Austerity: noun, : a situation in which there is not much money and it is spent only on things that are necessary. This slowed down economic growth and help avoid a debt crisis but most governments used this as a last resort.
As the government took over from the Labour party in 2010, we found David Cameron appointed George Osborne as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he used methods of austerity in order to help the debt.
In the late 2000's, we found the biggest recession since the 1930's with unemployment rates increasing to 7.9% and a total of 2,491,000 people were unemployed by the ILO measure. Governments use austerity measures as a way of reducing their debt, so by employing less people less wages were having to be sent out. However, the most vulnerable members of society were the ones most affected by their regressive policies, eg. women and children being affected most. The government also made severe reductions in welfare, as well as introducing official tax increases.
The Work Capability Assessment is a test used by the British Government's Department for Work and Pensions in order to decide whether people claiming welfare are entitled to an Employment and Support Allowance. The Welfare Reform Act 2007 brought this.
However, many people disagreed with this assessment for reasons such as:
* If you failed this test, you wouldn't have any support and would be left to try and find your own money / job, even if you physically couldn't work.
* Capability associated with mental health problems can be hard to judge or to assess.
* The length and complexity of the process made people feel dissatisfied
* There were negative perceptions surrounding the assessment especially on if people were being judged fairly.
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