News and Politics | March 20, 2012 | 2 comments

The View On The Streets: Welfare Reform

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The Welfare Reform Bill has been hotly debated in both the House of Commons and Lords. By 2013, the government hopes to implement £18 billion in welfare cuts. We are told this will help save cash, get the unemployed back into work and it is only fair that the unemployed do not receive more on benefits than working families on a low‐wage. On the streets of Barking, East London, we asked the public what they thought and the response was instructive.
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2 comments // The View On The Streets: Welfare Reform // Video

  • rumplestiltskin
    • 0
      rumplestiltskin  

    • There is welfare (money from the government) on one hand – which everyone could need access to from time to time. Then there is the condition of dependency on the state (welfarism) on the other. They are not simply mutually determined because one is financial and the other is sociopolitical.

    • 1 year ago
  • CeriD
    • 0
      CeriD  

    • This video raises important debate for the US, UK & European economies. Welfare benefits are not the reason we have a dearth of growth. People’s living standards seem to be secondary to economic needs. Welfare itself though does need to be questioned as it rests on the assumption that full employment is impossible, some even argue capitalism needs a ‘reserve army of labour’. The question then becomes is capitalism able to deliver prosperity for us all? At times it has clearly improved our lot which suggests if revolution is not on the cards, more must be done to make it work for more of us. I would say that has to mean supporting increased production, hence jobs, making a living wage for all a bottom line and opposing austerity from all sides i.e. from the free marketeers and trendy anti-growth merchants. I have read quite a bit on dependency culture and do see the problem of victimhood, entitlement and looking to the state all the time as making us incapable. However this is a political, cultural problem NOT a product of us living a great life on punitive benefits.

    • 1 year ago
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