If you’re entitled to it, you’re not a scrounger, yet hundreds of people within the UK would have you believe otherwise. The BBC’s ‘Growing Up Poor’ has brought the bastards out of the woodwork on Twitter, with anti-poor sentiment flooding the hashtag associated with the programme. Why? Because our country is in the midst of a financial crisis, and the majority of the media and government would have you believe it’s because the poor are taking what they don’t need. It sickens me to see people blaming the poor for their poverty, and judging the poor for what they spend what little benefits they get on, and their lifestyle choices.
“If they’re so poor, how can they afford to smoke?’, “If they’re so poor, how can they afford that new TV or their iPhone?”
Sophie Burge quite rightly pointed out that people in Slums and Refugee camps smoke, and yet somehow, are still authentically poor. Yes, it’d be easy to visit a Doctor and get free help with giving up smoking, but the stress and depression of being unemployed and in poverty often makes people cling to their vices.
Personally, I’ve never had it too difficult. I’m from a working class family who’ve never had much money, but my circumstances have never been as difficult as those of the girls on Growing Up Poor. However, between March and July in 2010 I found myself without a job. I had to sign on at the Job Centre regularly and complete a form that showed which jobs I had applied for and where I had looked for work, to prove that I was tying to find employment. In the four months that I was out of work I applied for roughly 350+ jobs of all descriptions because I was desperate to work. I lived at home, and even then it was difficult to get by on the small amount of money that the government was handing out to me.
I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been if I lived alone and had rent and other bills to pay. If I didn’t have the support of my family I’m pretty sure the downward spiral of despair and helplessness I felt in those four months would have damaged me for life. I cannot imagine how those who are worse off must feel with the reality they face every day.
Over two years after I found work I still feel a knot of guilt in my stomach if I spend more than £20 on myself, because while I was in receipt on state benefits I was made to feel that I owed it to society to not spend their money on anything other than the essentials. I wouldn’t sleep with worry because my bank account was close to empty. However I soon realised that I was entitled to the benefits I received, and I didn’t have to feel guilty. Occasionally I’d buy myself a chocolate bar. One month I even bought myself a pair of new shoes, and then felt guilty for days.
While I was on benefits we got a new television, and I had an iPhone. People would have you believe that this makes me a slacker, or irresponsible. However, I’d had the phone contract for months previous to becoming unemployed, and the new television was second hand and paid off in £10 installments every month. I never told those who judged me that though, because it was none of their business. It never will be.
I’m fully aware that they think it is their business what the poor spend their money on. They think that because they pay tax money that funds such benefits they have some superior right to look down upon those who get said benefits and what they use them for. I’m also fully aware that there are people who don’t need the benefits they get and falsely claim them. Yet, they’re not representative of all benefits recipients. Just as dodgy businesses not paying their tax aren’t representative of all businesses.
Many of those in need – who cannot afford food or who cannot afford to heat their homes delay asking for the help they are entitled to because of misleading news coverage of those receiving welfare, and the culture of judgement and blame this produces within society. As a tax payer I am glad that I contribute to a society where those in need will be given support, and I can’t imagine being the sort of person who would want someone to suffer a miserable existence simply for the crime of being poor.
With that in mind, I feel it is important to tell you that I will never be sorry that I spent your tax money on my phone, shoes, and sweets.
Thank you- I have close relatives who are job-seeking at the moment- keeping the despair and self-guilt down is I know a hard thing for them to do – compounded also by a hidden disability – I also work in mental health so I see others who are becoming desperate at the attitude displayed by the media and the world at large towards people on the dole. It breaks my heart – I for one do not begrudge people the freedom to spend their own money on a little luxury that staves off the despair for a few moments longer
I can’t abide anti-poor sentiment, especially the conflation of benefits claimers and benefits scroungers as if they are the same thing. I was unemployed for two years, applying for over ten jobs every day. Biggest shock of my life was not being able to get a job despite making as much effort as physically possible. I was broke, I spiralled into depression and alcoholism, ended up physically ill in various ways; the longer i was unemployed, the more difficult it became to pull myself out of it. It was horrible, unpleasant and difficult, and the idea that people would do this out of choice is frankly bizarre. It was one if the worst periods of my life, and without benefits it would have been far worse. Benefits are necessary and kind, and there is no shame in them. Good piece.
