Benefit reform the only option

Even though the full 
effect of these changes 
has yet to bite, they are already causing worry, hardship and even homelessness among benefit recipients, 
according to charities in this region.

Indeed, a total of 95 per cent of organisations questioned by the support group, Involve Yorkshire and Humber, report an increase in clients’ anxiety about income, with 87 per cent noticing an increase in debt problems and 57 per cent seeing a rise in homelessness.

Of course, what is not 
clear about these figures is how much of an increase in these factors there would have been if the benefit reforms were not taking place. Because, however much some people may 
fear the changes, surely no one can claim that the status quo is an acceptable alternative.

There are clearly injustices in the reforms being brought in by Mr Duncan Smith and these must be addressed. The so-called bedroom tax, an honest attempt to alleviate the housing shortage by cutting the benefits of those deemed to have unused bedrooms in their accommodation, has thrown up the possibility 
of all sorts of unfair anomalies and the Work and Pensions Secretary 
has promised to look again at these.

In the end, though, it is incumbent on all those 
who profess horror at the welfare reforms to say precisely what steps they would take to improve the present system, riddled as 
it is with disincentives to work, or else to admit that, like the last Labour government, they are content to bankroll unemployment and 
pay out vast sums of 
money to sustain welfare ghettos across the country that hurt the poorest in society.

In the end, the only 
lasting cure for poverty, debt and homelessness is work that pays a good enough wage to become 
a more attractive option than unemployment and this is what Mr Duncan Smith is striving to administer.

It is only a pity that his cause is undermined by those in the Government, such as Chancellor George Osborne, who persist in describing the welfare reforms only as another way to save money and reduce the deficit.

There is no shortage of people keen to write off the reforms as merely 
the latest cruel wheeze by the heartless Tories and it is up to the Government to show that this is not the case, that their aim is not 
to save money but to 
rescue lives.