Could you live on £53 a week?

That is the challenge for many people who are unable to find work in this recession. £53 is nothing really when you have to pay the b ills for gas, water and electricity not mentioning feeding yourself and heating your home. There is simply no way you can live on this alone. Yet Iain Duncan Smith is telling those who can’t find jobs that £53 a week is a cushty lifestyle and they should be grateful for even this. Putting it into perspective at how generous this really is JSA in the UK is 18% of average wage, compared to Germany's 35%, France's 47% & Sweden's 68% This is simply not a lifestyle you would choose if you had the choice. An incredibly fast growing petition has been set up by someone who thought they’d challenge IDS to live on £53 a week the link to this is below http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/iain-duncan-smith-iain-duncan-smith-to-live-on-53-a-week Those who are on JSA take it as a way of getting by and getting by is all it gives you an existence not a life. You cannot live the life of luxury like the Tories seem to think. But then when you’re so disengaged from reality of life in poverty and have never had to struggle in your life then no wonder you’d think benefits are generous. It is a clear out and out contempt for the poor. This is blatant class warfare where we need the labour movement to answer this in a robust fashion drawing the links and common ground between that in work and out of work. Over 60% of those on benefits are actually in work according to the DWP taking tax credits to top up crap pay. We wouldn’t need working tax credits if we all had a proper decent lovable wage not just a living wage of a tiny bit more than minimum wage. But IDS people will not take this laying down the uptake in this petition now touching quarter of a million signatures shows the strength of feeling against the Tories and their attacks on the poor. Let’s not just call for IDS to try living on £53 a week let’s get rid of him and his government of millionaires once and for all!

Britain needs a pay rise!

British workers have faced incredible suffering for some time now. One of the main issues behind the current struggles of working people in Britain is the fact we have a low wage economy with British workers pay often not covering their weekly out goings and more often than not leaving them down on the week. Quite often workers are having to take tax credits to top up their pay and therefore costing the welfare state pounds in benefits. If a living wage was properly paid to all workers there could be put money in workers pockets to go and spend in the wider economy. Just a thought ay? The real value of wages in the UK has fallen by 7% since 2008, more than £50billion a year. This means people have less money to spend, holding back growth and a potential economic recovery. PCS members are striking on budget day after five years of a pay freeze and the current 1% pay rise. There has been a real terms cut in the total value of Britain’s wages by £50 billion since 2007 and there needs to be immediate stimulus and improvement In terms and conditions for workers to put this money back in and restart the economy. Without drastic action there is now a very real prospect of a triple-dip-recession with many forecasters predicting a prolonged negative Outlook for our economy. Since the start of the economic downturn in 2007 the real value of wages has fallen by about 7%. This in part is because of the Depression of wages in the public sector. It has been proven time and again that putting money into people’s pockets is the most effective way to stimulate Local economies around the country and putting the lost £50bn back into the economy are the best way to foster growth. I support the PCS members throughout the country, who are engaging in a programme of industrial action starting on Budget Day to demand that the Tories take action On low pay and our faltering economy. I support them in their struggle as do the MPs who have signed EDM 1081. This post may sound quite reformist and you may ask why am I not demanding the end of the wage system and a end to capitalism well we are not at that point yet and even revolutionary socialists will fight for every possible reform capitalism can give working people and will fight tooth and nail for this. We must also point out the limited nature of reforms and concessions in that they are only temporary under this system of capitalism and ultimately we do need to change society on to democratic socialist lines. An immediate pay increase will help many workers in the short term though and it shouldn’t be something we oppose if it’s fought for and struggled for. Besides every gain breeds confidence into workers that they can struggle and gain victories. There is no reason why other unions other than the PCS could co ordinate strike action around the question of pay and the ongoing pay freeze into wider industrial action. The money is out there while we sit here over 750 billion sits idle in the vaults of big business and banks. A 50% levee on that would instantly free up cash for a wage increase and other public services we so desperately need in this country.

Fighting the cuts to tax credits

Over the last few days IDS Ian Duncan Smith has come out to say too many people are dependent on tax credits and labour fueld this boom of tax credits. In one sense he has a point tax credits were used by new labour to fuel a credit boom which meant people could have a top up on their wages. Just like myself I do not earn nearly enough to even pay any forms of tax so I can claim tax credits with a extra disabled bonus to it which still isn’t much it means I get a extra 70 pounds a week roughly this does really help and puts money back in the economy. But it’s masked the true trend of peoples wages stagnating and falling back in many cases. The government subsidises low pay hand has done for many years now both labour and Tories have held down wages while executive pay has soared beyond imagination there’s a huge huge gap now between the low pay of ordinary working people and the bonus culture and huge telephone number salaries at the top. So its not that we are dependent on tax credits its more the fact our wages are so lowland poor we have to rely on a top up to even survive in today’s economy even tax credits aren’t enough for many now with more working poor having to use food banks and the like to just feed themselves. This is the cold reality of capitalism which is failing the 99%. The wealth of the 1% is streaming ahead and all these attacks we’re facing to tax credits now next in line are seeing a huge transfer of wealth from the poorest to the rich. The majority of people in receipt of tax credits like myself are in work be that part time or even full time this gets employers off the hook and means they are not forced to pay a decent wage to their works. The labour party’s sudden fascination with a “living wage” is another smokescreen as in affect the new living wage under labour would raise wages sure but would in affect create a new higher minimum wage which as we all know is pretty pathetic and really doesn’t help many at all. In fact many companies still get away with not paying a minimum wage still till this day. I blogged about this scandal a year or so ago and this still goes on in 2013. So why the labour party think a living wage would be the answer I don’t know. What we really need is a proper true living wage which’s linked o inflation rising with inflation so our money can buy back the goods we produce. Of course under capitalism this c an never happen as our social wage can never put the capitalists profits at risk we will always be limited to a certain amount of increase in our wages but what is certain it’ll never threaten the very existence of capitalist production itself where the unpaid labour of a wage labourer is more than what the capitalist gets back. Our wages are always a percentage of the work we do as the capitalist extracts their profits from our unpaid labour and are always trying to lower wages, increase the working day make us work faster and faster or such like. Ultimately the wage system can not meet the majority of peoples needs and does need over throwing too just like the whole capitalist system too. Profits extracted for the benefit of a few rich capitalists while using government subsidies in the form of tax credits means the rich are laughing all the way to the bank. Its time to expose the capitalist system for what it is, learn its inside workings through the teachings of Karl Marx and Frederich Engel’s and learn its weakness’ and how we can best change society to meet the needs of the majority.