The Tories played a blinder rushing out the announcements on reforms to child benefits which explains Danny Alexander’s late night appearance in the corridors of the ICC on Sunday. Clearly he had turned up to be patted on the head and his fearfully furrowed brow smoothed by assurances that this was a ‘progressive’ way forward to protect the poorest.
The removal of child benefit from those earning around £44k is an attack not on the wealthiest through progressive taxation but an attack on the middle classes who have enjoyed universal benefits. And amongst those particularly affected will be stay-at-home parents or single parent households who will be penalised by the arbitrary nature of the move. We have defended universal benefits as a movement and we should not shy away from doing so now – even if this is dressed up as ‘progressive’. It is nothing of the sort.
Child benefit, being universally available was always paid directly to mothers and was an almost guaranteed way of ensuring money went straight to children. By linking this to earnings it had become, overnight, a means tested benefit in all but name despite the fact that it has survived as a progressive form of state support for over 50 years. The money saved by the changes is a drop in the ocean but allows the chancellor to manipulate future tax incentives, towards not the poorest in society, but the highest earners. Why should the middle classes pay towards taxes that go towards child benefit they no longer enjoy?
It is a cynical and politically motivated move to swing support towards the usually Tory policies of attacking the most vulnerable whilst trying to buy middle-England votes. This is the Con Dems heading away from a welfare state towards a US style approach of the undeserving poor who must eek out an existence on the most basic of a state safety net.
The Labour Party response has been appalling slow, ill-informed and timid. It is for UNISON to defend, as we always have done, universal states benefits. If we let this one go pensioners benefits will be next.
Anna Rose
