Globalisation:Centre for Social Justice: Activities

In the News

Welfare Reforms

“My welfare reforms are Beveridge for today, with a hint of Tebbit”, this is how Iain Duncan Smith described his welfare reform acts in an interview with Andrew Porter and Mary Riddell of The Daily Telegraph. Duncan Smith declares that he has finally got there, he has finally come up with an answer in order to sort the current welfare system that has spawned out of control. Within the article the authors suggest that he is “basically ripping up the benefits system and starting again” and believe that it will have little lasting effect within society. However Smith does not see it this way he hopes that people will recognise the changes as simply being a cultural shift. Smith suggests that these changes that are to be introduced are the biggest changes since the Bevridge Report and the introduction of the welfare state. As it was through this report that there was the identification of the five giants, these being want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness, the reporters make the suggestion that it is in actual fact idleness that most privately concerns him. Duncan Smith and the coalition party have decided to replace the benefit system with one, the universal credit and that there will be a shift away from the generosity of the Labour party to a government that comes down hard on those who refuse to work.

DUNCAN SMITH VOWS TO SUPPORT FAMILIES

“Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to become young offenders than those brought up in stable families, a senior Government minister has warned”,. Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith blamed the previous Labour government for undermining and not reinforcing the importance of families. This has resulted in higher crime rates, deeper poverty and poorer life chances for children, within this article he also goes as far as to suggest that the abandoning of policies that support marriage has cost the country up to £100 billion. Within his speech at the annual conference of relationship counselling he states that evidence showed that lone parent families are more likely to live in poverty than two parent families. During his speech he states that supporting families was high on the coalitions agenda and that stable families were crucial to children's life chances and the social fabric of the nation”. As well as this he emphasises the importance of marriage in building a strong society, particularly if children are to be given the best chance in life and again criticises the last government, "Sadly the last Government seemed determined to undermine marriage” . The Globalisation: Centre for Social Justice estimates that family breakdowns costs the economy between £20bn and £24bn, while the Relationships Foundation claims it is closer to £40bn, however Mr Duncan Smith said it could be as high as £100 billion in his opinion. The costs to society as a whole through social breakdown, addiction, crime, lost productivity and tax revenues are very difficult to quantify - but research suggests they could be up to £100 billion. Smith attempts to show how family life affects all of us from what happens on our streets, in our communities and in our economy. What you learn early on has a great deal to say about the person you will eventually become later in life. “We would be foolish to ignore the weight of evidence that shows just how influential family can be to life outcomes. He told his representatives at the conference in Daventry, Northamptonshire, that Britain has among the highest divorce and teenage pregnancy rates in Europe, but claimed “throwing money at the problem will not solve it.