Very well said, Hayley. Here in the US, this same judgmental attitude runs rampant. To a large portion of the population here, the word “entitlement” is itself a dirty word, often uttered with disgusted derision. And of course, looming austerity measures are sure to cut benefits even further for those who most need it.
I cannot argue with detractors who opine that there are instances of fraud and abuse in all the various entitlement programs that are available to folks. It’s true! Studies show that about 2% of claims fall into that category in the US. From the explosive anti-entitlement arguments, one would think that half or more of the people availing themselves of these services are taking advantage. This is simply not true. To be sure, there will always be people who take advantage, but clearly, evidence shows that most people using these services actually need the help they’re receiving! An occasional treat is not evidence to the contrary…
I’ve been fortunate in the 24 yrs or so that I’ve been in the workforce to have had employment when I’ve wanted it. Many are not so lucky, and I again feel fortunate that I am able to contribute to the pool of funds that helps people along when they’re struggling. And should I someday land in similar circumstances, I hope that that same help is available to me.
I’m currently unemployed and I feel the same way as you. I take what the government gives for two reasons: I need it to pay bills and feed my family. I paid for it with my taxes when I was working.
Interesting read Hayley. I get your point but it’s not the ones who genuinely need it and would actually prefer to work that get people riled – It’s those that are lazy and cannot be ars*d, and quite frankly there are lots of people like that. I know I often find myself wondering if I actually would be better off giving up work – less stressed, at home more for the kids, no tax bills to pay, and benefits that I’m entitled to… (This would NEVER happen because of the work ethic I have, but it’s a niggle nevertheless)
Same as anything, it’s always the minority of bad eggs that give the rest a bad name.
Food for though though. Thank you.
You really think not being employed and living on benefits would be less stressful. That’s pretty ignorant.
Maybe so, but I believe that yes, for me it would be IF that was a conscious decision I had made and compared to my life now. Any of us can only make judgement in the context of our own lives & experiences. I have no doubt at all that life is pretty bloody awful for many of those who find themselves there not through choice. I’m agreeing with you it saying there is another side… Those who choose it
Do you read the Daily Mail by any chance?
Rachel. I am in a let of debt, that I may never get out of. The reason? I was unemployed for two years and on benefits. Housing benefit never really covers the cost of rent so I got into arrears with my landlord to the tune of £2000. Power bills? I lost track of the amount of times I got letters threatening to cut me off. council tax? Even with full council tax benefit I STILL had to pay something. Food? Feeding two people on benefits doesn’t exactly provide nutritional support.
Being on benefits, claiming EVERYTHING I was entitled too I was still short around £400 a month. Anyone who says it would be less stressful to be in benefits is simply wrong.
There are those, very few, select individuals who, for whatever reason DO manage to live at least comfortably on benefits and there are those that know how to play the system- but how many of those playing the system are also doing cash in hand work or lying on their applications? I don’t know. Basically, to honestly claim benefits it is near impossible to get by. You’d have to be doing shady things on the side to live stress free.
Also, the estimate is that only aorund 2% of benefit claimants are committing fraud, taking the UK national average wage of £26,000 a year you pay approximately £60 toward the entire benefit system, of that just under £27 for Job seekers allowance. Therefore you are paying around £1.20 a year to frauds, but by doing so you are garunteeing that others at least get somehting- even if it is a pittance of what is required. Personally I’d happily pay twice that if it means people who need benefits get them.
Also, another point worth considering is that in Australia benefit claimants receive three times what we do in the UK and their employment is a lot lower because those on benefits have more disposable income, which in turn creates more jobs. But we have a backward attitude in the UK, no matter how good a job it would do in creating jobs we would never increase benefits because people like yourself take the attitude that somehow being on benefits is a doss and a choice.
Well said. I think the resentment is not aimed at the unemployed more at those who have households where generations of the same family have never worked and don’t intend to. It’s not a ‘lifestyle choice’ it’s just the way it is. We should be proud that we have a society that doesn’t let these people just starve to death, instead we just condemn them and shame ourselves for doing so. These people probably represent a percentile that barely impacts on the benefit system as a whole but are the only ones anyone ever concentrates on. I have been unemployed twice and the real difficulty was that both times I got a job before I received any benefits and then had to wait about six weeks before I got paid from my job. I went almost three months without any income and thus got behind with rent and bills and debt that can take years to get rid of. This is part of the ‘fear’ that often keeps people on benefits long-term. That was decades ago. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people now.
I’m watching the program now…
£55 for a 30 hour work placement? Bloody hell.
