Transform Newsletter 19th March 2025

 19th March 2025

Welcome to issue 21 of the Transform Newsletter. Headline-grabbing insinuations about people claiming disability benefits, and people on sick leave due to their mental health conditions. Who’s the nasty party now ?

Not safe in their hands

Why is the Government cutting benefits – or as it prefers to call it, “welfare reform” ?

The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said on Monday that “there is both a moral and an economic case for fixing our broken social security system that’s holding our people back.” We’re going to start by explaining why you shouldn’t buy into any of the Government’s arguments, and then we’ll take a quick look at a couple of alternative ways of balancing the books.

The moral case for cuts

Earlier this month, a group of rightwing backbench Labour MPs announced that they’d formed a Get Britain Working Group to “press for fundamental change to our welfare system” to get as many as possible economically inactive people back to work. They claim that what they’re doing is morally right, that it’s helping families to live better lives.

This matters, because it’s clear that Starmer and his closest allies who are intent on pushing through damaging “reforms” to the NHS and the welfare system share these views. Wes Streeting told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that “if I can help people back to health, in many cases I’ll be helping them back to work and that’s what we’ll do.” What he meant by helping people back to health became clearer when, in the same interview, he made the claim that there was “overdiagnosis” of some mental health conditions.

There’s nothing new or progressive about the political rationale for these cuts. For as long as social welfare has existed, rightwing politicians have deployed similar arguments to try and justify restricting state support to the sick and the needy. The holes in their arguments will be depressingly familiar to many benefit claimants. One told The Guardian that “I would have only been able to return to work with my Pip. If it’s reduced or anything like that, it puts me into the position of not being able to afford to go to work.”

By their actions and by their words, Starmer’s crew show themselves to be no different from any Tory government (and that’s being generous).

The economic case for cuts

Transform Council member Eric Jarvis writes:

Starmer and Reeves claim that they have to slash overseas development aid in order to increase defence spending. Leaving aside the immorality of this, their numbers don’t add up.

It’s not the first time that international aid has been cut. The last Tory government reduced the budget from 0.7% of GDP to 0.5% with the entirely predicted result of negligible direct cost savings for the UK government, massive losses in foreign trade for the overall economy, and an increase in the global influence of China, Russia and Iran. So without any significant economic benefit for ourselves, we will be helping out the very countries that we’re told we need to be protected from, through spending more on defence. This isn’t rational.

We should also be asking, how would any extra defence spending be used ? Firstly in the short term there can’t be an instant increase in armed forces personnel. It takes time to recruit, train and equip them: it’s not a quick fix. However there could be a big splurge of spending on high tech arms. We wouldn’t have people trained to use them, it wouldn’t give an instant massive boost to the UK’s arms industry as it would mostly require buying off the peg systems to a large extent from multinational companies. Oh yes, and from companies that are generous political donors.

It’s a similar story when we look at disability benefit cuts. Firstly they start from an assumption that there are no implications for spending in other departments when benefits are cut. This is utter nonsense. I’m a perfect example of this, having developed malnutrition leading to heart failure from a year of no benefits at all, caused by DWP efforts to spuriously end large numbers of benefit claims and social services budget cuts. From being largely able bodied with a physical health condition that made me unable to work temporarily but which has since been pretty much completely cleared by new treatments, I have become a wheelchair user with some mental health conditions which mean I am unlikely to be able to work again.  A saving for the DWP’s budget in the short term has become a long term drain on it, and a massive increase in what the NHS has to spend to keep me alive.

It’s worse than that though. The old Incapacity Benefit system involved a qualified GP employed directly by the government giving each claimant a proper medical examination to establish their ability to work, and when that would need to be re-assessed. Very few decisions were challenged, the costs of tribunals and appeals were minimal. 20+ years on they are well over six figures a year. However this is paid out of the Tribunals Service budget not the DWP’s. Not all savings in benefit costs are savings in overall government spending. However we are not supposed to look beyond the headline figures for individual government departments.

