Ian Buchanan

Our crisis of work is causing a crisis of welfare. But all we see is the welfare crisis, and we try to solve it by inventing ever more draconian ways of forcing people into unsuitable and insecure work, rather than by addressing the root cause of the problem: disappearing traditional jobs and growing income uncertainty.

Security of income does not have to come from work. Indeed, as work becomes ever more uncertain and insecure, more and more people will need some other sort of anchor. For the elderly, this is a state pension — yet the right to that is being eroded. For younger people, it is various forms of in-work benefits — yet the right to those, too, is being undermined. We are progressively shredding the safety net that provides people with some protection from instability of income.