Polly Toynbee tells us they will soon emerge by the million. No less than £18 billion is to be taken out of the welfare budget.

This cannot be done painlessly.

Others observe that last week’s Universal Credit white paper is a document with many of the key figures missing.

It looks that way to me.

The Department of Work and Pensions has a handy little tabulation tool that allows the curious to check out the number of people on the main benefits by local authority area.

All this and more is usefully brought together in a note from the House of Commons library that gives the numbers of benefit and tax credit recipients by area.

I see that in my own area of Pendle, Child or Working Tax Credit goes to 10,400 people.

From April next year, the WTC will be frozen for three years and then uprated by the Consumer Price Index which is lower than the RPI.

Not much fun.

And the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit will also be cut.

And what is going to happen to those with mental health problems who are struggling to get into employment?

According to MIND, a staggering half of all people claiming out-of-work benefits have mental health problems. In Pendle the number of people on incapacity benefit for mental illness is way above the England average.

We have to ask why that is.

But are they going to get the specialist help they need when the DWP’s core budget is to be cut by 26% in real terms over the next four years?

I hope so.

The welfare reform “debate” seems to be totally disconnected from the wider one we should be having about the distribution of income and wealth and fairness.

The average income for those in work in Pendle in 2007-8 was £17,300.

And the median – mid way between the top and the bottom - was a modest £14,200

Compare this with the Prime Minister’s Witney constituency (£27,000 mean and £20,400 median) or the eye watering figures from Kensington and Chelsea (£141,000 and £33,400).

It is about time we returned to the simple fairness of progressive taxation.

We have a property tax with eight bands. Why not apply the same principle to income tax?

No need then for a special tax just for Wayne Rooney.

Politicians quitting politics

The Toronto Star tells me that Canadian politicians are getting as jaded as the voters and are giving up politics for something else!

There must be more to it than that.

The story mentions Bob Rae, a Liberal MP who stood for the leadership and lost it to Michael Ignatieff.

He talks in a very open and relaxed way about the depression he suffered from years ago.

He also gives advice to new members of the (Canadian) House of Commons.

But it translates well.

Don’t read your question, he says.

People need to see your eyes.

Attachments:

HealthProfile2010Pendle30UJ.pdf	[Pendle Health profile]	321 Kb
universal-credit-full-document.pdf	[ ]	1773 Kb