OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Richard Quigley, Isle of Wight councillor for Cowes North and IW Labour Chair. Ed
Most of us are aware of the £20 cut to Universal Credit (a temporary increase, more on that later). Some of us may even have seen our MP Bob Seely’s (pictured above) cack-handed defence of it on BBC2’s Newsnight (catch up 10 mins in).
The facts are that of the 11,822 people who need to claim UC on the Island, 43 per cent are in work.
Seely’s mantra is “economically illiterate”
The benefits system has long been used to subsidise the wages of low paid jobs , so that we can buy two lettuces for £1 and T-shirts for a fiver. It’s not a great way to run an economy, but it is where we are.
So for Bob to use the tired mantra “it was only temporary and the government cannot afford it” is not only disingenuous, but economically illiterate.
Times are not good
Government finances are not like household finances. Households tend not to own their own bank, Governments can borrow over a period of 50 to 100 years, largely from the bank they own if they wish. Households can’t.
The job of Government is to spend when times are bad and then not spend as much when times are good. You’d have to have pretty rose tinted specs to say times were good at the moment.
£12million reduction in spending for the Island’s economy
The removal of the £20 uplift represents a £12million reduction in spending for the Island’s economy.
This will place further stress on small businesses, but also council finances as council tax defaults will no doubt rise. Leaving a bigger hole in the council coffers, at a time when it is already facing a further £1.5m in social care funding as well as £3million a year savings to make a balanced budget.
So the £20 reduction doesn’t just penalise those that are in receipt of it, it punishes the Island as a whole.
Many thing have been ‘temporary’
But back to the £20 uplift being temporary. Many things over time have been temporary, Income tax , the Eiffel Tower, the 70 mph speed limit on motorways, the London Eye and Gareth Southgate was originally the temporary England manager.
So it isn’t “law” that a temporary change can’t be permanent when a situation changes.
Those on benefits can’t claim back expenses
Over the last three weeks, we have seen how much that situation has changed, queues for fuel, empty shelves and the near doubling of utility bills for many households.
Those in receipt of benefits are often accused of poor money management and spending on the wrong things, yet they aren’t offered the luxury of claiming the cost of the County Press back on expenses (as well as the milk to go in your tea whilst you read it Bob).
MPs salary more than 2.5x average UK income
An MPs salary is £82k pa. More than 2.5x the average UK income, yet Bob’s colleague Peter Bottomley MP said, “It’s grim” trying to cope on such an income for many MPs”.
Maybe they need the same lecture on money management and spending on the wrong things that those on universal credit get. Most people don’t have a problem with people being rich, they just don’t think people in one of the richest and advanced countries in the world should be poor.
“Let them eat cake”
So rather than sitting in front of a log fire in his rented Island property (paid for by you), maybe Bob could do something useful for the Island and vote against his government on the topics he claims to care most about.
Either that or just be honest and start his next appearance on Newsnight with “let them eat cake”.
