“Punitive welfare policies, including the introduction of Universal Credit, the benefit cap and the two-child limit, have been horrendously cruel and actively harmful.”
Apsana Begum MP
By Apsana Begum MP
The Joseph Rowntree Trust’s latest poverty report published this month is a harrowing read. It is shattering that child poverty is on course to increase in most of the UK by the end of this Parliament.
This is disastrous news for my local area, Tower Hamlets, where almost half (48%) of children are growing up in poverty.
Indeed, it has been noticeably clear for a very long time: our economy is failing us, and systemic inequality is holding us back in almost every aspect of our lives.
The cost-of-living crisis is actually an accumulation of many crises that we are having to endure: the housing crisis, caring crisis, energy crisis, food crisis, the climate crisis, and so on.
Yet this has never been inevitable. It is a question of priorities and choices.
In 2010, the Conservative-Liberal coalition argued that they had inherited an economy that had suffered its worst recession in decades (since the 2008 crash). The then Chancellor George Osborne embarked on slashing spending in order to provide the so-callled “foundations for economic recovery”.
But while austerity continues to inflict pain and suffering across the UK, the illusive “fixed foundations” never were realised. Yet the rich have most definitely got richer, and the wealth of UK billionaires has grown.
It is a disgrace that successive Conservative Governments have paid for tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy by targeting children, among others, for cuts in benefits and services – forcing the majority of people – and particularly the most vulnerable – to pay for a situation they did not create.
The central pillars of austerity have always been substantive cuts to public services and punitive reforms to the welfare system.
Just as stigmatising poverty and blaming people who receive benefits has always been a way to shift blame away from structural problems and onto individuals – fostering the idea that ultimately people are responsible for their own economic situation.
It becomes particularly important to provide scapegoats to point towards to explain why people are being failed and let down.
But other than this, it does nothing to improve our society. Instead, overemphasising the problem of benefit fraud, which only amounts to around 0.2% of the overall welfare spending, and implying that people on benefit support are work-shy, serves to make people anxious and fearful. Rhetoric on pushing families into work ignores the high levels of in-work poverty and that most people are really trying – working and doing everything that society asks and are still unable to escape the cycle of poverty.
In fact, punitive welfare policies, including the introduction of Universal Credit, the benefit cap and the two-child limit, have been horrendously cruel and actively harmful. By 2019, Human Rights Watch calculated that the cuts had amounted to a 44% reduction in support for children and families.
And so, people are still being increasingly pushed into more and more insecurity and poverty – particularly impacting women, disabled people, children, and people from marginalised groups.
Research by the Trussell Trust suggests that most food bank users now live in households where somebody is disabled and last year the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Disabled People found that that the UK has “failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination.”
There is extensive evidence about the serious harm caused to people subjected to dehumanising assessments and sanctions – and that there are reports of deaths directly related to the social security regime.
We must learn the lessons of what has happened so far. As such I support the growing calls for a full transparent independent inquiry into these deaths and for all the information to be released to the public.
That is also why I know that many are alarmed at any possibility of more cuts via on the horizon.
My constituents are crying out for urgent action. And the truth is that I cannot see a better or faster way of starting to get children out of poverty than scrapping the two-child limit.
In fact, whether it is experts, NGOs or charities, what is needed is crystal clear. The evidence is widespread, extensive, clear, and unequivocal.
Introduced by the Tories under the guise of getting people into work, the two-child limit has plunged a rising number of children into poverty.
People must be put first. They deserve more than scapegoats and smokescreens. I will never accept that tackling inequality and injustice is not possible.
Everyone, no matter their origins or background, should have the chance to succeed.
- Apsana Begum is the MP for Poplar and Limehouse and a regular contributor to Labour Outlook. You can follow Apsana on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and Tik Tok.
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