LAWYERS BLAST POLITICIANS’ SNEAKY “RETROACTIVE” LAW TO AVOID MASS PAY-OUTS
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is trying to rush a ‘retroactive’ law through parliament so the government can avoid paying £130m in benefit rebates to the quarter of a million jobseekers who were penalised for refusing to work unpaid as part of the controversial work programme. Politicians claim the move will “protect the national economy” — but lawyers have called it “repugnant” and say it “smacks of desperation”.
The law has been hastily drafted by panicking politicians who have suddenly realised the implications of last month’s court of appeal judgment that the programme was unlawful, as jobseekers were not given enough information about what was involved in it. They appear to have become alarmed by news that the blunder could cost them millions, as average payouts have been estimated at between £530 and £570 per claimant. The government claims the new legislation to overturn the court’s findings is needed to “protect the national economy”. A DWP spokesperson added that:
“This legislation will protect taxpayers and make sure we won’t be paying back money to people who didn’t do enough to find work.”
But legal experts and campaigners have blasted the move, calling the new legislation “repugnant” and “unbelievably disgusting”. They claim that politicians are now trying to duck out of their obligations to jobseekers by changing the law, after they’ve broken it. Tessa Gregory from Public Interest Lawyers, who represented Poundland intern Cait Reilly, said:
“The emergency bill is a repugnant attempt by the secretary of state for work and pensions to avoid his legal obligation to repay the thousands of jobseekers who… have been unlawfully and unfairly stripped of their subsistence benefits.
“The use of retrospective legislation, which is being fast-tracked through parliament, smacks of desperation. It undermines the rule of law and means that Iain Duncan Smith is once again seeking to avoid proper parliamentary scrutiny of his actions.
“It is time for his department to admit that maladministration and injustice costs. In light of the bill we are considering what further legal action we can take on behalf of our clients.”
The union Unite called for MPs to strongly oppose the bill and “stand up for the rights of jobseekers”. The union’s general secretary, Len McCluskey, said:
“This is a cynical move by the Tory-led government to avoid giving rightful compensation to jobseekers who have fallen foul of the incompetence of the Department of Work and Pensions. When will they learn that rushed law is bad law?
“The courts have told Iain Duncan Smith that his approach is unlawful. And the public accounts committee has decried the woeful success rate of his schemes. Given this, the government ought to be going back to the drawing board.”
A spokesperson for Boycott Workfare, a grassroots organisation that has campaigned to stop forced unpaid work schemes, said the move was disgusting. They added that they were shocked that Labour was supporting the move.
“This is almost unbelievably disgusting. They [the DWP] broke the law, now they want to retroactively change the law so that they didn’t break the law in order to keep £130m out of the pockets of some of the poorest people in the country.
“The high court found workfare unlawful precisely because people had no way of knowing the rules that applied. It shows an incredible level of arrogance and disregard for the poorest to now attempt to backdate laws to challenge this ruling.”
Shockingly, a vote was taken yesterday and the new ‘retroactive’ legislation appears to have been passed. The Green Party and the SNP were against it, and Labour abstained from voting. It is now going through to the House of Lords.
*WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS ‘RETROACTIVE’ LAW?
Should jobseekers who had their benefits docked for refused to work unpaid be entitled to compensation? Are you concerned that this ‘retroactive’ law sets a dangerous precedent that politicians can just change the law, when the courts rule against them?
Totally unsurprising, this government is quickly becoming one of the nastiest governments since the death of the poll tax, at least that rat Blair was sneaky and conniving about it, this lot is basically launching an all out war against the poor, the young and the infirm. Time for another wave of national resistance. It happened in the nineties against the poll tax and the roads programme, time for it to happen again, and again and again if necessary…
I’d better find a job soon or I’ll be put on one of these slave labour workfare programmes. Problem is there are not many jobs going and the ones that are just ignore me.
I don’t even know what to say. I’m mortified. This is the kind of shit Silvio Berlusconi would try to get away with in a country which has a rich history of polital scandal.
Is this really happening in the country that invented the rule of law? Really?
@ Robin
“Time for another wave of national resistance. It happened in the nineties against the poll tax …”. Agreed.
I’m staggered by the sheer arrogance and short-sighted stupidity of what the government’s doing (and by the opposition’s failure to opose it!).
The authority of parliament and of government itself rests on the social contract. When the “leaders” tear up the social contract, they invite the “led” to do the same.
We’re at a particularly fractious time in our history – Poll Tax Mark 2 on its way, people in work barely able to meet their essential bills and unemployment as bad as in the 1930s. This retrospective legislation is dangerous as well as morally wrong and possibly unlawful.
The Work Programme is one big waste of public money, which has failed to deliver. It is more about punishing people for being out of work than helping them. Show your support for Boycott Workfare via Facebook, Twitter or their website.
Changing the rules after they have broken them is morally repugnant, as is quite a bit of what this current government are doing. Forget the pretext of ‘protecting taxpayers’ this was done purely as a vindictive strike against those daring to challenge their mandatory work scam, that provides tax-payer subsidised free labour to private companies. If someone wants your labour then they should damn well pay for it by employing you (unless you volunteer of course). It’s not as though these people couldn’t afford it and what kind of ‘aspiration’ are those coerced into stacking the shelves of Poundland going to have anyway?
This government’s rhetoric about ‘people not doing enough to find work’, ‘shirkers v strivers’ etc. is one of the most transparent sops to the right wing I have ever seen. People are unemployed in large numbers because of the poor state of the economy, not because of any moral failing on their part. A lot of people are just taking any part-time work they can find just to avoid signing on because they know what kind of stigmatising and demoralisation awaits them at the Job Centre.
Cutting the safety net that keeps this a civilised country is ultimately doomed to fail. What exactly are the government doing about high living costs to make it worthwhile working? It might not occur to the current bunch in power – who probably have portfolios and wealthy backgrounds – but most people don’t work because of the fun of it, they work because they need the money to survive. If wages fall to below a reasonable sum to support them in a high cost economy then they become demoralised.
Petition against the Government’s retroactive legislation:
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-uk-government-changing-the-law-retrospectively
This retrospective legislation (similar to an Order in Council on the ethnically cleansed Chagos Islanders snuck through by Blair after a court decision) hardly bodes well for other longterm promises made by successive governments, for example on our student loans (or state pensions). Parliamentary sovereignty does theoretically mean Parliament can act as it wishes.
Join Boycott Workfare and fight against these schemes.