*Key Labour employment plan close to collapse

The best laid plans of mice and investment bankers ....

Those who devised New Labour's welfare reform plans were motivated by corporate bonuses they would acquire for releasing benefit claimants from 'welfare dependency' into paid work -- however low-paid -- or by denying the validity of their attempts to find suitable employment,leading to claim closure by deprivation.

The privatisation of welfare outlined in the Welfare Reform Green Paper was informed by investment banker David Freud's ignorance. The Green Party listening to disabled people and their families when responding with 'Writing off workfare'. We clearly stated that the government agenda was skewed by its perception of disabled people and benefit claimants as 'the problem'. Disadvantaged people are impacted upon by
discrimination rather than laziness. Those who talk of a 'carrot and stick' approach are more into dictatorship than representative government and sustainable society.

Green Party Citizen's Income -- a non-means-tested benefit based on citizenship that would be available to all UK citizens -- is part of the answer. Curbing the bonus culture of market economics and also tackling discrimination would serve a more sustainable future. "Government should listen to disadvantaged people more than to our oppressors," says the Green Party's National Disability Spokesperson Alan Wheatley. "The DWP advertising budget needs to focus more on tackling disability
discrimination, ageism and sexism rather than 'targeting benefit thieves'.