A GOVERNMENT campaign to put the work ethic back at the heart of British life is to be launched in Scotland today by welfare reform Minister Frank Field.
In choosing to launch a UK-wide debate north of the Border the controversial Minister is both tapping into Scots traditions about the work ethic and confronting head-on his critics, including those in his own party, who branded benefit cuts to lone parents ''economically inept, morally repugnant and spiritually bereft''.
The SNP was quick to highlight this quote and to claim that Mr Field was the hard-edged Minister who reflected Tony Blair's talk of ''compassion with a hard edge''. They claimed his visit to lecture Scots on the virtues of hard work only served to show that the Scottish Parliament should be in charge of administering the social security system.
But Mr Field sees himself as part of a crusade to change British attitudes to welfare. He announced a further crackdown on fraudsters yesterday, giving his staff new powers to add interest on top of any sum to be clawed back. ''The administrative penalty now provides the Government with a broader and more flexible range of sanctions to tackle benefit fraud,'' he said.
Later yesterday he arrived in Scotland to deliver a lecture at St Andrews University, amplifying his theme about the need to change attitudes. This crusade will be formally launched today in a speech to the Scottish Council Foundation in Edinburgh where he will claim: ''Every single one of us has a stake in rebuilding the welfare state. Today marks the start of a nationwide debate.''
Arguing that ''we have to replace the culture of claiming with the culture of working,'' he says paid work is the surest escape route from poverty, bringing not just money but self esteem, family role-models and communities free from social exclusion.''
But SNP Treasury spokesman John Swinney said: ''MPs have been inundated with heartbreaking cases of disabled people who have had benefit entitlement removed at the stroke of a pen because of the Tories' Benefits Integrity Project, which Mr Field has enthusiastically pursued.''
Meanwhile, the Government claimed that benefits fraudsters are beginning to feel the impact of a two-pronged strategy designed to catch crooked individuals and big-time, organised conmen. Mr Field pointed to a case in London in which members of one extended family were arrested on suspicion of fraudulently claiming #600,000 in housing benefit.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article