The cruelest Tory legacy of all could be seen in the living faces of the four million children in poverty, a generation abandoned to the cynical deceit that economic prosperity could only be achieved at the cost of social injustice. But inequality brought with it economic failure which cost every household, with few exceptions, the standard of living and quality of life they might otherwise have enjoyed.
The greatest challenge for Labour is its commitment to halve child poverty in ten years and to eliminate it altogether in a generation. One and a quarter million children have been air-lifted out of poverty since 1997. But tackling poverty and inequality, their causes and not just the symptoms, must remain at the top of the agenda for the second term.
The minimum wage and the creation of a million jobs are the greatest weapons in the fight against poverty. They have helped people to participate as active citizens, rather than as the passive recipients of welfare.
The New Deal has rightly focused on the young and long-term unemployed. Now these opportunities should be extended to anyone who needs or wants help. The new One Service, offering everyone of working age access to a personal adviser, will help people get jobs, training and childcare. But why not also advice and support on unpaid work, such as volunteering or caring, on the benefits or credits to which people may be entitled, or even on personal finances including pensions and life insurance?
Welfare includes not just social security, but a sharing of responsibility between employers, individuals and the state. Examples of this are the minimum wage or parental leave, payment for which is necessary to allow those on the lowest incomes to take it.
Benefits for children, the poorest pensioners, low-paid families and young disabled people have increased sharply, after years of Tory cheese-paring which pushed them below subsistence. As the Government recognises, more still needs to be done, especially for pensioners just above the poverty line. How do we make sure that these increased benefits are effectively targeted, as the public clearly wants, without means-testing? The Working Families Tax Credit, the Child Care Tax Credit and the new Childrens’ Tax Credit are examples of support which is concentrated where it is needed most without the stigma of means-tests. An extension of tax credits offers the prospect of eliminating old-fashioned means-tests for those in work. Further radical reform of National Insurance could eventually spring those out of work off means-tests as well.
‘Middle Britain’ has much to gain from success in the fight against poverty. Inequality deprives people of the opportunity to make their contribution to general prosperity. Social justice is a condition for economic progress, not an alternative to it.