children;it has simply made families poorer, ” the study has found.

Research suggests that 59% of families affected by the policy have at least one parent working.

Jonathon Portes, a professor of economics and public policy at King’s College, London said,” Every single person in the whole child poverty sector will tell you that the two-child limit is the single biggest driver of increased child poverty that there is”.

AN ANAYSIS BY THE SUNDAY TIMES EXPOSED THE EXTENT TO WHICH RACHEL REEVES’ APPALLING DECISION RE. WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS IS HARMFUL TO THE POOR.

An  estimated ten million pensioners will no longer be eligible and about 30,000 will miss out because they exceed the pension credit threshold by a few pounds a week, according to Policy in Practice. Some £130,000 pensioners will miss ou because they are £500 a year (£9.62 a week) over the threshold.

“Tying the winter fuel payment to pension credit will mean far too many older people in financial hardship fall through the cracks”, said Morgan Vine from the charity Independent Age. “We are urging the government to delay its plans”.

Rob Trawhella, who is only £2.85 over the pension credit limit had the following to say, “I find it incredible that the government has taken away money from people who can’t afford it, or can’t replenish their savings. It appears that the austerity measures that measures that Labour is planning on bringing in are worse than George Osborne’s”.

GRENFELL – A TRAGIC AND APPALLING SCANDAL.

INFORMATION FROM THE INQUIRY.

*The BBC has exposed how little was learnt from previous fires at Knowsley Heights, Summerland, Garnock Court, Harrow Court and Lakanal House. The inquiry has revealed the cavalier attitude of those selling and installing combustible materials for the refurbishment of existing buildings, and their total disregard n compromising the fire safety features that had been built into their original design.

*The building firm Rydon, found to have borne “considerable responsibility” for the Grenfell fire with its “casual attitude to fire safety” was handed contracts worth tens of millions of pounds by councils, colleges and NHS trusts after the tragedy

*”Eric Pickles had more opportunities than almost anyone else to avert the Grenfell tragedy…Instead of acting on warnings, he doggedly pursued an agenda of aggressive deregulation”.

Matt Wrack, General Secretary,

Fire Brigades Union.

A WARNING TO THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT.

Observer Editorial –  “There is a worrying lack of confidence among some ministers and officials that manifests itself in attempts to turbocharge misguided Tory policies rather than question why they never really worked.

Housing is a classic example. Labour says it will give construction companies more incentives and clear ground on which to build after a bonfire of planning rules. Why, when this has been shown to fail on so many levels, from the low number and poor standard of the homes built to their exorbitant cost?

Other European countries dictate what developers can do and where. So can we. It is just one example of how Labour has constrained itself despite having a mandate to press the reset button and in many cases, like housing, jettison decades of failed policies. When the economy is struggling to grow and the longer term prospects for the public finances are dire, Labour needs to be bold. It must absorb reports like Lord Darzi’s to improve the health sector and steer the housing market.

Quick wins are what all ministers want, but they shouldn’t be achieved by pulling the same old levers and hoping for  something new to happen”.

MORE ON THE HORIZON SCANDAL.

Nils Pratley in the Guardian points out that a despite a report in 2012 from external reviewers that the Horizon IT was “not fit for purpose”. The Post Office continued prosecutions until 2015 and the spent millions of pounds defending itself until the damning highv court judgement in 2019.

IT MAY SOUND FUNNY, BUT IT’S NOT A JOKE!

An Englishman, a Northern Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a student bar. They are all on the same course, living in the same student halls and from the same economic background. The Englishman gets a £4,767 loan to help with his student living costs, while the Northern Irish gets £5,084 and the Scottish one gets £8,400. Then a Welshwoman walks in, who gets a loan of £11,150 plus a grant of £1000, that she never has to pay back. That’s about £140 a week more than the Englishman. The lady buys all the men a drink.

(This Tale is based on an article in The Sunday Times).

COUNTERING WEALTH INEQUALITY – A TORY PEER HAS MADE A PROPOSAL THAT IS BETTER THAN LABOUR’S.

Lord Willetts, chair of Intergenerational Centre pressure group, has called for the next government to implement a major, radical, new policy to spread wealth in the UK. Under the proposals, ministers would transfer to every 30-year-old a £10,000 “citizen inheritance”.

Lord Willetts said the proposals could be funded by lowering the threshold at which inheritance tax is paid and abolishing the existing exemptions.

EVERYTHING CHANGES, YET EVERYTHING STAYS THE SAME.

In a short story – ‘A Mere Interlude’ – written by Thomas Hardy, a young school mistress in the late 19th century expresses her dislike of certain aspects of her profession -“For three month before the inspector’s visit I didn’t sleep soundly. And they are always changing the Code, so that you don’t know what to teach, and what to leave untaught”.

(This Tale uses material from a letter in the national press).

SOME EXAMPLES OF THE WAYS IN WHICH THE TORIES GENERATED DIVISION AND INTOLERANCE IN RECENT YEARS.

*Fleet of Home Office vans telling immigrants to “Go Home”.

*Describing the unemployed as “skivers not strivers”.

*Homelessness described as a “lifestyle choice”.

*Introducing voter ID laws (calculating this will benefit the Tories).

*Curbs on rights to strike and rights to protest.

*Deriding principled people as “woke” and “snowflakes”.

*Unlawfully suspending parliament, and then briefing against members of the judiciary as “enemies of the people” when they delivered their verdict.