A different Tory leader will not save a failing social security system. We need a new welfare state from the bottom up
The thing about governments in crisis is that they have little time for governing. Boris Johnson – once king of the world, now lame duck – is a prime minister consumed with his own survival. Insiders say Johnson is motivated to hang on to power not to deliver a pressing policy agenda but to beat former Bullingdon Club chum, David Cameron: “He won’t accept the last Etonian PM having survived longer than him.” Meanwhile, in the real world, British families are about to endure the worst cost of living crisis for 30 years, and are left waiting for anyone in power to notice.
For many, the money going out is about to soar, causing that coming in to shrink in real terms. Inflation rose to 5.4% last month, driven by pricier food and clothes. Energy tariffs are escalating and tax bills are set to go up too. At the same time, the £20 universal credit uplift has been cut and unemployment benefits are about to hit their lowest real value in more than three decades, a rate that experts call “only slightly more than destitution”. Ministers can claim work is the solution but it is good jobs, not any job, that is a reprieve; the majority of people living in poverty in the UK last year were in working households. The official line may be that the pandemic is over, but this too is still hitting personal finances – just ask the clinically vulnerable pensioner shielding in a cold home. The result of all this is clear enough: simply getting by is increasingly going to become a luxury.
Frances Ryan is a Guardian columnist and author of Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People