Nope
what a disgusting piece.
‘I soon realised that I was entitled to the benefits I received’
how nice, confirmation bias of what you’d like to believe and that which would make you happy!
where is your evidence? are you morally entitled to what you legally own?
you’re just pandering to a culture feeling entitled to a certain standard of living as a birthright and the fashionable sentiment of seeing anyone who’s poor/on min wage as victims (usually persecuted by evil capitalists)
“the majority of the media and government would have you believe it’s because the poor are taking what they don’t need”
You merely confirmed that you were taking what you dont need in your piece
That the majority of the media is anti-poor is exceptionally disputable considering the self-serving sentiment of our delusionally leftwing echochamber country at the moment
those genuinely starving or living in cold due to fear of judgement dont deserve it, but should blame pieces like this for chronicling in detail the cause of the anti-benefits attitude.
wait until you have more job security til you buy the iphone
you paid off your tv in installments? again, wasteful – you have paid a premium for this credit and hence squandered capital.
‘but I need a yacht otherwise my quality of living is just too unbearable…wahhhh!’
I find entitlement culture disgusting
perhaps we should all feel guilty and ashamed that every £3 we spend is money not spent on saving people’s lives with basic medicines.
thanks for confirming that state benefits are too generous.
Gee, you seem to enjoy coming to my blog to leave negative replies… how strange of you.
You echo the frustration of the wage slave whose cognitive dissonance is shaky and seeks out a scapegoat in the desperate attempt to justify your enslavement. By your logic why do you bother caring for your ungrateful brats? Throw them onto the street and let them fend for themselves.
The choice to live on benefits is the only choice for most people claiming them unless you would have them be beggars or thieves. And any “luxuries” come at the cost of the “essentials” you take for granted. Your attitude gives them no value in society, and that is the same attitude that leads to persecution. It may be that an individual appears to have nothing to give to society at large and acts as a drain on resources but to ignore their intrinsic worth as a living human being is despicable and is frankly fascist. Even if a living wage of say £8/hr were law 5% to 10% of the population would remain unsuitable in our current corporate paradigm. Their inability to perform routine tasks or keep to routine schedules makes them useless in a modern machine dependent on routine. That 5-10% is not lazy, their biology is different, their neural pathways simply do not allow it. If you discriminate on the grounds of biology you are a fascist pure and simple. And as you lack empathy I would question who is the problem, them or you?
Isnt a big part of blogging to share what you believe for criticism?
@David, strawman
Uh huh, but your comments were generally meant to be insulting and patronising. Not welcomed.
I think that unless there is a mental health problem such as severe depression or anxiety, I find it strange that it takes 2 years to find a job.I have a masters degree and when I found myself unemployed I got a job in a restaurant. I would’ve accepted a job as a cleaner or hotel maid if I needed to. There are so many services out there, that help people find work and make applications! When people see work as an optional lifestyle, this “entitlement” things is a joke. Ill or disabled people should be entitled, and even they should be expected to have jobs according to their ability – not for the sake society but for themselves, for their self-esteem and self-worth! What makes you “entitled” to an Iphone? I appreciate you wanted to watch TV, but getting a second hand one wouldn’t be good enough until you got back on your feet? Don’t you think every able human being, as soon as they are old enough should work for the food on their plate? I appreciate that you wanted a job, Hayley but did you really consider any job?
There seem to be two groups of people that are still not protected from ignorant prejudiced bile. the unemployed and the gypseys (though it is the unemployed we are talking about here) . Firstly you get the overpouring of bile from ranters with strange names such as kungfuhobbit. Then you get the more subtle approach ..I managed to get a job so why didn’t he/she manage one . Two things Linda. It is often difficult to convince an employer to accept an overqualified person as a cleaner . You managed that …well done. If you told your employer that you were going to stick that job while secretly looking for another that would be rather dishonest . Even the savage beafits system accepts this and allows a person to look for a job in their normal profession for a certain amount of time …trying to sqeeze square pegs into round holes is very economically disruptive all round. many who dont find jobs after a year or so are in different circumstances to you . These service jobs tend only to exist in the bigger towns and cities. There are all kinds of reasons why somebody may be unemployed long term in the middle of a recession. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century it was correctly seen as an entitlement in a rich society like hours that nobody should be left destitute. It is that entitlement that takes away unbareable stress and allows people to flourish and untimately find their productive niche in life . It beggars belief why you would want to take that away ?