Glasgow’s eastern part formerly showcased Scotland’s largest steel mill. The Parkhead Forge was encircled by thriving industries and apartment buildings during those times.
Glasgow was referred to as the second city of the British Empire.
.
The Parkhead Forge no longer stands, but its name endures as a shopping center. Full-time jobs have become scarce over time. Nearly one person out of every three in this region faces these challenges.
are living on benefits
.
One of the locations at the eastern part of Glasgow is
Labour’s welfare reforms
– £5bn in reductions to the disability support payments
Personal Independence Payments
(
PIP
and the inability aspect of
universal credit
— will be experienced most strongly.
Lisa Laird, a 45-year-old resident of the eastern part of town, expresses concern. She indicates the location where her former workplace was situated, the bingo hall in Parkhead near The Forge shopping center.
Since an accident a couple of years back led to nerve damage in her back due to a fall, Lisa hasn’t been able to work. Additionally, she grapples with depression and anxiety, depending on universal credit as well as PIP for support.
If they reduce the benefits, it makes life even harder,” she states. “That’s not really fair. They’re targeting those who don’t have much. There are some individuals who simply cannot work.
She says, “Individuals will likely resort to theft or drug trafficking for survival. An increased number of people might rely on food banks. This situation is dreadful.”
Mohammad Razaq, a 68-year-old who spent most of his life in Parkhead since his family moved from Pakistan to reside in the eastern part of the city during the early ’70s, has witnessed significant shifts in the job sector throughout his years.
“He remembers that some factories and industries were still present back then — but they were quickly fading away. ‘Now, there are a few new homes and a shopping center, yet the high-paying job opportunities are not around anymore,’ he adds.”
Mohammad served as a bus driver for four decades prior to his recent retirement, yet he remains concerned about the younger generation due to the escalating cost of living.
“The minimum wage is just peanuts nowadays, given how expensive everything has become. It’s insufficient to make ends meet,” he stated.
“The MPs are on £90,000 and they have no idea how hard it is. I don’t think there’s too many people cheating the [benefits] system. If they cut benefits, it just makes things harder.”
Glasgow’s eastern part might justly assert that it was where the contemporary welfare system originated.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith
was so astonished by the poverty he witnessed during his 2002 trip to the Easterhouse housing estate that it brought him to tears.
The senior Tory’s so-called “Easterhouse epiphany” led to
The introduction of universal credit when he took office as Work and Pensions Secretary in 2010.
The restructuring was intended to ensure that individuals would always have higher earnings from employment compared to receiving welfare benefits.
However, Duncan Smith’s welfare reform hasn’t triggered an employment surge, and in Glasgow, the realities for the most disadvantaged areas of the city continue to be grim.
The most recent Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
indicates that in the Parkhead and Dalmarnock areas — which lie at the core of the inner east side — 31.6 percent of individuals who are of working age receive some form of welfare assistance.
They fall under the category of “employment-deprived,” relying either on welfare assistance for those without jobs or on disability payouts. In a particular small eastern district known as Shettleston North, an astonishing 47 percent reside on such benefits—the highest rate across all of Scotland.
Data from the Office for National Statistics
demonstrate that 31.7 percent of individuals throughout Glasgow are not participating in the economy. Although this percentage encompasses students and retirees, it represents the most significant rate observed within the last ten years.
Professor Chik Collins, who directs the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH), mentioned that the city continues to feel the impact of the redevelopment projects from the 1960s and ’70s when numerous skilled working-class residents were relocated to newer areas such as East Kilbride and Cumbernauld.
“We discovered in the archives a document from the Scotland Office dated 1971 which cautioned that the city would be left with ‘the elderly, the extremely impoverished, and those nearly impossible to employ,’ ” he stated as part of his jointly authored research.
describes why Glasgow experiences such high levels of early fatalities
.
“That heritage suggests there is some validity to the notion that unemployment can spread across generations — however, we must be extremely cautious about adopting overly simple and reductionist solutions,” he stated.
Prof Collins warned that cutting benefits would not necessarily drive people towards employment. He further stated, “To get individuals employed, substantial assistance will be needed along with significant investments in training programs and youth development—all of which come at considerable cost.”
Reducing welfare and services incurs significant social expenses even within a brief period and undoubtedly over time.
Scotland might still manage to dodge some of the harshest reductions in benefits. Individuals residing in northern Scotland who receive Personal Independence Payments (PIP) have started transitioning to the Adult Disability Payment (ADP). This shift occurred following the devolution of certain social security payments to the Scottish Government.
The administration led by the SNP has not yet mentioned what alterations might be necessary for ADP due to Labour’s proposals aimed at limiting access to PIP.
But campaigners fear the budget reductions set to be passed on to the Scottish Government from Westminster could see eligibility changes made to ADP too.
Euan Mitchell, a 29-year-old activist from DPAC Glasgow, stated that many beneficiaries were experiencing significant “fear and uncertainty.”
The former paid carer suffers from neuropathy, pain from nerve damage, on his right-hand side. He acts as an unpaid carer to his brother, but he is keen to re-train and find work in the health sector in future if he can.
Cuts won’t miraculously generate new job opportunities,” stated Mitchell. He further explained, “Some individuals with disabilities simply aren’t capable of working. Forcing them to work beyond their capabilities would lead to an increased demand for assistance from the NHS and social services.
Read Next:
In Birkenhead, the town slated to face the impact of Labour’s benefit reductions, things look grim.
A lot of single parents will be affected by this.
cuts to universal credit
Scheduled to occur across the UK. A lone parent in Glasgow, who has a child in elementary school, relies on both ADP and unemployment benefits.
The mum in her forties suffers from chronic pain from a hip disorder, anxiety and depression. The former social care worker said she would “love to get back into work” when her son is older.
“But I just don’t know whether the pain, whether the disability, will allow me to,” she said. “It’s can be really, really hard to pay the bills [on benefits]. A £50 bill comes in and it can throw you out. There are times I will go without eating to feed my son.”
It seems as though the government is targeting individuals receiving benefits, implying that we are responsible for the nation’s financial issues. However, they ought to consider collecting more taxes from those who earn millions of pounds.
The conditions attached to universal credit payments compel single parents who work part-time to attempt increasing their working hours. However, the scarcity of flexible job opportunities places immense stress on them, which benefit reductions will exacerbate, as stated by One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS).
“Decisions by the UK Government to cut welfare are causing a lot of anxiety among parents we support,” said OPFS’ chief executive Satwat Rehman.
However, the Centre for Social Justice (CJS) believes universal credit has a positive legacy. The think tank set up by Duncan Smith said it had allowed people to keep some benefit money while in jobs, helping “smooth the journey” from welfare into work.
CJS policy director Joe Shalam said the primary labour market challenge facing Glasgow, as with the rest of the nation, “is the rise in economic inactivity – in particular due to long-term sickness”.
A UK Government spokesperson promised £1bn would be invested in employment support. They said reform of health and disability benefits “supports people back into work, while putting the welfare system on a more sustainable footing so that the safety net is always there to protect those who need it most”.
Scotland’s Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville stated that the SNP government still required additional time to determine their response to Labour’s proposals—but urged Sir Keir Starmer to abandon what she termed as “reckless and harmful reductions.”