Valuing all people

Valuing all people

New environments can create new language. In the government-led assault on welfare benefits 'scroungerphobia' is gaining traction; otherwise sensible people developing a genuine disdain for all benefit recipients, an attitude which fails to appreciate facts, is dependent upon believing myths and one which is profoundly regressive and ultimately destructive for wider society.

As Rob MacDonald from Teesside University points out in his work, the claim by George Osborne in 2010 that 'unemployment is a lifestyle choice' completely misrepresents the real aspirations and ambitions of unemployed workers and those experiencing intermittent poor quality employment.

The tabloid press bears some responsibility for 'anti-benefits' sentiment with sensational headlines about some welfare recipients, but this is also fuelled by the government's preference to 'crack down' on so-called 'benefit cheats'. Fraud for both sickness and disability benefits is the lowest of any benefit at just half of one percent and out of work benefits make up a tiny proportion of the total welfare budget. These over-payments are totally dwarfed by the grotesque intricate tax avoidance schemes the wealthiest corporations employ to avoid paying corporation tax on enormous profits as exposed by the Public Accounts Committee last week.

Far from confirming those on benefits as work-shy, MacDonald's research presents a picture of workers keen to be in stable, fairly paid, good quality employment, but trapped in a situation where only insecure, low-paying, low-skilled, poor quality jobs are on offer. This is a situation which leads to difficult choices about food, which bills to pay, increasing vulnerability to ill-health and loan-sharks (legal and otherwise) trapping families in a never-ending cycle of poverty and a life on benefits.

Far from generous, these benefits are an essential safety net, just keeping people's heads above water. As the 'Diary of a Benefit Scrounger' blogger, Sue Marsh, wrote, the myths around the lifestyle of people on benefits are a considerable distance from the reality. One third of sick and disabled people live in poverty, cutting benefits further would be a callous attack on the most vulnerable people. The benefits people receive in the UK are some of the lowest in the developed world recipients face the toughest eligibility tests. The numbers of people on out of work sickness benefits has been falling steadily for 15 years, not 'spiraling out of control'.

Over 10 million people in the UK have a long term condition or disability and 60 per cent of them are in work, though they are much more likely to be unemployed than non-disabled workers. The real problem is not the victims of unemployment, but the lack of decent jobs in our economy. One in three people in the north east is not in work and large numbers of those that are endure the lowest pay in the country. Portraying people on benefits as work-shy is not only false it encourages employers to discriminate against people with disabilities, on the basis that they don't really want work. This can only further embed economic exclusion and poverty.

Kevin Rowan

Regional Secretary

Northern TUC