The Attack On Working Tax Credits: Implentation & Propaganda.

[taffboy gwyrdd]

This attack on many working poor people has been on the cards for some time.

It's unclear to me what form it might take, although before the election there was, for one thing, talk of "conditionality" being placed on people claiming tax credits whereby they'd have to justify work search activity, above the 16+ hours they may have, in a similar fashion to people who are on JSA.

Obviously, the admin implications of this would be huge, though we know from Universal Clusterfuck that mere detail need be no obstacle to zealous ideology.

This week saw some propaganda about the "merry go round" of people paying taxes and receiving credits back, but as an attack it's kind of weak. I assume there will have to be a great deal more orchestrated attacks on the lifestyles of part time / self employed workers. What kind of articles, memes, catchphrases do people here anticipate in the likely onslaught?

 

[Pickman's model]

we're all in this together hardworking families feckless undeserving poor

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

we're all in this together hardworking families feckless undeserving poor

Presumably it's harder to drive a "lazy, feckless" line against people who are doing some paid work as opposed to none, so fabrication and exageration may have to be ratcheted up. Wonder if anyone can second guess some examples of how.

Thinking back to when the propaganda against disabled people was being constructed and bedded down, there were a lot of "news" items about people faking it. Perhaps one line against the working poor is that they aint really working at all...or doing as little as possible. "Here's someone who only does a bit here and there" then they add up some astronomical landlord benefit and stuff for the kids and announce that he's actually on £30k a year or something. And if he visits family elsewhere every now and again, well that's THREE HOLIDAYS a year at YOUR EXPENSE.

That kind of thing? Or something more imaginative from the Goebellian scum?

 

[westcoast1]

This has been on the cards for a while. Much worse is to come I reckon.

 

[weepiper]

The media's been softening us up for this for ages already

Just look at the language used in this article from 3 years ago

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ouncil-house-despite-raking-34k-benefits.html

Miss Kozlovska, a self-employed cleaner, pays only £100 in rent a week to a private landlord for the house in Boston, Lincolnshire. The property is maintained for her by Boston borough council.

She claims working tax credits, child tax credits and child benefits. Every week, she receives £527 in child tax credit and working tax credit as well as £127 in child benefits. In total, she receives £34,000 a year from the state – far more than the average UK salary of just over £26,000 before tax.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

thanks weepiper - might tax credits be in for benefit style capping I wonder?

 

[Ground Elder]

The Four Day Weekend at YOUR Expense

e2a I won't be able to live with myself if I now actually see that headline

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

The Four Day Weekend at YOUR Expense

e2a I won't be able to live with myself if I now actually see that headline

Christ, that's a goer isn't it? :-/

 

[crossthebreeze]

The media's been softening us up for this for ages already

Just look at the language used in this article from 3 years ago

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ouncil-house-despite-raking-34k-benefits.html

Tax credits have been a major focus of the anti-EU-immigration lobby (basically because until this year it used to be relatively easy for people coming from EU countries to register as self-employed and claim tax credits even if access to other benefits was restricted). I can definitely imagine them starting to slur tax credit claimants in general in the same way.

 

[Ground Elder]

I was going to point out that many Big Issue sellers are claiming Working Tax Credit, but IDS beat me to it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ns-claim-work-benefits-says-Duncan-Smith.html

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Some of the recent rhetoric has been along the lines of "working tax credits allow companies to underpay their staff, and that's not right" Guess where that's going.

 

[free spirit]

Some of the recent rhetoric has been along the lines of "working tax credits allow companies to underpay their staff, and that's not right" Guess where that's going.

it is true, however that should be addressed by raising the minimum wage to a living wage (or up to £10 an hour as the Greens policy is), while leaving the tax credits themselves alone.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

it is true, however that should be addressed by raising the minimum wage to a living wage (or up to £10 an hour as the Greens policy is), while leaving the tax credits themselves alone.

Yeah. This is the rub for the Tories. On one hand they want to attack WFTC but on the other they want to help facilitate the low wage economy to benefit their chums. By the way, free movement is essential to that strategy.

I think this is a significant moment. Assuming the Tories don't do what free spirit suggests. I think so because it's one thing to point to the unemployed as feckless but much harder to make the same charge at low paid cleaners, guards, admin staff etc.

