Q. What is austerity and why was it seen as a solution for Britain's problems in 2010?
Austerity is when a government makes a policy of trying to reduce the amount of money it spends, in this case, by raising taxes from 17.5% to 20%. This happened in Britain in 2010 after the financial crisis of 2007-2008, when a period of economic recession began in the UK. This was intended to solve Britain's problems as it was believed to be able to bring the deficit back under control.
Q. What were the criticisms of the system, what public institutions and bodies lost out?
However, some argue that it made the situation worse. For example, it led to a dramatic increase in the number of people living in poverty, specifically from 7.3 millions in 1979 to 13.5 million in 2008. Furthermore, it led to the UK government having to bail out British banks at an estimated cost of £141bn.
Q. In what ways did it contribute to poverty in the UK, how much of a problem is poverty?
Changes to taxes in 2008 effected to poorest of people the most. Some changes, such as an increase in personal allowance and the minimum wage, has boosted income, but the changes in taxes meant that the negatives far outweighed the positives. Meanwhile, these changes made little or no difference to the richest. Single parents were also effected a lot with the average single parent family losing a fifth of their income. In addition to this, households with both a disabled adult and a disabled child lost, on average, about £6,500 a year.
Q. One of the most controversial aspects of the austerity was the Work Capability Assessments that were rolled out- what was the system and why was it considered unfair?
The Work Capability Assessment was the test used by the British Government's Department for Work and Pensions to decide whether welfare claimants were entitled to sickness benefits. Claimants were sent a health questionnaire in order to ask enquire about the claimants illness and how it affects their ability to work. The person then had one month to appeal any decisions they were unhappy with.
An anonymous person who works for the DWP wrote to The Guardian and said "people who walk into my assessment room are often anxious, angry, scared pessimistic or resigned. Many have lost faith in the system and feel the government is abandoning them." They then go on to say "About 80% of the people we see have mental health problems. I have assessed clients who were actively psychotic, in a manic bipolar phase, or severely depressed to the point where they couldn't speak and a family member had to do the talking for them".
Research by Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University suggests that these assessments caused permanent damages to some claimants' mental health, from which they are not recovering. The study interviewed 30 people with existing mental health conditions and who had taken the test throughout 2016. Most suffered from depression or anxiety. The study's participants reported a lack of expertise in mental health among WCA workers. Others report being extremely emotional during the tests and even resulted in panic attacks because the assessments were "making me feel worse".
