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New Communist Party of Britain |
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New Communist Party of Britain |
This is just one section of the Main Political Resolution adopted at the 2009 16th Congress of the New Communist Party of Britain.
An index to the other sections can be found here ->
[2009 Policy Documents]
The New Communist Party notes with alarm proposals in the latest Green Paper on welfare benefits, Shaping the Future of Care, a proposal to stop Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance, which are paid by the Department of Work and Pensions to disabled people — both in work and out of work — in recognition of the higher costs of living that disability causes. The Green Paper proposes moving the funding from the DWP to local authorities to be awarded by local social service departments after they have assessed the needs of the claimants.
Almost certainly the benefits will be cut in the process; much will be lost in the extra costs of administration and criteria of eligibility and rates of benefit will vary from borough to borough. Claiming will become more bureaucratic and difficult than it already is.
Furthermore certain sections in the Tory party have proposed doing this with all welfare benefits in order to reduce the DWP budget.
These changes are not likely to happen overnight but they are clearly part of the ruling class agenda to dismantle state welfare and return us to the Victorian days where paupers — the unemployed, elderly, sick, long−term disabled and unsupported single parents — were forced to claim benefit from their local parish or borough. The criteria for eligibility varied from one locality to another but boroughs were anxious not to be seen as generous because this would attract paupers from outside the area and create an extra burden on the rates. Claimants were often refused benefits if they tried to claim outside the parish or borough where they were born as local authorities tried to shift responsibilities from one to another.
The NCP must oppose any return to this system. The Party must raise awareness of the threat and work with disability and pensioner organisations like the Disability Benefits Consortium and the National Pensioners’ Convention to campaign to defend existing welfare benefit rights and to extend them to provide decent living standards for all those who have to claim benefits.