PCS: Union responds to welfare reform green paper

Monday, 21 July 2008 12:00 AM

Responding to the publication of today's Welfare Green Paper, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), said:

"These proposals are regressive and draconian, going further than even Thatcher dared in the 1980's. Picking up litter to receive benefits will stigmatise people and do nothing to get people back into long term sustainable employment.

"The corner stone of the welfare state is full employment yet in this period of economic uncertainty with unemployment on the rise, there are doubts that there will be the right jobs available in which to place people or the capacity in Jobcentre Plus to deal with an upsurge in claimants. The abolition of Incapacity Benefit will hit people with disabilities and there are question marks over whether the government will be forcing people to work for less than the minimum wage. The government should be working with people to get them back into employment rather penalising and threatening them.

"The proposals will also entrench the role of the private sector in the delivery of welfare reform. The public sector has consistently out performed the private sector in getting people back into work and we fear that the profits for the few will increasingly be the driving factor in the delivery of welfare, rather than the needs of the many. Indeed the Welfare Green Paper praises the work of Jobcentres yet the government are prepared to turn increasingly to an untried and untested model of welfare delivery.

"Rather than slashing tens of thousands of jobs in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and pursuing a dogmatic privatisation agenda, the government should be looking at putting the resources into its own dedicated workforce who have the skills and expertise in dealing with the long term unemployed."

ENDS

Notes to editors

* For further information, interviews and comment please contact Alex Flynn PCS national press officer on 0207 801 2820 or 07833 978216.

* PCS, the Public and Commercial Services Union is the union representing civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 315,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies. It also represents workers in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK's sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president Janice Godrich.

Alex Flynn
National Press Officer
Public and Commercial Services Union
160 Falcon Rd
London SW11 2LN

Direct line: 020 7801 2747
Mobile: 07833 978 216
Fax: 020 7924 1847

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