We encourage SWAN supporters and activists to contribute content to this website and our newsletter. Please submit your reports, articles or photos via the SWAN Dispatches Newsletter email by clicking here.

Welfare Reform: less social policy than cynical psychological manipulation

Peter Beresford of SWAN writes below of his analysis of the social policy of the Coalition Government, the recent implementation of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the role of the media in artificially associating malignancy with those claiming benefits. SWAN notes that an obvious example of this, was provided by this week's Daily Mail frontpage labelling Mick and Mairead Philpott, who were convicted of killing 6 children, as being a direct product of 'vile UK welfare'.

No one can yet say whether the Coalition’s ‘welfare reforms’ will in the long run save money or actually increase public spending. Experts are currently guessing whether they will reduce or increase the relatively low levels of fraud in the system which the evidence has long pointed to. While masquerading as practical policy, this radical round of welfare reforms is actually informed by the crudest ideology and based on the most cynical kind of social psychology. But what’s really important about them is the walk-on parts they demand of the rest of us.

In the neo-liberal laboratory: Birmingham’s Children in care and Social Impact Bonds

This article by Jolyon Jones, SWAN West Midlands, analyses the threat posed to the welfare of children in care in Birmingham by social impact bonds.

'By the bye,' said Mr. Bumble, 'you don't know anybody who wants a boy, do you? A porochial 'prentis, who is at present a dead-weight; a millstone, as I may say, round the parochial throat? Liberal terms, Mr. Sowerberry, liberal terms?'
From Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

How should social workers support children and families facing destitution and cuts to their benefits?

How should social workers support children and families facing destitution and cuts to their benefits?

Simon Cardy from SWAN West Midlands charts the local impact of poverty and examines the case for using of Section 17 of the Children Act that allows local authorities to make cash payments for children and families in need.