Abstract
Ian Duncan Smith wanted to phase in a new system of Universal Credit, so that people would always be better-off working, even it meant allowing them to keep some of their benefits if they were in low-paid jobs. His colleague the Chancellor, George Osborne, wanted to secure major and immediate reforms in the welfare budget. Thus the Coalition presided over curbs on the amount of benefits that any individual or family could claim in a year, the introduction of a ‘bedroom tax’ (a penalty for having a ‘spare’ room) and expecting the disabled to seek work. These curbs and cuts were accompanied by derogatory references to ‘shirkers’ and ‘skivers’, which reflected and reinforced hostility, among those in work, towards the poor and the unemployed; classic divide-and-rule.
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Dorey, P., Garnett, M. (2016). Welfare Reform. In: The British Coalition Government, 2010-2015. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-02377-3_5
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