Benefit reforms attack the poorest and most vulnerable

The reforms announced today (21 July) will force people who have been unemployed for long periods to join “work for dole” schemes, abolish incapacity benefit, and require everyone – including single parents and many people with long-term illnesses – to seek work if they are to receive benefits.

CAP’s National Coordinator Niall Cooper commented: “We are alarmed that these reforms will perpetuate the harmful stereotypes that portray people living in poverty as work-shy scroungers. CAP’s grassroots research with some of the hardest-to-reach and most excluded people in the UK shows that they need support, not punishment. Many people experiencing long-term unemployment suffer from depression and other mental illnesses.

“CAP wants people in poverty to achieve income security and paid employment, but these reforms stigmatise people unfairly. They have already been described by the Sun newspaper as a ‘blitz on scroungers’. Presenting this image of people on benefits will make things worse for some of the most excluded people in our society.

"If the Government wants to do something about real scroungers, it should target the super-rich – the people who benefit from this country’s workforce and skills, but evade £42 billion of tax each year.”