The OP correctly poses questions about what and where the cuts are likely to fall. If the Tories fuck this up it could be the moment the wider narrative and support for the austerity agenda begins to shift.

 

[zxspectrum]

According to Simon Hughes, Osborne wanted to reduce JSA for long term claimants by 10% year on year, after the first.

Since Universal Credit is still a shambles, what can they really do with tax credits. If they cut them the hardworking taxpayers they think voted for them will notice.

 

[Plumdaff]

Elsewhere on the internet I've seen Tories complaining about workshy part time workers who don't want more hours because tax credits allow for such a generous income whilst poor hardworking full timers shoulder on. This is of course patent bollocks and a blatant attack on women but I've seen it accepted as gospel enough to assume this will form part of the argument. Incentivise them to work more!

 

[zxspectrum]

Elsewhere on the internet I've seen Tories complaining about workshy part time workers who don't want more hours because tax credits allow for such a generous income whilst poor hardworking full timers shoulder on. This is of course patent bollocks and a blatant attack on women but I've seen it accepted as gospel enough to assume this will form part of the argument. Incentivise them to work more!

Isn't that the whole purpose of UC?

 

[Plumdaff]

Isn't that the whole purpose of UC?

I've just seen it everywhere recently so assumed a ramping up of propaganda ahead of the tax credit cuts.

 

[BigTom]

If the integration into UC happens then tax credit claimants will be subject to the same individual attacks as jsa/esa claimants are (workfare, sanctions, conditionality etc) and to justify that there'll have to be the standard scroungers shit, claims of people choosing to work part time and claim cos they end up getting more money than working full time. A specific attack will come on the people who have been encouraged to move from JSA (and probably ESA) onto WTC because they will show up as being in employment (good for Osborne, good for the work programme providers who get paid). They don't have a job and aren't earning any money from whatever self-employment they've tried but with little conditionality and no job centre shit it's better to take less money per week. There's a tension here though as cracking down on this might lead to unemployment figures rising which the tories won't want.

 

[Roadkill]

it is true, however that should be addressed by raising the minimum wage to a living wage (or up to £10 an hour as the Greens policy is), while leaving the tax credits themselves alone.

Agreed. Working tax credits were a New Labour sticking plaster over the fact that wages are simply too low. That's the case across much of the developed world: real wages have been stagnating for decades, as capital has increased its share of total income at the expense of labour. But as you say, you don't address that by attacking the incomes of those who, through no fault of their own, depend on tax credits for a large part of their income.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Agreed. Working tax credits were a New Labour sticking plaster over the fact that wages are simply too low. That's the case across much of the developed world: real wages have been stagnating for decades, as capital has increased its share of total income at the expense of labour. But as you say, you don't address that by attacking the incomes of those who, through no fault of their own, depend on tax credits for a large part of their income.

Correct, plus all of the evidence is that most part time workers want more hours but their employer is unwilling/unable to provide them.

And of course the operation of free movement is purely to ensure employers have a large pool of labour willing to work at or below minimum wage levels.

 

[treelover]

Presumably it's harder to drive a "lazy, feckless" line against people who are doing some paid work as opposed to none, so fabrication and exageration may have to be ratcheted up. Wonder if anyone can second guess some examples of how.

Thinking back to when the propaganda against disabled people was being constructed and bedded down, there were a lot of "news" items about people faking it. Perhaps one line against the working poor is that they aint really working at all...or doing as little as possible. "Here's someone who only does a bit here and there" then they add up some astronomical landlord benefit and stuff for the kids and announce that he's actually on £30k a year or something. And if he visits family elsewhere every now and again, well that's THREE HOLIDAYS a year at YOUR EXPENSE.

That kind of thing? Or something more imaginative from the Goebellian scum?

E Bay part timers, etc, the misanthropes on social media, even money saving expert, etc have started going on about how people on tax credits have an easy ride, holidays, etc, without having to work hard for them.

 

[CNT36]

Correct, plus all of the evidence is that most part time workers want more hours but their employer is unwilling/unable to provide them.

And of course the operation of free movement is purely to ensure employers have a large pool of labour willing to work at or below minimum wage levels.

