As the Conservative Welfare Bill goes to an activist House of Lords, progressives need to speak out for the alternatives

The House of Lords has become an ironically activist body in opposition to the Conservative majority in the Commons that is trying to substantially restructure social security in Britain.

On Tuesday the Conservative government's Welfare Reform and Work Bill returns to the Lords for its third reading. The bill is a key part of the Conservative pursuit of their roundly inspecific manifesto promise of billions in 'welfare savings' - including attempts to scrap child poverty measures, to introduce a total Household Benefits Cap, to freeze benefits and to restrict Child Tax Credits (Treloar, 2015).

In Autumn, the Chancellor dodged public criticism by dropping plans to make cuts to Tax Credits, aided by a gamble on positive economic forecasts (ITV, 2015). Yet, as was recorded at the time, this was only a matter of delaying the inevitable (Kuenssberg, 2015; Eaton, 2015). The intention was still, in time, to phase out Tax Credits and fold them into the Universal Credit.

Now its again the turn of the Universal Credit to face cuts (BBC, 2016). The Institute for Fiscal Studies has stressed that changes will leave many of the poorest people thousands of pounds worse off. Once more the burden of paying down the deficit and debt has been shifted around, disguised, and then left upon the poorest, on those who are struggling the most.

If other opposition has been quiet - with the Labour Party in its pre-Corbyn interim under Harriet Harman abstained in the bill's early phases (Guttenplan, 2015) - it may only be because the political system renders them powerless.

Its true that the government has already been defeated in an ironically activist House of Lords over its welfare plans on both Tax Credits (Morris & Grice, 2015) and the attempt to scrap Child Poverty measures (Mason, 2016; Mortimer, 2016) - with Liberal Democrats who in particular seem determined, weak though their mandate has now become, to use their, problematic but still considerable, presence in the House of Lords to oppose the cuts in Parliament. Yet with a Conservative Commons majority, any opposition could eventually be overcome.

One the biggest criticisms of the Conservative majority is that it has sought to balance the books without sufficient concern for the human cost in the present (Sikka, 2015; Boffey, 2014). The focus of the Conservative government on 'making work pay' has mostly been an exercise in relativism - making work seem relatively more profitable by punishing, hassling and impoverishing those in need of welfare.

For progressives there is a responsibility to look to other ways that do not accept the casualties of the present as an inevitable tragedy and to speak out, especially at a time when the most vulnerable are losing their voice by falling off electoral registration lists and so being under-represented (Mason, 2016{2}). At present, the most exciting alternative is the Basic Income.

On trial in the Netherlands and Finland (Perry, 2015; Unkuri, 2015), the Basic Income is a form of universal welfare, provided to all citizens unconditionally. It acts as a level of subsistence support that is always available, aiming to alleviate all citizens from the fear of falling into, and the desperation of being in, poverty.

On a practical level, it would replace most in-work benefits. From the personal income tax allowance - which might be seen to fulfil a similar role through a tax discount, only provided on the condition that you work for a wage, at a cost of an estimated £86bn - to tax credits and the jobseekers allowance - costing £30bn and £3bn, respectively.

The ongoing economic struggle continues to disproportionately hurt the most vulnerable. Austerity has little to offer them, depending more upon negative liberty, the removal of limitations, than positive liberty, providing a leg up to opportunities.

Laissez faire is not enough. Visibly rising homelessness and the need for food banks is not good enough. A civilised society should be able and prepared to take care of the most vulnerable. Progressives have to be prepared to look for and propose solutions, with more compassion, that act to end poverty.

References

Paul Treloar's 'Welfare Reform and Work Bill 2015'; from the Child Poverty Action Group; August 2015.

'Spending Review: Chancellor scraps plans to cut tax credits and police budgets'; on ITV News; 25 November 2015.

Laura Kuenssberg's 'Important to note some cuts to Universal Credit which will replace tax credits have already passed'; from Twitter; 25 November 2015.

George Eaton's 'Tax credit cut hasn't been abandoned but deferred to 2020 as part of Universal Credit. #spendingreview'; from Twitter; 25 November 2015.

'Universal Credit leaves working families worse off, IFS says'; on the BBC; 3 February 2016.

DD Guttenplan's 'Why a Left-Wing Socialist Is Poised to Become the Leader of Britain’s Labour Party: Unlike the party apparatchiks, Jeremy Corbyn has consistently opposed austerity—and voters are enthusiastic'; in The Nation; 26 August 2015.

Nigel Morris & Andrew Grice's 'Tax credits: House of Lords votes to delay cuts by three years - Prime Minister and Chancellor say that defeats raise a 'constitutional issue' which they were determined to tackle'; in The Independent; 26 October 2015.

Rowena Mason's 'House of Lords votes to keep income-related child poverty measures: Conservatives announced plans to abolish current system of targets, but amendment by bishop of Durham passes by by 290 votes to 198'; in The Guardian; 25 January 2016.

Caroline Mortimer's 'Government loses major House of Lords vote to redefine child poverty: Peers approve amendment to the Welfare Reform bill which will block attempts to abolish income-related targets'; in The Independent; 25 January 2016.

Prem Sikka's 'Rich man, poor man: the two-nation policies of the Conservative government - New tax plans will help the middle classes, but do nothing to address inequality'; on Left Foot Forward; 28 May 2015.

Daniel Boffey's 'Revealed: how coalition has helped rich by hitting poor - Study shows gains for wealthier half of population, delivering a blow to George Osborne’s claims on fairness'; in The Guardian; 15 November 2014.

Rowena Mason's 'Electoral register loses estimated 800,000 people: Figures compiled by Labour find register has shrunk dramatically in areas with high student population'; in The Guardian; 31 January 2016.

Francesca Perry's 'The giving city: Utrecht plans 'basic income' experiment'; on City links; in The Guardian; 10 July 2015.

Maija Unkuri's 'Finland considers basic income to reform welfare system'; on the BBC; 20 August 2015.

Joseph Finlay's 'What Natalie Should Have Said - How to Fund the Green Party's Citizen's Income Policy'; in The Huffington Post UK; 1 February 2015.

'Estimated costs of the principal tax expenditure and structural reliefs'; from HM Government; December 2015.

Larry Elliott & Patrick Wintour's 'IFS challenges George Osborne over £12bn welfare spending cut plan: Thinktank says chancellor must specify how he will reach targets announced in the budget, given that the poor had been hardest hit by benefit changes'; in The Guardian; 19 March 2015.

Simon Rogers' 'UK welfare spending: how much does each benefit really cost? Which are Britain's most expensive benefits and where does the money go?'; in The Guardian; 8 January 2013.