Allowing local councils to set benefit rates is the latest idea to reform public services. Speaking at the New Local Government Network conference, Philip Hammond MP is reported to want to allow authorities to set and distribute benefits such as JobSeekers Allowance, so they can match benefit rates with local labour market conditions. This will result in ‘huge potential savings’.
Setting aside the questions of the lack of jobs full stop, the fact that there is NO evidence that unemployment benefits deter people from working, the increase in bureaucracy (because 1,000s of councils are paying tax rather than one big government department), all the unforeseen side-effects (as unemployed people ‘border hop’ from low benefit to high benefit areas) there is the little matter of history…. In the 1930s, unemployment in Merthyr Tydfil was so high that the authorities were no longer able to afford to provide ‘public assistance’ and the town was near bankrupt.
Sixty one years ago today – 1st Feb 1939 – S.O. Davies MP said in the House of Commones that ‘areas which have suffered widespread and longstanding unemployment ought not to be left to bear entirely the financial and social consequences of such a burden’.
Sixty one years on, that same principle holds true.
