Russell and Carol - hayle and hearty

Excellent letter via Letters: Coalition should zero in on the real issue of unfair work contracts 04 April 2013 00:05

• As minister for disabled people, Esther McVey (At last a fair welfare state, 3 April) should have read the Beveridge Report and known that the welfare state was never intended as a "safety net". It was designed to slay the five "dragons" of want, disease, ignorance, idleness and squalor. All citizens were to pay national insurance contributions which would entitle them, as a right, to benefits in time of need. The (means-tested) safety net was National Assistance, to care for those who, for whatever reason, did not qualify for benefits. It was envisaged that the safety net would wither away as the welfare state became fully implemented, and abject poverty became a thing of the past.

Far from "rebalancing the welfare state", these reforms are aimed at putting us back to the days of public assistance, with its dehumanising means tests, and the workhouse.
Mary Brown
Stroud, Gloucestershire