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Tory austerity has caused "social murder", an academic paper claims.

The damning Victorian-era phrase has been revived to describe years of benefit cuts, the benefit cap and 'fit-for-work' tests under the government since 2010.

Demanding "fundamental change" in welfare policy, its author argues "violence" has been inflicted on the poor to "enrich a small elite".

The 21-page article appears in the journal Critical Social Policy and was written by Dr Chris Grover, head of the sociology department at Lancaster University.

In the paper he cites 2015 research claiming there were an extra six suicides for every 10,000 work capability assessments, known as 'fit-for-work' tests.

He also quoted research or news stories about increasing numbers of people dying of malnutrition; and increasing numbers of homeless people are dying on the streets or in hostels.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

After the article was published official government figures showed deaths of homeless people rose 24% in five years, with 597 dying in 2017.

Dr Grover wrote: "[The state] is both the protector of working-class people from harm and the facilitator of social murder."

The idea of 'social murder' revives a concept first used by Communist philosopher Friedrich Engels in 1845.

Engels argued that the Industrial Revolution inflicted death on workers that could have been prevented through a different economic structure.

(Image: Bishopsgate Institute)

"The bourgeoisie knew this, but they benefitted from the use of working-class people as the ‘means of profit’," Dr Grover argues - leading to "social murder", a death due to the structure of society.

In his paper Dr Grover claimed this "social murder" has been enabled by a process called "violent proletarianisation".

This concept describes working class people being put under pressure to "commodify labour power for the enrichment of a small elite".

Citing a rise in benefit sanctions and increased poverty, Dr Grover wrote: "Social security ‘austerity’ can be understood as structural violence.

(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

"It is informed by, and helps reproduce, unequal distributions of power and financial resources, and its detrimental consequences are both known and avoidable."

He added: "Un- and under-employed people are enduring the violence of deepening inequalities and social injustices as a consequence of capital’s need for commodified labour power.

"Violent proletarianisation is the process that enforces this imperative.

"The outcome is social murder."

The paper cites research showing 10 people per 100,000 died by suicide in 2007, rising to 11.1 in 2013 before falling again to 10.4 in 2016.

While admitting suicide's causes are "complex", the paper claims "research points to a significant proportion of people enduring violent proletarianisation having suicidal thoughts and/or having attempted to kill themselves."

The paper also cites research claiming for every 10,000 people reassessed for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), there were an additional six suicide deaths and 7,020 antidepressant items prescribed.

The paper - released on December 19 but not widely reported at the time - does not prove any link between social security policies and suicide.

Asked to respond to the paper, a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesman said: “Since 2010 there are three million more people in work, one million fewer people living in absolute poverty, household incomes have never been higher.

“Sanctions are only used in a minority of cases where people don’t meet their agreed commitments to look for work."