Wellbeing has been forgotten in the drive to improve employment statistics

Photograph: Job Centre Plus by Andrew Writer (License) (Cropped)

As we approach eight years of Conservative government, the impact of their time in government is becoming clearer. If we judge a society by the wellbeing of it's poorest members, the Conservatives have fallen short.

Despite low unemployment and a real terms rise in household incomes - about £600 a year between 2007/8 and 2015/16 - the poorest have not seen the benefit, caught beneath the weight of the rising cost of living and Conservative cuts to benefits and tax credits.

As we wrote in October, you can't count on increasing employment alone to improve people's wellbeing - especially if the work available is precarious, with insecure pay and hours.

Last week, Resolution Foundation released a report looking at how employment had changed over the last twenty years. It pointed out that there has been a shift among working people, on the lowest incomes, towards lower hours and part-time employment.

Resolution described this shift as, in part, unwelcome and involuntary - with a quarter of working class people wanting more hours. The squeeze on working hours is not being helped by the increasingly precarious, non-standard form of hours worked.

This situation is coinciding with the real terms increase in earnings being offset by several forces: the rising cost of housing, the rising cost of energy and the rise in households servicing growing debt.

With wage growth lagging behind consumer price rises, the cost of living is putting a great deal of pressure on the least well-off households. The Conservative drive to clamp down on welfare and drive people into work has not delivered greater wellbeing.

For seven and a half years, the Conservative approach has been steady as she goes. Even a change of Prime Minister and Chancellor has not led to a change of plan. The evidence shows that, for the wellbeing of the poorest, this needs to change.

First of all, there is a need to address the punitive impact of welfare reforms - that will see the incomes of the poorest fall 10% by 2021-22 compared to 2010. Work is not paying.

Consider: how does the government expect a household that struggles to stay afloat on a precarious income - juggling high rent and servicing debt - with no extra for savings, to meet it's needs when a job if lost and they're faced with a five week benefits application waiting period? Answer: More debt.

Second, the cost of living must be tackled. We need cheaper energy and cheaper rent. How this will be achieved in the long run - whether by community-owned services to breach the energy monopoly and an expansion of social housing and a living rent, or through increased market competition - in the short term they government action.

And third, bound to the first two, a concerted effort must be made to address the growth of household debt. Debts caused by living costs, mostly rent, are a damning indictment of the failure to make work pay - debts that only increase when help is needed most.

The least well off are being crushed and trapped under Tory policies, living with growing anxiety and precarity. Wellbeing is suffering to no discernible end. That is the tale of eight years of Conservative government.

References

Laurie Macfarlane's 'Showed this chart to a couple of Tories last night, which illustrates just how regressive government policy has been since 2010. They seemed genuinely taken aback by it. I’ve yet to come across anyone who can actually justify it'; from Twitter; 20 January 2018.

Ashwin Kumar's 'Have the incomes of the poorest fifth risen by £1,800?'; from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; 16 January 2018.

'The reality of austerity Britain: work and life are now poor, precarious and uncertain'; in The Alternative; 23 October 2017.

Stephen Clarke and George Bangham's 'Counting the hours: two decades of changes in earnings and hours worked'; from Resolution Foundation; 15 January 2018.
http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/counting-the-hours-two-decades-of-changes-in-earnings-and-hours-worked/

Daniel Wright & Rachel Case's 'Problem debts: Households in poverty face a difficult 2018'; from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; 16 January 2018.

Andrew Hood, Robert Joyce & David Sturrock's 'Problem debt and low-income households'; from the Institute for Fiscal Studies; 16 January 2018.

''Zero real wage growth' forecast for 2018'; on the BBC; 27 December 2017.

'Wage squeeze continues for British households'; on the BBC; 13 December 2017.

'UK inflation rate drops back to 3%'; on the BBC; 16 January 2018.

Des Cohen's 'Not in it together: the distributional impact of austerity'; on Open Democracy; 10 January 2018.

Kate Belgrave's 'Why are we talking about student debt but not benefit debt? The state and its ‘providers’ are crushing people with debt. Rather than helping people, they own them. The problem is as urgent as student debt – and an amnesty is long overdue'; on Open Democracy; 18 September 2017.