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The whirlwind that’s about to hit Oldham
Date published: 21 January 2013
Veteran Oldham MP Michael Meacher writes about the impact of Government cuts on the day-to-day lives of Oldham people
The full force of the cuts about to hit Oldham over the next few months will be the biggest since perhaps the 1930s.
The Government insists they are necessary to reduce the nation’s budget deficit. Certainly the deficit has to be reduced, but not at the expense of growth and not in a manner which is grossly unfair.
The cuts about to be imposed fail on both these counts.
The problem with endlessly squeezing benefits, public expenditure, jobs and businesses is that it contracts the economy and actually causes public borrowing to increase rather than fall.
That is why the Government is now having to borrow no less than £227 billion more than it originally planned in 2010.
People are really suffering from the cuts, yet the cuts are not solving the problem — they’re actually making it worse.
Nor are the cuts being imposed fairly. The poor who didn’t cause the financial crash are being hit far harder than the rich who did.
The North is being hit far harder than the South, urban areas than rural areas, and Labour councils than Tory councils.
Benefits are being cut by £21 billion, yet at the same time 8,000 millionaires in the UK are being handed an extra £2,000 a week from ending the 50p income tax rate. The sheer injustice of this destroys the integrity of our nation.
How will Oldhamers be affected?
Housing benefit cuts in April will particularly affect pensioners, families on low incomes, disabled people (many already traumatised by assessments of their alleged capability for work), the long-term sick, and the jobless.
A so-called bedroom tax will hit those classified as “over-occupying” their property. People with one bedroom more than they are supposed to need will have their housing benefit cut by 14 per cent, and with two bedrooms more than they need a cut of 25 per cent.
This will affect about 2,000 households in Oldham.
Moving to a smaller property will be difficult because of the housing shortage (there are 8,500 on the waiting list in Oldham) and because of the priority given to homeless people.
A universal credit is being introduced which limits the total of all benefits that can be received.
This will affect about 200 families in Oldham, will add pressure to already tight budgets for many large families, and will increase the risk of rent arrears.
The Council Tax Rebate scheme is now being cut by 10 per cent, but pensioners who are nearly half of these claimants are exempted so that persons of working age will now have to pay 20-25 per cent of their council tax bill which is likely to be £3.50-£6 per week.
It is expected that 17,000 people of working age will have to pay this extra amount. Further, if these extra tax payments cannot easily be collected, it is likely that the outstanding arrears will have to be redistributed to other council tax payers.
In addition, the Government has just announced that not only is public-sector pay being held down to a 1 per cent increase over each of the next three years when inflation is running at 2-3 per cent, but benefits and tax credits are also being restricted each year to the same 1 per cent increase.
That means that a quarter of Oldham’s population is about to suffer, on top of cuts already made, a further cumulative cut each year in their standard of living.
As a result of all these measures it is estimated that the poorest 10th of households will in cash terms be an average £3,995 a year worse off, or £76 a week, some 32 per cent of their annual income.
It should be noted that many, if not most, of these cuts will affect people in work since a high proportion of working people today are in poverty, defined as having an income less than 60 per cent of the median wage which is about £390 a week.
The Government has also just announced that the 50 councils with the biggest cuts (including Oldham and Rochdale), where a third of children live in poverty, face spending reductions on average of £160 per head of population.
By contrast, the 50 councils with the smallest cuts in the prosperous southern shire counties, where child poverty is less than 10 per cent, will have their expenditure reduced by only £16 per head of population.
Despite this cascade of unjust privations imposed on the poor so that the rich can escape almost scot-free, Oldham is fighting back.
The council has managed to secure a 28 per cent cut in bus fares from First Bus, and has also organised a very effective scheme for cutting fuel bills by getting big discounts from the energy companies through collective action to secure bulk purchases of energy.
In Parliament too, there is constant pressure on ministers to withdraw, or at least pare back, these huge unjust cuts, to reverse a prolonged austerity programme which is counter-productive and patently failing, and to replace it by a proper jobs and growth strategy which can really get Britain back to work.
Comments
Mr Meacher the reduction in bus fares was for the whole of Greater Manchester not just Oldham and was brought about as a response to the Metro link, it will end at the end of the month. As for large savings on fuel costs that’s the best joke I have heard. Many people have made no savings at all with the scheme the best price I was offered would have cost me money pathetic labour again. This is not bulk saving if you want to save turn the thermostat down one degree fit radiator stats.
Mr Meacher could perhaps explain to us why Oldhams madcap Labour council intend to penalise the hardest working and most deserving whilst insulating the scroungers from the cuts?
Work for a living buy a home lets say in the highest band H become disabled & you will have to pay an eye watering £45 pw from your benefit. live in band A social rented and you'll pay just £5pw.
Now we have universal credit everyone gets the same how is this fair & equal?