That was my experience for much of the time I was on them I wanted/needed more hours. When I had a small pay rise I ended up slightly better off. I've known employers who have considered giving a pay rise but assumed the employee would get no extra benefit and would rather the money came from someone else. Is that an accurate perception? Doesn't tally with when I had the small rise but when I eventually got the extra hours I was no longer entitled due to a change of circumstances.

 

[Jackobi]

Ducan Smith's insistence that people who "have disabilities are treated with the utmost kindness and utmost support" during the cuts seems to hint that ESA or DLA/PIP will be slashed. I've read speculation that contribution-based ESA is likely to be abolished and ESA WRAG payments cut to JSA rates.

 

[treelover]

According to Simon Hughes, Osborne wanted to reduce JSA for long term claimants by 10% year on year, after the first.

Since Universal Credit is still a shambles, what can they really do with tax credits. If they cut them the hardworking taxpayers they think voted for them will notice.

The emergency budget is yet to come, who knows what is in it.

 

[treelover]

If the integration into UC happens then tax credit claimants will be subject to the same individual attacks as jsa/esa claimants are (workfare, sanctions, conditionality etc) and to justify that there'll have to be the standard scroungers shit, claims of people choosing to work part time and claim cos they end up getting more money than working full time. A specific attack will come on the people who have been encouraged to move from JSA (and probably ESA) onto WTC because they will show up as being in employment (good for Osborne, good for the work programme providers who get paid). They don't have a job and aren't earning any money from whatever self-employment they've tried but with little conditionality and no job centre shit it's better to take less money per week. There's a tension here though as cracking down on this might lead to unemployment figures rising which the tories won't want.

Wonder when the first BBC or Ch5 'documentary' on WTC claimants ''living the high life'' will begin.

 

[MochaSoul]

Wonder when the first BBC or Ch5 'documentary' on WTC claimants ''living the high life'' will begin.

Did they ever stop? It wasn't long ago I heard about Benefits Street.

 

[zxspectrum]

The emergency budget is yet to come, who knows what is in it.

Given that Osborne, if Hughes is to be believed, thinks this is a good idea and wanted it in 2010 (Hughes says the Coalition refused it), it's not unreasonable to think they, now in sole control, would go for it now.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Wonder when the first BBC or Ch5 'documentary' on WTC claimants ''living the high life'' will begin.

I think that is a difficult task. The nature of the work many of these people do and the wages that they are on - and the fact that they work alongside others - makes the denigration of them impossible in my view.

And that is one of the reasons (along with the inevitable questions it raises about wage levels and about whose interests free movement is operated by and for) that this is an important moment for those using austerity as cover for wider attacks on the working class.

 

[toggle]

If the integration into UC happens then tax credit claimants will be subject to the same individual attacks as jsa/esa claimants are (workfare, sanctions, conditionality etc) and to justify that there'll have to be the standard scroungers shit, claims of people choosing to work part time and claim cos they end up getting more money than working full time. A specific attack will come on the people who have been encouraged to move from JSA (and probably ESA) onto WTC because they will show up as being in employment (good for Osborne, good for the work programme providers who get paid). They don't have a job and aren't earning any money from whatever self-employment they've tried but with little conditionality and no job centre shit it's better to take less money per week. There's a tension here though as cracking down on this might lead to unemployment figures rising which the tories won't want.

And the potential impact on those claiming disability tax credits.

ATM, if you qualify for disability tax credits, through various means, but claiming DLA is one of the routes to it, you get full working tax credits, plus a disability premium for 16 hours a week, with, I believe less chance of a problem if you're self employed and not bringing in a min wage. Now under UC, they can set a lower than standard minimum hours requirement if you are disabled, but with the higher qualification standards for PIP, a lot of people will loose eligibility for disability premium and consideration. Plus, with the habit of this shower of shit in charge of considering someone fit for work as long as they aren't dead, there's a lot of potential for harassment of vulnerable people.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Given that Osborne, if Hughes is to be believed, thinks this is a good idea and wanted it in 2010 (Hughes says the Coalition refused it), it's not unreasonable to think they, now in sole control, would go for it now.

Almost inevitably. The question the OP asked was in what form and where.

I'm interested in that and also in the wider questions any attack poses and opens up.