Welfare reform and Remploy Closures: The Double Edged Sword

What will they do with all those Mobility Scooters?

This government is an absolute disgrace – a non stop onslaught on the vulnerable. In the Autumn statement, benefits are limited to a 1% increase, effectively a cut, given an inflation rate of 2.8%, while simultaneously cutting corporation tax by 1% so the rich benefit. Continuing the deception about the structural deficit, Osborne, seeks to marginalise , stigmatise (1) and further exclude people who are unemployed, many of them suffering illness or facing life with a disability. Indeed, 60% of claimants are in work. This includes people with disabilities, who, with support, wish to take a full part in society. Nothing this government does makes any sense. But to say cuts in benefits are intended to encourage people to work is ludicrous if those are the very benefits which make work a possibility. If Osborne feels people need an incentive to work, why not ensure that there are jobs available for them, and raise pay? Osborne’s solution is to axe public sector jobs and cut pay in real terms. (2)

The Treasury seeks to take back around £2bn (3) (4) cutting the The Disability Living Allowance next year making it much more difficult for those with disabilities to remain independent. Next year, when the DLA is to be replaced by PIP. Some 280,000 people, those in most need will lose support. The allowance pays the extra costs of disability, in or out of work, for personal help, taxis or cars. The cuts will be shocking: 90,000 motability cars and scooters will be repossessed. Many people will therefore face needing to claim unemployment benefit because they are prevented from work.

Remploy Factory Springburn – geograph.org.uk – 1190260 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hundreds more disabled workers at Remploy factories are at risk of losing their jobs under fresh closure plans, the government announced today. 
A further 875 employees, including 682 disabled people, have been told they face compulsory redundancy. 
Ministers announced earlier this year that a number of Remploy factories would close, arguing that the budget for disabled employment services could be spent more effectively. 
Thirty-four factories have ceased operations since then and are in the process of closing, but the future of a further 18 sites remained unclear. 
Some of the factories have the potential to move out of government-funded support, but others are set to close, ministers said today.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne called the move a “shameful act from a contemptuous government”. Phil Davies of the GMB union said: “This is devastating news for the disabled workers in Remploy and gives the lie to the chancellor’s claim in his autumn statement yesterday that the vulnerable would be taken care of by the government.”

Remploy Norwich picket front entrance this morning (Photo credit: Roger Blackwell)

Around the UK:

• Workers at risk of redundancy are in 15 Remploy factories, with three automotive businesses in Coventry, Birmingham and Derby not included
• The automotive textiles operation at Huddersfield is “not commercially viable” and the factory is proposed for closure
• Staff at the furniture business based in Neath, Sheffield and Blackburn, the marine textiles business, based at Leven and Cowdenbeath and the CCTV business are at risk of redundancy if a buyer cannot be found
• Three other Remploy businesses will be closed because they are not commercially viable and do not have any realistic prospect of being sold as going concerns – E-Cycle based at Porth and Heywood, front-line textiles based at Dundee, Stirling and Clydebank and packaging based at Norwich, Portsmouth, Burnley and Sunderland (BBC) (5)

On our TV screens we see countless adverts from charities tugging at heart-strings (or guilty consciences) interspersed by News items stigmatising anyone who needs the support of others. Illness and disability can happen to any of us. It could prevent us working. Working people make contributions – National Insurance to protect them at times of need. What a shock it will be to find the door slammed shut.

Think Left calls for vocal action from MPs, and has responded to Labour’s recent document, Making Rights for the Disabled a Reality (6)

A review of the shocking process of The Work Capability Assessment was recently published in a People’s Review. (7)