Austerity Bites

A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK

O'Hara, Mary

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781447315605
• eBook ISBN: 9781447315629
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Public Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Voted one of the Guardian best books of 2014 by Owen Jones. After coming to power in May 2010, the Coalition government in the United Kingdom embarked on a drastic programme of cuts to public spending and introduced a raft of austerity measures that had profoundly damaging effects on much of the population. This bestselling book by award-winning journalist Mary O'Hara chronicles the true impact of austerity on people at the sharp end, based on her 'real-time' 12-month journey around the country just as the most radical reforms were being rolled out in 2012 and 2013. Drawing on hundreds of hours of compelling first-person interviews, with a broad spectrum of people ranging from homeless teenagers, older job-seekers, pensioners, charity workers, employment advisers and youth workers, as well as an extensive body of research and reports, the book explores the grim reality of living under the biggest shakeup of the welfare state in 60 years. with a new Foreword by Mark Blyth, Professor of International Political economy and International Studies at Brown University, USA, Austerity Bites dispels any notion that "we are all in this together" and offers an alternative to the dominant and simplistic narrative that we inhabit a country of "skivers versus strivers.

Notes

Introduction

¹ Martin Wolf, ‘Osborne has now been proved wrong on austerity’, Financial Times, 26 September 2013 (www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c2fc7352-25de-11e3-aee8-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz2olteZTCg).

² Mark Blyth, ‘Eternal austerity makes complete sense – if you’re rich’, The Guardian, 15 November 2013 (www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/eternal-austerity-makes-sense-if-rich-david-cameron).

³ Tracy Shildrick et al, Poverty and insecurity: Life in low-pay, no-pay Britain, Bristol: Policy Press, 2012.

⁴ Carys Afoko and Daniel Vokins, Framing the economy: the austerity story, London: New Economics Foundation, 11 September (www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/framing-the-economy-the-austerity-story).

⁵ Phillip Inman, ‘UK avoided double-dip recession in 2011, revised official data shows’, The Guardian, 27 June 2013 (www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jun/27/uk-avoid-double-dip-recession-ons-data).

⁶ Allister Heath, ‘Sorry to be a party-pooper, but this is the wrong kind of growth’, City AM, 1 November 2013 (www.cityam.com/article/1383270044/sorry-be-party-pooper-wrong-kind-growth); Aditya Chakrabortty, ‘London’s economic boom leaves the rest of England behind’, The Guardian, 23 October 2013 (www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/23/london-south-east-economic-boom).

⁷ The Centre for Welfare Reform, A fair society?, Sheffield (www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/type/pdfs/a-fair-society1.html).

⁸ Shane Croucher, ‘UK just half way through age of austerity as spending cuts set to deepen’, International Business Times, 6 December 2013 (www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-austerity-cuts-george-osborne-autumn-statement-528143).

⁹ “The end of local government as we know it,” was how Birmingham City Council Leader, Sir Albert Bore, described the impending cuts to adult social care and children’s services. See Alex Blyth, ‘Adult social care and children’s services – what next?’, Local Government Chronicle, 25 April 2013 (www.lgcplus.com/news/adult-social-care-and-childrens-services-what-next/5057870.article).

¹⁰ The Centre for Welfare Reform, op cit.

¹¹ This is Money, ‘Two-thirds of a million: the number of public sector workers who have lost their jobs since the Coalition came to power’, 21 November 2012 (www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2236301/660-000-public-sector-workers-lost-jobs-Coalition-came-power.html).

¹² ‘For the first time in history welfare benefits and tax credits will not rise in line with inflation and will instead for the next three years rise by 1%. Had there been no change benefits would have risen by 2.2%.’ Quoted in Patrick Wintour, ‘The day Britain changes: welfare reforms and coalition cuts take effect’, The Guardian, 1 April 2013 (www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/mar/31/liberal-conservative-coalition-conservatives).

¹³ Nick Owens, ‘Working poor worse off than ever despite Coalition tax cuts designed to boost their income’, Mirror, 23 June 2013, citing research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/working-poor-worse-ever-despite-1983094).

¹⁴ New Policy Institute, Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2013, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation (http://npi.org.uk/files/9613/8634/5794/MPSE_Findings_2013_FINAL.pdf).

¹⁵ Rupert Neate, ‘Pay workers more, CBI chief tells thriving firms’, The Guardian, 30 December 2013 (www.theguardian.com/money/2013/dec/30/pay-workers-more-cbi-firms).

¹⁶ Larry Elliott and Phillip Inman, ‘Living standards to be lower in 2015 than in 2010, IFS warns’, The Guardian, 6 December 2013 (www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/06/ifs-living-standards-lower-osborne-autumn-statement).

¹⁷ Rupert Neate, for The Guardian, 30 December 2013, op cit.

¹⁸ Rupert Jones, ‘Household finances at breaking point, says Shelter’, The Guardian, 3 January 2014 (www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/03/household-finances-breaking-point-shelter).

¹⁹ The Staggers, ‘Unemployment falls sharply but the living standards crisis continues’, New Statesman, 18 December 2013 (www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/12/unemployment-falls-sharply-living-standards-crisis-continues); Chris Johnes, ‘Autumn Statement: The poorest pay twice’, Oxfam Policy & Practice blog, 6 December 2013 (http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/blog/2013/12/autumn-statement-2013-the-poorest-pay-twice).

²⁰ Joana Martinho, ‘The impact of austerity – and the alternatives’, Oxfam blogs, 11 September 2013 (www.oxfam.org.uk/blogs/2013/09/the-impact-of-austerity); Scriptonite Daily, ‘Wealth inequality in UK now equal to Nigeria, UN report’, 5 August 2013 (www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/08/05/wealth-inequality-in-uk-now-equal-to-nigeria-un-report).

²¹ Heather Stewart, ‘Shocking figures reveal the growth in UK’s wealth gap’, The Observer, 10 February 2013 (www.theguardian.com/society/2013/feb/10/uk-super-rich-richer-as-majority-squeezed).

²² Mark Blyth, Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013

²³ Joana Martinho, for Oxfam, 11 September 2013, op cit; Naomi Klein, The shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism, New York: Picador, 2007.

²⁴ ‘The austerity drive in Britain isn’t really about debt and deficits at all; it’s about using deficit panic as an excuse to dismantle social programs.’ Quoted in Paul Krugman, ‘The austerity agenda’, The New York Times, 31 May 2012 (www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/opinion/krugman-the-austerity-agenda.html?_r=2&hp&).

²⁵ Mark Blyth, Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea, op cit.

²⁶ George Eaton challenges claims by David Cameron that the cuts are not about ‘ideological zeal’; see George Eaton, ‘Cameron is wrong: the spending cuts are ideological’, New Statesman, 31 December 2010 (www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/12/spending-cuts-tax-ideological).

²⁷ Author and academic Mark Blyth outlines his rebuttal to austerity on video; see www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQuHSQXxsjM

²⁸ www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQuHSQXxsjM

²⁹ Kate Alexander and Jonathan Hop...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• one. Money’s too tight to mention
• two. The big squeeze
• three. Welcome to ‘Wongaland’
• four. Work maketh the person
• five. All work and no pay
• six. Bearing the brunt
• seven. A life lived in fear is a life half lived
• Conclusion
• Notes