The old system paid individual doctors money to make a correct judgement. The new system pays large multinational companies massively more to make often inaccurate decisions over and over again every year even when entirely unnecessary. However individual GPs don’t by and large make big political donations whereas companies such as ATOS and Maximus do. So again the overall cost to the state has not been a factor, the efficient method of evaluating incapacity profited people who politicians can ignore, but the less efficient method profits people who pay a lot of money to have the ear of ministers.

I think it is fairly safe to assume that in line with past efforts to cut the benefits bill the overall result will not be a significant drop in the amount of money being spent, just different people profiting, and the poor, sick, and disabled getting thrown under the bus.

So when Starmer says he is going to “cut benefit costs and foreign aid to balance the budget to enable us to properly defend the nation” what he is actually proposing is to make large numbers of disabled people suffer and die, reducing the UK’s influence on the wider world, making our trade deficit worse, whilst doing practically nothing that actually makes the UK safer, and at the same time richly rewarding two different sets of wealthy organisations that have given money to him, his party, and most of his Cabinet.

There is a word for this. It has 7 letters and begins with C.

So how would we tackle the rising welfare bill ?

The first point to make is that the national welfare bill is dwarfed by the vast amount of revenue lost to the Exchequer every year through various forms of tax avoidance. The only kind of government that we would support is one that would make it a priority to get big corporations and the wealthiest individuals in society paying their fair share. Those are the real scroungers, those are the people who are fleecing the rest of us. Clamping down on tax evasion, and bringing in serious measures to reduce tax avoidance, would pay for the welfare bill overnight.

Even if we restrict ourselves to just looking at the welfare budget, there’s still scope for a radically different approach.

Consider housing. Government spending on housing benefit is at record levels. The biggest reason for this is that private rents have been rising by way more than inflation. A key reason for the rising rents was the failure of successive governments to build enough affordable housing.

In early 2020 the government froze the local housing allowance (LHA) rates, which set the amount of housing benefit that private renters can receive. The freeze has been repeatedly extended since then, and in November 2024 Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall confirmed that it would stay until at least 2026. This was a disaster for all private tenants, whether or not they were in receipt of benefits. As a result of the freeze, it became impossible for a great many tenants to find anywhere to live that was cheap enough so that LHA could cover the full rental costs. People could – and did – rent properties that were more expensive with the intention of somehow topping up the balance themselves, but inevitably this led to greater poverty and increased homelessness. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), four-fifths (81%) of low income private renters on housing benefits are currently going without essentials, and 59% are in arrears with their household bills.

The JRF are demanding that the freeze be ended, and that the LHA be linked to private rents so that it will cover the bottom 30th percentile of local rents. This would make a vital difference to tenants, but it would still leave governments at the mercy of the housing market. What government should be looking at is bringing in rent controls to prevent landlords from charging excessive rents. This should be backed up by a massive council house building programme. Acorn has a page on its website, inviting people to sign up to support these exact demands. You know what to do.

Tell the Chancellor to tax the Super Rich

When: Tuesday 25th March 5-7pm

Where: Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London SW1A 2HQ

Why: Inequality is soaring, the climate is collapsing, and public services are at breaking point. We need huge public investment to tackle these problems – but the UK government claims that there’s not enough money – instead cutting spending on aid, action on climate, and public services.

Meanwhile, the extreme wealth of the super-rich is surging and going largely untaxed. Join the rally to tell the Chancellor: the money is there – don’t cut public services, tax the super-rich.

Action call: Cost of Living crisis

Transform’s campaigning focus for April 2025 will be the cost of living crisis.

The current crisis began during the pandemic and has never gone away. The cost of living increased sharply in the UK during 2021 and 2022 with the annual rate of inflation peaking in October 2022 at 11%. Even though inflation is no longer high, prices are still rising, just at a slower rate, meaning households face a much higher cost of living than in 2021 with increases to the cost of food and gas energy being the main culprits.

Our living standards have fallen and more families are being caught in the poverty trap. The financial year 2022-23 saw the largest year-on-year drop in living standards since records began in the 1950s. The latest data from the ONS shows that the cost of living is equal first with the NHS as the most commonly reported issue facing the UK today, with younger adults most likely to report the cost of living, housing, employment, education and EU exit as important issues.

