There are two events on Welfare Reform coming up, one at Breakthough NI and one at NICVA. Those with any interest in welfare reform – perhaps the political issue of the moment – should try to get to both.
Welfare Reform stirs the emotions, but a few points need to be made urgently.
1. It’s going to happen. For people in public affairs, this is essential. No tweaks are likely, and frankly any late tweaks which are made would only serve to cause administrative chaos in the implementation of the reform. Focus on what you are going to do through and after the reform, not on what you think should happen.
2. It should happen. We cannot go on in a situation where people get penalised financially for taking a job or getting married. Yes, there will always be the odd person whose specific situation is genuinely unfortunate, and such a person deserves sympathy and support. The overall aim, however, is unquestionably sound.
3. It should pretty much happen the way it is happening. In my view, it is being implemented too quickly. There are aspects around housing I would do differently. However, we can all find fault. If we were to take account of all the faults, point 2 above would come under challenge. It can’t.
4. It needn’t be bad for NI. There seems a common assumption that NI is peculiarly badly placed to deal with the reform. This will only be so if we don’t sort out our childcare and housing provision (including, frankly, Shared Future issues around those). On the contrary, the reform could be very good for Northern Ireland – enhancing work as a life option (for that is what is being attempted) would be a particularly good thing in communities currently riddled by paramilitarism, for example.
5. Welfare is a long-term issue. So don’t buy this “there’s no work” line. There were 5 million long-term unemployed in the UK when Tony Blair came to office. When he left office, after a decade of boom, there were, er, still 5 million long-term unemployed in the UK despite millions of jobs being added in that time (half of which went to people from outside the country). Welfare has to fit both boom and bust, and the central focus is that there are people who are unable to work for various reasons regardless of the economic situation – it’ll take several economic cycles to sort that out, but we have to start somewhere (and it might as well be now as any other time).
6. Finance cannot be central to creating a Welfare System which works – but it does matter. We in NI cannot afford 5 billion a year. Reform should not be based on addressing that – but it should ultimately address it, even if only in the long term.
