We've published a new article on what Universal Credit tells us about the State, the nature of the economy it rules over, and what it wants from its subjects.
The welfare state, pre and post UC, is an indictment of the capitalist mode of production. Looked at soberly, the provisions of the welfare state express the State’s insight into the world of work: (a) workers need income from work but it is not provided when they need it, (b) work is set in motion only when it benefits employers and (c) this benefit is limited by what workers get to live on. The State recognises that the reason why workers go to work, their wages, is an obstacle to the reason for their employment. It recognises that without state intervention, the capitalist mode of production does not even provide the members of its society with a subsistence level of living.