FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE IAIN, DO IT WITH SOME SENSITIVITY: THESE ARE PEOPLE

It is good news that the Tories are going to tackle the problem of the people that, 30 years ago, they put on the scrap heap.

In a concerted effort to drive down the unemployment figures in the 1980s Mrs Thatcher’s Employment Secretary ordered Jobcentres to transfer as many people as they could from the embarrassing figures for those out of work, which were published each month. The favourite (according to people I know who worked in the Benefit Office), was to persuade them to go to the doctor and get “signed off”. They then immediately disappeared from the monthly figures.

Job done.

Well, except that these people were simply left to moulder on the “sick”. It was often in areas where one by one the traditional industries offering “men’s work” were closing down. Steel works, coal mines, ship building, heavy engineering, car manufacture, textiles, ceramics, bricks, glass.

The jobs that came along to replace them in the new, smart, clean Britain were insurance, banking, sales, call centres...... The men and the jobs didn’t go together: didn't match. So, no one from JC pestered them, and there were no jobs suitable for them, so their wives worked, they claimed Sickness Benefit, and as their mental health deteriorated they claimed Invalidity Benefit... and so it went.

Now it’s all to stop.

And that’s good.

People will not be allowed to moulder on the “sick”.

In a speech today Mr Duncan-Smith set out the new Tory strategy. And in keeping with IDS’s reputation for fairness, those who have spent their lives on benefit, thanks to Mrs Thatcher, and who are now approaching retirement age, will be allowed to retire. Anyone else will be re-assessed and helped to get into work. The kind of work that is suitable: part time, very part time.... light duties.

I’ve a few words of caution for IDS. Firstly, with all the jobs that are going to be lost because of the bankers’/government's/FSA's incompetence, and the civil service pay offs, there aren’t going to be many jobs for the millions of people that you intend shifting off the sick list.

If and when employers do take on, they will want to do so from well qualified and job ready people, conversant with today’s way of doing business.... and there are any number of them available at the moment. They will be spoilt for choice.

Secondly Iain, what comes out of your office way up in the dizzy heights of Whitehall may be good and well intentioned. But by the time it has moved down about 18 levels of responsibility to the clerk, or the medical person... it has become a target. The guy sitting in front of them is no longer a person. He is a target to be achieved.

So, just make sure that you keep an eye on what’s going on. Remember that the tests under Labour were so strict that more than half the decisions to refuse benefit were overturned by tribunals. That’s time and money consuming not to mention a terrible thing to do to sick people. A tribunal can take up to a year to be convened.

Tell your staff that not everyone who is on Incapacity Benefit is a skiver, or a liar and fit as a fiddle. Just like not every MP is a liar, a cheat or a thief.

And please Iain. Forget the bloody targets. These are PEOPLE

...............

Brown Freezes Top Pay as MPs Receive 1.5% Increase

Gordon Brown has announced that he is going to freeze the pay of top civil servants, judges, generals and doctors to save £3 billion in defiance of the recommendations of an independent salary review which recommended small increases.

The armed forces will get a 2% rise and junior doctors will also be given a small increase.

In what seem to me to be a blatantly electioneering a speech to the City audience Brown announced his intentions to freeze the pay of senior civil service staff, military, the judiciary, senior managers in the health service and the pay of consultants, GPs and dentists.

He says that the measures will save money immediately and by 2013/14 save more than £3 billion.

He also announced that the Budget will be in two weeks’ time on March 24, which suggests that the election for Westminster will be held on May 6. The Times predicts that manifestos will be published during the week beginning April 12 and the controversial presidential debates on Thursdays each of the three full campaign weeks.

The Times suggests that Brown, along with Mr Mandelson, Balls and Ed Miliband, have looked at the possibility of holding the election earlier but have rejected it.... presumably on the basis that May 6 coincides with the English council elections and there is only so much politics the average Englishman can stand.

The pay freeze for the “top” people was justified by a Cabinet Office spokesman suggesting that it was right that senior staff should show leadership.

However, Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the First Division Association, said that the government was insulting hard-working public servants by rejecting proposals from the independent review body to raise the minimum pay for senior civil servants to address long-standing anomalies.

I’d be the last to advocate pay rises for the so-called “top” people. After all many already earn vast amounts that put them on a different planet from the rest of us. They will trot out the old chestnut that they could earn more in the private sector, which begs the question..... why don’t they go do that if the money means that much to them?

However, it’s a bit rich that Brown is prepared to over-rule the pay increases recommended for these people and let the MPs’ increases go ahead. And it is farcical for the Cabinet Office to suggest that senior staff should show leadership whilst MPs bury their snouts deeper in the trough.... AGAIN.

Incidentally, I was pleased to read in the Courier that Dundee East’s SNP MP Stewart Hosie has announced that he will not benefit from the pay increase, but will instead give the money to local charities. Labour’s Jim McGovern, MP for Dundee West, has declined to take his pay rise.

I think that both these men should be congratulated on their stance, and I hope that many other members will follow their good example.



(Pictured is Bill Cockburn CBE Chair of the Senior Salaries Review Body)