Friday, 23 July 2010

TPA Bulletin - 23rd July 2010
Welfare Reform

We have released a major new paper on how the welfare system could be reformed this week. The report gives detailed proposals for changes, lays out what they might cost, and finds a way to save taxpayers’ money too!

Back when we wrote our manifesto we urged politicians to make benefits simpler and “improve incentives to work and cut costs”. It now looks like the Government are ready to do this, and we’ve not only provided a template, but also dispelled concerns that changes could cost more in the short term. You can read the full report here.

Welfare reform is possible, even with the public finances in a crisis. Not only that, but it is desperately needed.

Here are some key problems with the benefits system as it stands now:

1. It is too complicated, with more than 50 different benefits (the take-up rate for Working Tax Credit is only 57 per cent)
2. It is poorly administered, with fraud and error costing £4.5 billion each year
3. It is unfair on couples because some lose up to £1,336 by living together
4. Those who work and progress in work are financially penalised, the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour can be worth as little as 26p
5. The number of people living in severe poverty has increased from 5 percent to 6 percent in the last decade

We also produced a really exciting video - CLICK HERE to watch it on our YouTube channel!

Please help us spread the word and share the report and video with your friends, family and colleagues.

It has received a wide range of coverage in print and online:
Dizzy Thinks: Welfare Reform in Tough Times
The Spectator CoffeeHouse: Meeting the cost of welfare reform
Kingdom FM (Scottish Radio): Matthew Sinclair was interviewed for news bulletins
ConHome (Centre Right): How to reform welfare now (Matthew Sinclair)
Stratford Conservative Blog: Why is welfare broken?
More quan-goes

There's good news as more quangos are being abolished, namely the Government Offices of the Regions and the Sustainable Development Commission.

Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, announced the abolition of the Government Offices of the Regions and TPA Deputy Research Director John O’Connell has written a blog about why it's a good idea. This move will save taxpayers tens of millions of pounds a year directly and reduce the burden that an unnecessary additional tier of government imposes elsewhere. Local authorities can cooperate flexibly when they need to without regional bureaucracies and that's the best way of delivering on objectives too big for individual councils without central government interfering. The abolition of these offices will bring a valuable saving for taxpayers.

Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Environment, has also announced that DEFRA is going to stop its funding to the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). TPA Research Director Matthew Sinclair has written a blog setting out why we have been calling for the abolition of this quango since last August. Hopefully, it won’t be able to survive without its biggest backer and will close, stopping the rest of its public sector funding and saving even more money. There is no way ordinary taxpayers should have to pay for campaigners to tell the Government that economic growth is a bad thing, just one example of the kind of radical reports they were producing with our money! Abolishing the SDC means a saving for taxpayers and constitutes an important contribution to a fairer political debate.

It’s starting to look like the bonfire of the quangos is finally more than an empty phrase. We’ll keep up the pressure to get more of them scrapped.
You're in charge!

You may remember that at the beginning of the month our Campaigns Manager, Emma Boon, spoke to the Today programme on Radio Four and wrote this blog as the coalition invited the public to recommend laws to be scrapped. At the TPA we recommended the Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act 1992, the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 and the Identity Card Act for the chop, amongst others.

As you can probably imagine, in addition to these there have been a number of proposals on the government website suggesting the UK should ditch the Act that took us into the EEC (as was) in the first place, but regardless of the merits of the case, it looks like politicians right now are going to ignore it.

There are, however, alternatives that might be acceptable to ministers and the TPA have a suggestion. It's still radical and can make a difference. Look here and see if you agree - and if you have a view on it, rate it. You’ll have to register, but then you can make your own suggestions too!
Best of the blogs

Posted by Britannia Radio at 19:55