The economy is still doing badly, so austerity continues and the Government has cut 30% of its contribution to the County Council. Leicestershires most needy have borne the brunt of the cuts, for example, there have been huge cuts in services to the elderly and vulnerable, such as home care for the elderly.
At a national level, while making disproportionate cuts to the less well off, the Government continues to blame the poor in our society for the welfare bill, and purposefully misrepresent the truth to justify its cuts to the welfare budget. For example, the Tories repeatedly use terms like "dependancy culture", "benefit cheat" and "intergenerational worklessness" when only 3% of the welfare budget is spent on unemployment benefit - (the vast majority of it goes on pensions) - and, despite fraud being mentioned repeatedly in Tory speeches, the fraud rate is only 0.7%. Ian Duncan Smith is the main culprit for this mis-representation, while the Child Poverty Action Group and the Rowntree Trust have described this language as unhelpful, and misrepresents what poverty is about.
We know that money is tight, but a Labour Council would seek to get as fair a share of the national cake as possible, and halt reductions in services for the elderly and disabled. Its time for a change in the Council, and the Labour team is working hard to make it happen. Please help by voting Labour in the County Council elections on May 2nd
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