I used to work in social care. I’ve been on all sorts of training courses. Once upon a time I was blindfolded so that I could feel what it’s like to be blind.
Of course this is a poor imitation of the experience. And later training courses told me that this is a poor and somewhat patronising training technique. (I don’t know how blind people feel about it, I don’t know anyone blind to ask.)
Experience isn’t actually all that great a teacher. Particularly if the experience is so faked. Women, have you ever met a female doctor who says don’t be daft about period pain, I’ve never had a problem? So, would Iain Duncan Smith learn the effects his welfare cuts are having if he went off and lived on £53 for a week? Of course not. If he did it for a year, as thousands of people have suggested in an online petition?
Not even then. Because it wouldn’t be real. So it wouldn’t feel real. At any point he could walk away. Have his millionaire family race to the rescue and bail him out. He won’t really feel what it feels like to run out of money and have nowhere to turn. To have to be referred by someone to a foodbank because your fridge or washing machine broke, and you can’t replace it *and* buy food.
He thinks that people on benefits are in a trap. That they just need incentives to get themselves a job. What he doesn’t seem to recognise is how difficult it is when you are scared and hungry to keep on getting yourself tidy, clean and presentable and keep applying for jobs regardless of how many rejections you get.
I don’t remember how many applications I sent in before I finally got a job after I dropped out of my PGCE. I suspect it ran into hundreds. I got the over qualified response, or more often than that, no response at all. It was an incredibly disheartening experience, and I was at that time only responsible for myself. Doing it all again while having 4 children relying on me would be terrifying. Trying to start up a business is nerve wracking enough.
I’m incredibly fortunate though. I have a good education, years of experience and useful current skills. I’m not in the same boat as most people having their benefits capped or cut. I’ve lived alongside or worked to support many of them in the past though and I think I have an inking about what it’s like. One of the things that makes it all more bearable is community. Which is why the destabilising effects of the bedroom tax are utterly wrong. They’ll remove people from their support networks at a time they need them most.
There are some things I agree with that I’ve seen though. I do think it’s wrong that benefits could end up being better than paid work. But the answer to that is better pay, such as replacing minimum wage with a living wage. It would go some way to solving the tax avoidance and tax credit situations too. Instead of having the administrative overhead of taxing people and companies to support the low paid, I’d like to see all politicians sign up to make work really pay.
Once we’ve got that sorted out, then maybe we can start looking at how to solve the housing and work crises we’ve got. And do you know what, I don’t think cutting corporation tax and benefits is the answer there either, or artificially inflating house prices by helping people to buy houses. The government has no business rigging the market that way and it won’t do any of us any good.
What do you reckon? Is it time this political class got the heave ho, and we found some people who actually care and have a clue?
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