An open letter to the new Work and Pensions Secretary.

Anthony Painter Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 19, 2016

Dear Stephen,

Congratulations on your appointment. You have the most important job in the Government after the Chancellor. In your hands is the future of work and the basic relationship between the state and us citizens. In a time of anticipated change in our economy, society and the state institutions that relate to these, you are in a pivotal role.

Too often on the Conservative side of politics, changes are made that display a failure to understand or empathise with the lives that people actually lead. This is often interpreted as cruelty but that is wrong in my view. It’s more often a lack of direct experience. That is not a handicap you have. You understand how poverty can be a struggle; how despair can set in but also how, with the right support, things can be turned around. That insight is your most powerful weapon as you seek to address serious flaws in the policies of the department you inherit.

Let’s be generous to your predecessor. I don’t doubt that his reforms were embarked upon with the most compassionate of intentions. But he’s left a mess.

He tried to simplify welfare but made it even more complex and bureaucratic. He saw work as the pathway out of poverty but then created a capricious system of conditionality and sanctions, the impact of which has yet to be fully understood. When we do have the full analysis at our disposal – beyond the simple measure of the employment rate – the impacts will be fairly shocking (foodbanks are the tip of the iceberg). Officials will tell you that the Universal Credit is working. Pilots almost always do. But it really isn’t- it is a costly mistake that is very little improvement on an already highly flawed and perverse tax credits system. Nowhere is the bureaucracy more intrusive, arbitrary and error-prone than in support for those who are disabled. These ‘errors’ cause misery and even cost lives. That can’t be right in any decent and compassionate society.

The big mistake your predecessor made was in designing a state bureaucracy around the small minority of people who abuse the system. That’s why we’ve ended up with this complex, unjust and costly nightmare.

I really hope you use the next few months to take a pause and then a big step back on the entire direction of these policies. The Prime Minister and your colleague at the Ministry of Justice have done so with prisons policy. Your colleague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is introducing a much higher minimum wage and the apprenticeship levy. These are all radical and encouraging policy initiatives. So there is space to chart a different course. Yes, welfare policy has supported higher employment. No, this is not sufficient in and of itself- families need stability, the ability to improve their skills and networks, and a sense of agency and control over their lives too. The current system too often undermines these wider policy goals.

You wouldn’t expect me to finish any letter to a Secretary of State for Work and Pensions without mentioning Basic Income. I hope you find some time to glance at the idea (our work at the RSA on this is summarised in a short blog). I know it may seem a little far out but it’s doable. If you really want a compassionate and simple system then Basic Income warrants some serious consideration. There’s still more work to do on putting together an implementable system but that can be done in the form of a major pilot – ‘experimental government’ as it’s called. Canada, the Netherlands and Finland are all looking at this.

I honestly believe that Basic Income is entirely compatible with Conservative principles – it supports work, provides support to families, and helps improve social mobility more than any other comparable system. It is invested in responsible freedom. It may seem counter-intuitive but it is worth giving some thought. Many great Conservative social reformers from Peel to MacMillan to one or two of your colleagues have done the counter-intuitive to meet the needs of the time. The future of work and social support needs a similar effort.

Good luck with it all. You have a chance to make history. Don’t throw that chance away on perpetuating the current failing system.

Yours,

Anthony