I've had a quiet summer regarding writing, but have plans to catch up again soon with the Solent Welfare Rights Project, although whether this will involve getting the gang together for one last job or will leave their door open for more welfare-rights do-goodery in future, remains to be seen.
As I mentioned in my last blog post, I've been quietly reviewing some older work. I'm planning no changes to plot or characters and minimal changes to the text, except to correct typographical errors, although I will be writing updated prefaces for the Kindle editions of all the Welfare Rights Lit stories in turn and, depending on costs and practicality, might be inspired to do new look versions of the paperbacks.
One thing that has inspired me to do this is the sense that, at last, I may not be swimming against the tide in calling for justice and fair treatment for benefit claimants. When I started writing Severe Discomfort, New Labour Work and Pensions spokespeople were as likely to talk tough on benefits as their Tory counterparts - by the time I had published it, they were pledging to be tougher. By contrast, as I blogged my most recent story, we had an Opposition at last worthy of the name and the sight of a Tory in tears at the hardships faced by Universal Credit claimants.
Not Esther McVey, of course, though even she has baulked at challenging the Court of Appeal's ruling that the Government's shameless rewrite of the PIP mobility regulations was blatantly discriminatory against people coping with mental health. Instead, hundreds of thousands of claims are to be checked for error and underpayment. Meanwhile, having considered the evidence from claimants, advisers and disability charities on the inaccuracy of the contractors' reports, the Work and Pensions Select Committee is calling for all ESA and PIP face-to-face assessments to be routinely recorded. There is serious talk at looking for a public-sector alternative to Atos, Capita and Maximus when their current contracts. If the tide hasn't yet turned, at least the rip current is no longer dragging us towards the rocks so violently.
Something else which was seen as the impossible dream of a handful of idealistic hippies and the Solent Welfare Rights Project's utopians has also gone mainstream, namely the concept of a Universal Basic Income. It isn't just being talked about either - it's being trialled; in parts of Finland, Belgium, Canada and, soon, in four districts in Scotland. Along with their pledge to ditch Trident, it's one of the issues which keeps me in the Greens rather than switching back to Labour. It has to come; machines and AI are overtaking so many jobs that it's either UBI (and a taxation system that supports it) or Luddites and Swing Rioters taking up their cudgels once more.
In the meantime, there are still tales of social injustice and wrongful benefits refusal to tell. Let's get the old gang together, eh?
