Day of Action against Universal Credit

Saturday 2nd December has been called as a day of action against Universal Credit by anti-austerity groups around the country, including Unite Community, People’s Assembly, Disabled People Against Cuts, Mental health Resistance Network and many independent campaign groups like Hands Off Our Homes.

Hands Off Our Homes will be supporting this with stalls in the town centre – at our usual spot near the Body Shop in Briggate if possible, but if it rains or our spot is inaccessible on the day, we’ll be round the corner on Kirkgate (the bit that runs from Briggate through to Vicar Lane, where there’s an overhang to keep us dry). We invite everyone to join us, or alternatively make your own flyers/banners etc and do your own actions or events with your own group or organisation, or with your mates/neighbours etc – whether in town, in your own neioghbourhood or elsewhere.

The roll-out of Universal Credit is throwing thousands of households into destitution and rent arrears, with a serious threat of eviction. Many others are being refused housing as landlords anticipate tenants falling into arrears as they are switched to UC. In part this is due to the long delay before any payments are received, which is why the government is under intense pressure to “pause” the roll-out and “fix” this and other issues. Hands Off Our Homes believes that the current roll-out is an emergency on a massive scale for all those on low incomes or not in waged work, and must be halted immediately to prevent the tragedy of mass homelessness and its long-term effects on those affected (many of whom are children).

But Hands Off Our Homes does not believe that UC can be “fixed” – at least not in a way which satisfies our demands for a decent welfare system: one that guarantees us a decent quality of life regardless of whether we are able to do paid work or find work which pays enough to live on; or whether our work is in the home as parents or carers. A system which does not harass people with disabilities or pressure them to undertake inappropriate and intrusive “therapies”, or persecute single parents of young children, or punish those already struggling to juggle precarious waged work with family responsibilities and crap childcare provision, for failing to find time and energy to take on yet another part-time job.

The switch to UC comes on the back of numerous benefit cuts which are already pushing households to breaking point, whilst the conditions attached to claiming – backed up by harsh sanctions – are taking their toll on claimants physical and mental health. UC brings with it still more cuts (eg, no Housing Support for under-22s; extension of the two-child limit for Tax Credits to all 3rd and subsequent children, not just those born after April this year), and parents of 3 and 4 year old children forced to seek paid work and parents of even younger children forced into work-related activities and interviews. The cut to the work allowance last year meant an effective huge tax rise for the lowest paid households. And under UC low-paid workers can for the first time be sanctioned for not seeking to increase their earned income.

In other words, UC represents a package, a wrap-around system for forcing virtually everyone of “working” age to compete for any and every low-paid and insecure job, making it harder to challenge low pay, poor conditions, harassment or unsafe practices at work. It builds into its very design an idea that it’s a virtue to be able to “manage” a poverty income and an arduous and thankless quality of life, and a system to “train” people to do just that. The reality is that an inadequate income cannot – and should not – be “managed”, and that people are paying with their mental and physical health, the well-being of their children, and in some cases their lives.