Low income households are always hit the hardest by rises in food and energy prices. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has reported that 75% of the bottom 20% of low income households in the UK (4.3 million) have gone without essentials. Material deprivation and food poverty have increased with 20.9% of working age adults unable to afford basic items in 2022-23. Trussell reported that between April and September 2024 they provided 1.4 million emergency food parcels, 69% more than the same period of 2019.

Crisis research published in March 2022 showed that families on the breadline are facing an average £372 deficit between their Local Housing Allowance and the cost of the cheapest rents in their area. Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 6.2% in the 12 months to January 2024. Not only this, but profit push inflation has meant that while energy prices have risen to record highs for households, big energy companies have made record profits.

All this is happening at a time when median incomes for the lowest 10% of incomes have fallen. It should be no surprise that the FCA has reported that 14% of adults find keeping up with bills to be a heavy burden in January 2024, and that 11% had fallen behind or missed a payment in the previous six months. The cost of living crisis is still very real. Families are struggling with debt and many have spent far too long sacrificing essentials with nothing left.

What has caused this crisis?

Whilst Brexit, Covid and the War in Ukraine and the Covid Pandemic have all had significant impact on the cost of essentials and the levels of wages, the crisis wasn’t inevitable.  We should view it as a consequence and symptom of neoliberal policies implemented in the United Kingdom in the last few decades. Austerity and reduction in welfare support have increased poverty and inequality while leaving the most vulnerable without a safety net to withstand the storm.

So when will it end?

In theory the crisis will come to an end when prices stabilise and wages have risen enough to match. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts that real household disposable income – and consequently our living standards – will grow by an average of just over 0.5% a year until 2029. Living standards are not set to return to 2021/22 levels until 27/28, and even then, they will still be below pre-pandemic levels.  But these figures hide the inequality between wealthier households who have a degree of financial security and the poorest households whose disposable incomes are continuing to shrink. For most people the cost of living crisis will be felt for a long time to come.  

The Autumn budget has already affected the economy with a slowing down and a fall in job vacancies. Rachel Reeves is set to present her Spring Statement in a week’s time, and with the proposed cuts to the welfare budget the cost of living crisis is set to deepen further and be extended for the most vulnerable in society.

Rachelle Earwalker, senior economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “The outlook for the coming months is bleak, with water, energy bills and council tax all set to go up in April. This will add further worry as household financial security sits on increasingly unsure ground.”

What we need is a cost of living plan funded by higher taxes on wealth that will increase the incomes of the poorest and ensure the essentials for living are affordable for all.

We don’t want to die in a corridor

The inpatient unit at the Marie Curie hospice in Woolton in south Liverpool has been closed since July 2024. Since then, the hospice has been running a virtual ward Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. Communication from the charity trustees about what was going on seems to have been dire. They didn’t reach out to staff at the hospice, or give any reassurances about its future.

Liverpool Community Independent councillors have been at the heart of the campaign to save the hospice. Councillor Lucy Williams is a specialist palliative care nurse who worked at the hospice until very recently. She’s facilitated a meeting of Marie Curie staff, spoken out in the media, led a delegation to Marie Curie HQ in London, and assisted Councillor Gorst in making representations to the ICB. It’s also been vitally important that the local community have turned out in their hundreds to show how much the hospice means to them. In this clip, Councillor Alan Gibbons says that “many of the people there were people whose partners and loved ones had had great care at Marie Curie, and they want to see that continue.”

The aim of the campaign was to secure guarantees about the future of the inpatient unit and the provision of palliative care at the hospice. On 11th March Marie Curie’s Chief Medical Officer Sarah Holmes told a meeting of the adult social care and health committee that the inpatient unit would reopen “as soon as possible” and there were no plans to sell the building. The charity had faced funding issues, but Marie Curie remained committed to providing end of life care “now and in the future” in Liverpool.

This is brilliant news; but meanwhile the ward is still closed, so no one’s celebrating too much yet.

