UK social security cut while ballooning bank balances of richest get off scot-free

Today the UK Government has announced wide-ranging changes to the social security system, including narrowing support for those with a disability and long-term health condition.

Campaigners say while it’s critical to break down barriers to employment for everyone - including people with disabilities and long-term health issues who can and want to be in paid work - this cannot be achieved by further restricting and cutting an already inadequate social security system.

Oxfam Scotland says that after brutally cutting the international aid budget, the UK Government’s £5 billion cuts to social security now risk pulling the rug from under people in or on the brink of poverty in Scotland. 

Campaigners say the UK Government should tax the richest fairly instead. A small wealth tax on people with assets of more than £10 million could raise £24 billion a year.

Responding to the news, Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said: “After slashing the aid budget, this latest perverse political choice, if fully replicated in Scotland, risks locking more people into hardship and deeper poverty, while the ballooning bank balances of the UK’s richest millionaires and billionaires get off virtually scot-free. 

“Political leaders in the UK, and here in Scotland, must instead choose to tax wealth fairly to help combat poverty and the inequality that drives it: there’s no shortage of money, just a shocking shortage of will to make the richest pay their fair share.”

/ENDS

For more information and interviews, please contact: Rebecca Lozza, Media and Communications Adviser, Oxfam Scotland: rlozza1@oxfam.org.uk / 07917738450