The strong case you make for action on social security (Editorial, 16 June) misses a key point: the primary purpose of social security is to guarantee financial security through social means. Yet today’s social security system does the opposite. It is not just the many cuts and caps you document that have left the meagre safety net in shreds, but also the punitive sanctions regime and the overreliance on means-testing, in particular for universal credit, which too often aggravates rather than mitigates labour market insecurities.
In his introduction to Labour’s manifesto, Keir Starmer states that “this ‘age of insecurity’ requires the government to step up”. One crucial and urgent step is to put the security back into social security.
Ruth Lister
Labour, House of Lords
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