The seeds of a new movement

Southport is an unlikely place for a socially aware political movement to take root. The touristy seaside town has long had the reputation of being one of the better-off corners of Merseyside. In more recent years though, the sense has grown that the town is in a cycle of decline. In 2019 the strong campaigner Liz Savage amassed the biggest ever Labour vote in Southport. And although Labour’s vote share dipped slightly in 2024, it was still enough to see Starmer supporter Patrick Hurley elected as the town’s first Labour MP.

Many of those who knocked on doors for Liz Savage have since turned their backs on the Labour Party. A year ago Councillor Sean Halsall resigned his membership, saying that “the Labour Party of 2024 feels a world away from the hope and genuine change that inspired me to campaign for the party. I did not come into politics to support the two child benefit cap. I didn’t enter politics to threaten disabled people into exploitative work.”

Sean stood as an independent in the 2024 General Election, but didn’t stop there. He’s the driving force behind the setting up of Southport Community Independents, who’ll be putting up candidates in future elections. On 1st March they held a launch event, with Jeremy Corbyn and Andrew Feinstein as guest speakers. An audience of a couple of hundred gave them an enthusiastic reception and quizzed them on their views about a new party of the left. Following the platform speakers, the organisers trialled out a People’s Assembly, in which the audience split up into discussion groups. Sean is planning to hold more Assemblies: the first one is at the Meols Cop Youth Centre in Southport on Saturday 22nd March, and you can sign up for it here.

Covid Inquiry

Next week marks the 5th anniversary of the start of lockdown. Covid is another one of these crises that just won’t go away. Transform Council member Joseph Healy writes:

“Millions of pounds of public money disappeared during the pandemic in sordid deals between Tory ministers and various nefarious companies, some of whom had no experience in supplying PPE. This is now being investigated by the Covid Inquiry in Module 3 and has already led to a clearly rattled Michael Gove snapping back in the witness box, as evidence of him arranging deals via the notorious VIP channel emerged. Transparency International has already pointed out that the UK was the only country which used this method to source vital medical equipment at the height of the pandemic. Every other country used the normal state channels for sourcing equipment for its medical services.”

This afternoon a number of Covid organisations are protesting outside the Covid Inquiry at Dorland House, near London’s Paddington station. “At a time when this government is forcing through the most appalling cuts due to a stated ‘black hole’ in the public finances,” writes Joseph, “it is essential that we make our voices heard against this sheer corruption and misappropriation of public funds and demand that those responsible are brought to justice.”

The man who bought the world

Our series of political talks resumes on Friday 4th April at 7pm with Louise Raw, speaking on ‘The man who bought the world – Musk, Fascism and Fighting Back’.

Louise is a Labour historian and broadcaster with a background in political campaigning.

‘This is the fight of, and for, our lives.

Fascist salutes on the world stage again.

Elon Musk saying his problem with the Nazis is that they lost.

White supremacist Steve Bannon saying HIS problem with Musk is that he’s not sincere enough in his ideology.

What do these men really have planned for us; is it even possible to fight back against the billionaires who, genuinely, want to rule the world; and how do we do it? ‘

Sign up today at this link.

Transform Podcast

The Transform  podcast has been relaunched ! Here’s the first episode for you to listen to, featuring our recent public conference “How does the left respond to the rise of the far right?”

For future podcasts we would like to introduce some question and answer sessions, where our members and supporters send in questions for members of the Executive to answer.  They don’t just have to be about what is happening inside Transform, they could be about our relationship with other left groups and parties or about current political issues. Whatever your question, we’d love to hear from you!

Please send your questions to us at info@transformpolitics.uk for the attention of the Podcast Team.

Next Newsletter

The next newsletter will be out on Wednesday 9th April. Wherever you are in the country, we’d love to hear from you, and to learn about any campaigns that you’re involved in. Please send us your reports and your photos. You can contact us at any time at info@transformpolitics.uk: please mark your email for the attention of the Newsletter Team.

In solidarity,

Transform Newsletter Team