Michael Meacher along with a multitude of other Labour politicians have a total memory lapse as to the main cause of the current plight of the U.K. There is no doubt that the cuts are savage and have affected many of the needy BUT who got us into this mess and before any of the shouts begin think of a man named Gordon Brown who together with his pals such as Ed Balls reduced this country to a pitiful mess. They of course blame the bankers plus we never hear what their solution would be. SPEND?
utter rubbish from one of the greatest champange socialist of the past few years!
13 years of spend spend spend from labour have got us into the mess and now we all have to work to get out of it.
just a shame that as usual we'll recover and then labour will get back at the controls to mess it all up yet again.
just look back at the last half a century of politics. its a repetative cycle!
Cuts to the Police, Cuts to the armed forces, cuts to wages, cuts to councils, cuts to disabled benefits, cuts to the NHS, Cuts to Education - These are Tory policies backed up by the Lib Dems
And yet despite all these cuts the Tories continue to borrow more than the Labour party and have plunged this country into a double dip recession. But look on the bright side they did reduce the taxes for millionaires.
So the mess we are in is nothing to do with the Bankers then Cabroig. If the Tories keep saying it over and over again then eventually you will believe it is Labours fault. What you need to understand is all the political parties are the same. We owed more of the GDP when labour took over in 1997 than we did in May 2010. By turning "workers" against "shirkers" they are taking your eye off the real people who should be being targeted the Super Rich i.e. the Tory Supporters.
It is funny that the politicians review board have made their rounds in the commons, and as we are all in this together MP's only want a modest 33% increase to their salaries when balloted, plus increases on other perks of the job! second home etc, travel, entertainment. Just goes to show politicians have not got a clue unless it comes down to what they want!. I think it would be good to stick Cameron and Duncan smith on benefits to see the real world!.
The only time I hear Meacher's voice is to complain. Maybe he could have a word with his Labour cronies on the council about statues being planned and a new sports centre that won't be fit for purpose when the one we have is fine.
Caboroig have you forgotten how much it cost to bail out the banks? What do you think the Tories would do with the money if they were able to sell those shares?
It takes a while to wreck the UK economy, but the effects of Camerons work is now starting to show. Why make a speach on Europe which casts doubt on our membership forcing investors to either hold off or invest elsewhere? There's only one explanation and that is the destruction of the UK economy.
So the problem is caused by the Tories and the bankers.Nothing to do with Blair and Brown's governments of course.Still Mr Meacher no need to worry -look how Oldham has prospered during your time as our MP.Massive improvements for our town under Labour! Still Mr Blair isn't the only Socialist to have made millions out of the gullible who blindly followed him -you have not done too badly yourself and I don't think retirement will hold too many financial worries for you and your 'Socialist' pals
Yet again Mr Meacher seems to think that hard earned taxpayers money should be directly transferred to those on benefits and that people should not be able to keep that hard earned money.But Mr Meachers view of history with regards to the 1930s and today have only one thing in common. It was a National Coalition in the 1930s and a Coalition today picking up after Labour's incompetence and incontinence with public spending.
Millions will be affected across the country but why are millions on benefits? Labour
SO Tories are behind in their plan , plan nit working , poor are poorer , rich are richer ..........
....and it's OK because "it's Labours' fault in the first place"
Agree or disagree with the Labour part , but the attitude prevailing is somewhat akin to the proverbial behaviour of suicidal lemmings
'MP's pay should be linked with some sort of professional benchmark'.said Mr Meacher recently..where do you take that qualification,apart from being an 'advisor' to an MP
all in it together?
ecco fatto
How many of Mr Meacher's four flats in SW and NW London (from which rental income is received) will be affected by these stinging cuts?
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10427
Flake who bailed out the banks? that happened before the general election.
its all well and good saying that its the coalitions fault for all the cuts.
but labour had 13 years to make serious changes to what they took over from the tories back in 1997.
they chose to do nothing but spend spend spend. encourage people onto benefits instead of work.
they rode the wave of improvements after the tories. we had just climbed out of reccession at that point.
and labour have driven us back into one
Between 2008 & 2012 it's estimated the banking collapse cost the UK economy 11 to 13% of it's total GDP. Banking collapse was caused by the banks gambling to such an extent with joe publics savings they had insufficient liquid money to meet demand, Lab, Cons & Libs all knew it was going on.
Immigration is having a massive impact over 90% of all foreign born residents of the UK live in ENGLAND which is now the 6th most densely populated country on earth.
MM & mainstream politicians remain silent
We suffered 13 yeqars of Labour mismanagement. 13 years of dragging us into 2 wars that have cost billions of £ and untold British lives. They spent money like it was going out of fashion. They relaxed border control to the point of farsical, they gave away power to Brussels on a giganian scale, sold half of our Gold reserves whilst gold was at it's lowest ever price and bought Euros at their highest ever price. Really Mr Meacher, do we care what you say?
Have Your Say
Oh yes Mr Meacher, Labours left this country in a right mess for sure...........
At least the politicians like yourself are still earning big money.
By timberwolf @ 21/01/2013 12:40:56