the future of welfare reform
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The Future of Welfare ‘Reform’
Dr Simon Duffy of The Centre for Welfare Reform, CAB Sheffield, 22 September 2015
![Page 2: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
• Dr Simon Duffy, Director of The Centre for Welfare Reform.
• The Centre is an independent think-tank based in Sheffield.
• We believe the welfare state is a good thing that needs to be defended and improved.
• Find out more at www.centreforwelfarereform.org
![Page 3: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
• Universal Credit, benefit simplification and better ‘incentives’
• WCA and the privatisation of assessment and support
• The Work Programme and ‘support’ into work using sanctions, stigma and psychological motivation
• Benefit and tax credit cuts to make welfare ‘affordable’
‘Reform’ seem to mean
![Page 4: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
• Political - the use of stigma and scapegoating
• Economic - to protect high levels of and inequality
• Social - and the growing privatisation of poverty
In fact this ‘reform’ is
![Page 5: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
The politics of stigma
![Page 6: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
![Page 7: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Hard-working families
skiverproblem family
lazyfeckless
Tax payers
scrounger
Alarm clock Britain
The squeezed middle
benefits lifestyle
benefit fraud
workshyfaker
Vs.
![Page 8: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
What is the purpose of the scapegoat?
![Page 9: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
• Identify a powerless group that is incapable of offering effective resistance
• Avoid responsibility for social problems and shift ‘blame’ on to powerless group
• Create a false sense of superiority and entitlement for more powerful groups
• Weaken and distance the powerless group from the possibility of protection
![Page 10: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
![Page 11: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
a few economic facts…
![Page 13: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
The level of public expenditure has hardly
changed in many decades.
![Page 14: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
But inequality has grown significantly.
![Page 16: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
![Page 17: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
![Page 18: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
That means about 6 million people live on about £40
per week after tax.
![Page 19: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
‘Austerity’ has seen Government target people on low incomes for cuts.
![Page 21: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
![Page 22: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Disabled people have been especially targeted.
![Page 23: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
![Page 24: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
![Page 25: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Instead of gathering crumbs at the rich man’s table the poor must now start to dodge his kicks.
The logical result of entrenched inequality
![Page 26: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
• Do we accept the way in which the story of welfare is told or do we tell (reframe) that story truthfully?
• Do we accept or resist the new ‘reforms’ or do we try to develop real solutions that promote social justice?
• Do we accept that power lies in the hands of a small elite or do we try to change the balance through constitutional change?
How should we go forward
![Page 27: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Positive change requires
• A shift in the rhetoric towards the universal rights and responsibilities of citizenship
• A shift in thinking about policy: away from stigma towards universal solutions
• A shift in the constitutional balance of society to better represent the interests of disadvantaged groups
![Page 28: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
![Page 29: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
![Page 30: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
![Page 31: The Future of Welfare Reform](https://reader031.vdocument.in/reader031/viewer/2022030309/58f2fedd1a28ab8a7f8b4581/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)