MANY people are more than tired of hearing that “we’re all in this together”; a line that could reasonably be expected to haunt Osborne in the way that Norman Lamont’s assertion that unemployment was “a price worth paying”.
Through the help of the Royal National Institute for the Blind, with some colleagues from the TUC, last week I was able to meet with some visually impaired people along with individuals who had other disabilities. The stories they were telling of their experiences in the last six months demonstrate the frustration they face in their daily lives and they highlight the stark unfairness of the way in which the government’s economic and social policies are impacting on the most vulnerable.
One woman told us how she was fighting to keep a very small but critical home help support of two hours per week. She explained how this helped with reading post, taking meter readings; things that the majority of us take for granted but very disabling for her.
Others explained how they were feeling increasingly anxious about their income with the growing clamour for everyone on benefits to find work. They were very clear that they wanted to work, most had worked at some point, but lack of support for employers to enable them to offer work to people with disabilities, employer discrimination and a dearth of employability support for people with disabilities were creating insurmountable barriers however much they wanted to be in work.
Someone described it as the government squeezing benefits while removing the steps we need to take to earn wages – it’s just not fair.
Earlier in the day I met with some low-paid workers in Newcastle City Council. In a room of about a dozen staff, about half had two, three or four jobs to make ends meet, but were still struggling. Everyone was extremely anxious about the impending massive increase in energy bills; those that had cars were seeking to use them less due to increasing fuel costs; some were talking about coming out of the local government pension scheme as a way of releasing money to meet daily living expenses. It simply cannot be right in a modern, industrialised economy that people working thirty or more hours a week still have to make choices between filling the car up or paying the gas bill, of being in a modest pension scheme or affording the weekly shopping.
None of these people believe we’re all in this together.
Kevin Rowan, regional secretary, Northern TUC
