Jeffs post
The minister for disabled people has been accused of making “false promises” that she would reduce the living costs of people facing cuts of nearly £30 a week to their out-of-work disability benefits.
From this week, new employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants placed in the work-related activity group (WRAG) will receive about £73 a week – the same as those claiming jobseeker’s allowance – instead of the £102 per week paid to existing ESA WRAG claimants.
The highly controversial cut will save the government more than £1 billion over the next four years.
Ministers had tried to justify it by claiming that receiving nearly £30 less a week would “incentivise” sick and disabled people in the WRAG to find work.
But Penny Mordaunt had also promised fellow MPs on the work and pensions select committee in November (pictured) that she was working on a package of measures to “mitigate the £30”, which she said would be in place “before April”.
But when Disability News Service (DNS) asked this week what Mordaunt had managed to achieve in the four months since November, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) suggested that her only success was ensuring that new WRAG claimants would be told by their jobcentre work coaches how to secure the cheapest BT telephone tariff.Posted by jeffrey davies on 07 April 2017
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taken for mugs
McDonnell flags Tory £20 BN tax-giveaway. Press ignores/attacks Labour
Jeremy Corbyn and his team are often attacked for a supposed ‘failure’ to communicate. It’s one of the chief lines of attack by right-wing Labour figures, along with the pundits and media that support them.
But is it really a failure – or a blackout?
Yesterday morning, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell issued a press release outlined enormous tax-cuts for the wealthy that came into force on Saturday. Here’s what it says:
mcdonnell press release
If it looks unfamiliar, there’s a reason for that.
£20 billion in tax cuts by 2022. Two billion pounds just next year to major corporations. All while cutting benefits massively to working people struggling to make ends meet – the so-called ‘JAMS’ (just about managing) that Theresa May talked about when she moved into Downing Street – and promptly forgot.
The tax paid by huge corporations is of massive public interest. The money in our pockets is of huge public interest.
Surely the newspapers would mention it. Ok, you might expect no better from the Mail, Express, Telegraph etc. But some.
The Independent chose to run a huge splash on Labour’s supposed troubles:
independent front page
The tax cuts don’t even make one of the small panels.
The Guardian? Nope:
guardian 4 april 17.jpg.
So-called ‘Labour’ newspaper, the Daily Mirror? No:
Mirror 4 Apr 17
And so it goes.
What’s more relevant to the everyday lives of the vast majority of people in this country – speculation about Labour’s electoral prospects or cuts to the income of millions in order to fund huge tax cuts to a few rich people and companies?
As McDonnell said, the priorities of Theresa May and her party are made clear by the tax cuts and benefit cuts.
And the priorities of the media are equally clear today in their decision to hide what’s actually important and focus on what’s not – to black out Labour’s message and either ignore it altogether or replace it with anything, anything negative they can come up with.
And then blame Corbyn and his team for their ‘failure’ to get their message across.
It’s clearer than ever that the media are in concert when it comes to the narrative they want to convey about Labour – and to hell with facts and truth.
It’s up to us – and we have to find the ways to bypass them.
