“Unfair, discriminatory, costly and completely unworkable” was how UNISON’s June Poole described the government’s welfare reforms in a debate at the TUC Congress this afternoon.
And that, she said, is “a fact – verified by the National Audit Office only last week,” in a report on plans for a new universal credit.
The centrepiece of the government’s welfare reforms has been branded a “Titanic-sized IT disaster” after it was revealed that, so far, £34m has already been written off.
“We could feel smug and say ‘We told you so’,” said Ms Poole, “but let’s not get too distracted by this IT failure – no matter how catastrophic.
“Because the real challenge and the real catastrophe we have is to stop this government’s determination to wreck people’s living standards and life chances through removing people’s universal rights to welfare support.
“We must stop the toxic myths that somehow the most vulnerable and poorly paid in our society don’t deserve our help.”
As congress debated union facility time, UNISON’s Sue Highton condemned “organisations such as the Trade Union Reform Campaign” for their use of “dodgy statistics and poorly researched reports as part of their smear campaign” against “paid facility time in the public sector.”
Ms Highton cited a report from the National Centre for Social Research – “an independent research organisation” commissioned by UNISON to investigate facility time in the public sector.
This report, she said, tells a very different story, showing “the huge benefits which came to those organisations and to taxpayers as a result of granting trade union facility time.
“So does the government listen to this evidence?” asked Ms Highton. “Of course not.”
Congress backed calls for a campaign for properly resourced workplace representation, which is “vital to a successful and progressive economy”.