March 2012 saw the passing of the Welfare Reform Act, a bitterly divisive piece of legislation which was designed to set citizen against citizen in a race to the bottom regarding who was “deserving” of benefits. This, it has to be said built on the foundations laid by New Labour in their last years in office.
In 2008 then DWP Secretary and leading Blairite James Purnell introduced a similar restriction the private rented sector claiming it was right and proper for the Government, “to provide an incentive for those on Housing Benefit to find cheaper accommodation.” Purnell was also responsible for the scandalous introduction of private pirates ATOS into the welfare system when in that same year he tasked them with conducting the cruel and unsuitable Work Capability Assessments (WCA). In April 2010 his successor at the DWP Yvette Cooper approved measures for ATOS to make the WCA tougher despite…
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