Edinburgh is set to lose more than £223m over 5
years (see figures below) as a result of the ConDem Government’s Welfare cuts;
- writes Councillor Ricky Henderson [Health and Social Care leader for the City of Edinburgh Council].
This money will come
directly out of the pockets of the poorest people in our city.
The
Conservative/LibDem Government is cutting more than £2.1billion of its planned
£18billion welfare savings from Scotland’s
poorest people.
Those hardest
hit by the reforms are families with young children, people with disabilities
and social housing tenants.
The biggest
benefit changes are for people with disabilities, for people previously deemed
unfit for work, for social housing tenants and low income families. All are set
to have often already low living standards reduced further by the controversial
use of capability assessments, the discriminatory targeting of non-home owners
and the ongoing devaluation of Child Benefit. The flawed capability assessment
process, recently slated by the National Audit Office as being of poor value
with far too many wrong decisions being made, will come under further
high-profile scrutiny through the introduction of the Personal Independence
Payment.
Mitigating
the loss of more than £2billion is an impossible task, it is imperative that the
Scottish Government support Councils to take action to protect the income of
our hardest pressed households. Immediate positive action on poverty is
required from Ministers and councils must ensure that residents have access to
high quality advice services and support. Councils should also ensure that
residents are receiving all of the Housing Benefit and Council Tax reduction
support to which they are entitled.
Upwards of
90% of benefits income is spent locally and removing £2billion over five years
from an already weak economy presents immense challenges for retailers and
providers of goods and services. It is likely that the black hole in accounts
caused by the benefit losses will accelerate a downward spiral of service
reduction, business failure, unemployment and under-employment. Static growth will
not deliver the work opportunities that the welfare reform programme is
allegedly predicated on.
More than 80%
of the welfare cuts have still to happen, yet local authorities are already
struggling to pick up the pieces resulting from central Government’s actions.
Advice and information services are already at full capacity; homelessness,
addictions and family services are finding it harder to cope with increased
demand and static or shrinking budgets, and councils’ charging policies will be
tested, perhaps to breaking point, in a bid to maintain income to cover service
costs. Receipts from Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit are set to fall
and there will be the additional costs of operating the Scottish Welfare Fund
and new Council Tax Benefit regimes. Partner agencies such as Housing
Associations, the Police Service and National Health Service are also braced
for the impact of welfare reform.
Much anger is
currently turned on the unfair and discriminatory 'bedroom tax' although it
represents one part of the total cuts being made. While the unfairness of the 'bedroom tax'
makes this understandable it is important that we don't lose sight of the much
larger financial damage being inflicted by other measures. Indeed those who may
be on different benefits could suffer a multiple whammy as benefit cuts affects
other entitlements.
And all this
is happening at the same time as 13,000 millionaires will get a £100,000 tax
cut as the ConDem Government cuts the tax rate from 50% to 45% for the
wealthiest people in the country.
---
Latest
figures show that over 5 years 2010 – 2015 Edinburgh will have lost -
Disability
Living Allowance £45,475,191
Income
Support £4,185,022
Employment
Support Allowance £2,749,829
Incapacity
Benefit £3,371,772
Jobseekers
Allowance £3,199,063
Carers
Allowance £394,204
Attendance
Allowance £1,491,446
Housing
Benefit £106,578,905
Child Benefit £38,102,870
Tax Credits £11,336,000
Benefit Cap £6,390,300
Total £223,274,603
