“The trouble with the miniscule grants and the endless carousel of disconnected support services from the Welsh Government is they actually act to prop up a grossly unfair system instead of challenging it.”
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In 2010, in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, the Tories overhauled the British welfare system with devastating consequences.
Of course, it is worth remembering that punitive welfare measures such as benefit sanctions increased under the previous Labour governments of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, but it was not until the Welfare Reform Act of 2012, when among other things the flagship Universal Credit (UC) was born, that the current punitive regime really took off.
Since then, people who rely on state welfare payments have faced a steady yet severe attack on their living standards.
Last year saw a particularly cruel chapter in this story when despite pressure, the temporary £20 increase to UC which was made at the start of the Covid – 19 pandemic (but was never applied to “legacy benefits” like ESA) was axed in October.
Now, as the cost of living soars and with energy bills to hit some £2,000 a year, claimants and those on low wages are seeing their incomes squeezed even further. When the Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced his spring-budget on Wednesday, he didn’t even bother to mention welfare recipients. Maybe this wasn’t so surprising, given that he probably wanted to ignore the fact that his measures negatively affect the very poorest more than anyone else.
But we can’t just look to Westminter, we must ask what has been done about this historic attack on the poor and low paid in Wales?
Throughout the whole period of austerity, we have had a Welsh Labour run government, led since 2018 by Mark Drakeford, a self-proclaimed socialist.
He and his predecessor Carwyn Jones have been reluctant to directly confront Westminster on austerity. We have heard not the language of anger against political decisions which impoverish thousands of people, but often silence or, in the case of Drakefore himself yesterday, the language of austerity itself – that we are in some way all in it together.
Instead, Welsh Labour have preferred to fund a series of relatively small grants, third sector organisations and schemes in an attempt seemingly to ameliorate the impact of Tory cuts. It is this approach which underpins Drakeford’s comments on Wednesday.
What follows is an attempt to think about how these initiatives play-out, writing not as an expert, but as someone who has claimed UC as an unpaid carer and been employed in advice and support work in Wales.
The third sector
One way the Welsh Government deals with funding constraints is delivering services via the third sector. These organisations, which are usually registered charities, are used to deliver what were once publicly run services in housing, mental health support, social care, youth services and so on.
There is considerable overlap between the work of different third sector bodies, shown in how often they find themselves competing for grants to deliver the same service. This in itself is incredibly inefficient. Instead of being spent helping people or delivering services, public money is invested in filing out competitive funding bids.
This disjointed system has a direct impact on the individuals who rely on it, as they often find themselves bouncing between different services as they seek to find somebody to help.
You might queue for hours at Citizens Advice only to find that, no, it is Shelter Cymru who are best positioned to deal with you, and so the process begins again. The stress and emotional toll of repeatedly explaining your situation to multiple professionals should not be underestimated.
A related problem is that because of the way this system operates, the advice and support offered can be of variable quality. Many services are staffed by volunteers who, despite their best intentions, are sometimes unaware or misinformed about the rules regarding matters like welfare. So those using services must always be vigilant for inaccurate advice, the consequences of which can be disastrous. You might be denied access to benefits or even lose your home.
Rising rents
Housing is a particularly contentious issue with rent increases in Wales among the highest in the UK. Despite this, the UK government has frozen the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), and funding for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) is set to be slashed.
The most obvious way to deal with rising rents is to bring in rent caps, but the Labour-Plaid cooperation agreement announced last autumn only promises to explore this idea in the future. Meanwhile, a majority of Welsh Labour MSs abstained on a recent motion from Plaid Cymru’s housing spokesperson Mabon ap Gwynfor calling for rent controls.
It seems the Welsh Government is incapable of envisioning a future in which private landlords do not play a significant role in housing provision. Instead, they have taken steps to professionalise the sector in recent years, but this is piecemeal and ultimately serves to prop it up. Rent Smart Wales, for example, legally requires landlords to register and undergo training, but doesn’t actually support tenants if landlords go against the training.
In The Welsh Way, Steffan Evans points out that Welsh Government initiatives actually transfer public money into the hands of private landlords, further inflating rents. For example, the Private Sector Leasing Scheme encourages landlords to lease homes to local councils in exchange for grants and interest free loans; and the Welsh Government’s Tenancy Hardship Grant provides funds for tenants to pay rent arrears accrued during the pandemic, effectively underwriting debt owed to property tycoons.
Another example of how apparent support measures actually help landlords is the Nest scheme, which offers grants to improve energy efficiency for those on low incomes. But tenants can be evicted just 6 months after improvements have been made, allowing landlords to “flip” properties and profit from them by charging higher rents to new tenants after the improvement work is done.
My own partner received a section 21 eviction notice 12 months after a new heating system was installed by Nest.
In light of the housing crisis, Welsh Labour was recently re-elected on a promise to build 20,000 socially rented homes and has abolished the “right to buy”. These are welcome steps but must be regarded with caution – a similar pledge from 2016 resulted in just 2,592 “affordable” homes being built by 2020.
The cost of living crisis
The cost of living crisis has prompted new measures from the Welsh Government. A Winter Fuel Support Scheme has been administered by local authorities, and provided those on certain benefits with a one-off payment of £200 to offset rising energy costs.
As bills look set to skyrocket to around £2000 a year, however, this will barely touch the sides, and many will no doubt have slipped through the net, unable to face another means test and online form.
As a support worker, many of those I help do not have access to the internet and are unable to properly read and write, so struggle with this bureaucracy. For those in rural areas who are reliant on heating oil, support is provided through the Discretionary Assistance Fund.
The application process for this benefit is even more complicated. Meanwhile, the decision to give a £150 council tax rebate to households living in properties banded A-D has been criticised as a poor use of resources failing to target those who need it most.
And when financial support is available, it is sometimes poorly publicised. Welsh Water, our not-for-profit water company, offers a reduced rate for those on low incomes. I belatedly discovered this when I lost my cool during an exasperated phone call and blurted out how difficult it was to manage the cost. I could have been paying the discounted rate for the previous 12 months, but it was too late for that and I was out of pocket.
What next?
The coronavirus pandemic has seen talk of the end of austerity but this is fanciful. Criticism of the assessment process for benefits like UC and Personal Independent Payment (PIP) is manifold, and a recent parliamentary select committee was told medical evidence provided by claimants is routinely ignored. Other reports suggest that, after a lull during the pandemic, sanctions against claimants are again rising.
The trouble with the miniscule grants and the endless carousel of disconnected support services from Welsh Government is they actually act to prop up a grossly unfair system. Instead of challenging the fundamental injustice, they delude us into thinking something is being done when in fact they are mere alms tossed to the poor to assuage the consciousness of nominal socialists down in Cardiff Bay.
The concessions in the Labour-Plaid cooperation agreement, such as the crucial Free School Meals pledge, were won by groups pushing hard on the ground, and we must continue to press for them to be delivered.
We face an unprecedented crisis of living standards and the £330 million support package announced in February is cold comfort. Asserting that fiscal powers lie in Westminster, it meekly passes the buck. The continued reluctance of Welsh Labour to tackle the Tories head on means we can be certain they will not protect us from this onslaught and we must organise ourselves instead. *M Lee is a support worker in Mid Wales. @calon_haf
