It could be you
I’ve written before – and at length – about my experiences when I lost my job and fell into the clutches of a monolithic, uncaring and incompetent government system. I haven’t mentioned it lately because I thought, at a distance of five years or more, things must have changed and my experience was no longer relevant.
And then I watched Dispatches on Channel 4 last night – ‘Digby Jones examines how the government is tackling the unemployment crisis’ – and the old feelings of cloying panic and despair crawled back for a visit.
Things don’t look much improved to me – it was all chillingly familiar. The late benefits, the uncaring, undertrained or absent staff, the impenetrable systems, the empty promises. And with unemployment racing away, things can only get worse. The government has closed dozen of Job Centres since I was frequenting them, getting rid of 30,000 staff.
Will things, can things, change? I think it’ll all come down to how it all impacts on the white, middle classes. Five years ago, I was something of a freak on the unemployment scene and treated as such. The staff in the Job Centre and New Deal office genuinely didn’t have a clue what to do with me.
Now we can expect more like me to be beating their fists in futility on the door of the Job Centre. Traditionally and through little fault of their own, the unemployed have not had a voice in the media or mainstream, which is why the government has been allowed to get away with treating them as the have and do.
Unfortunately, it’s going to take the subjecting of a more articulate, educated, resourceful – and above all voting – demographic to bitter, protracted hardship in order to introduce a little humanity into how we deal with the unemployed. Middle England, I’m sorry to say, must suffer.
Posted on February 17th, 2009 at 12:04pm under New Labour, The coming apocalypse
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• 17 Comments |
Middle England, I’m sorry to say, must suffer.
And the sooner the better. Heard some Tory twit on Radio 4 this morning talking about the latest Conservative proposed innovation, local referenda to prevent increases in council tax. This is the same nonsense that destroyed public education in California starting in the 80s. All they’ll need is to organise a hard-core bloc and no council will be able to raise taxes for any purpose short of utter catastrophe.
A fair point, Justin: there are already signs of the shock some people are feeling when faced with the prospect of surviving on benefits of £60 a week (though this could easily slide into xenophobic attitudes towards ‘Them’ getting the same amount). On the other hand, I heard Cameron on The Politics Show claiming that Job Clubs ‘worked’ in the 1980s. I know he’s an 80s Tory Boy, and that we’re going through an 80s revival, but Job Clubs? I ask you.
You don’t need to worry about that, the education system has already been destroyed by the government.
There would need to be controls on where council tax was spent, so Chief Execs salaries could be cut along with diversity officers, council information booklets etc
None of it works but then it isn’t really meant to.
I remember having the same feeling when they brought in the Child Support Agency and the panic that ensued amongst the ‘Wendy and Trevor’ brigade.
Only when the middle classes feel threatened will anything happen in this country.
I think we are about to enter a period of real civil unrest and that is why the Government instead of dealing with the potential crisis has been building their powers to control via their jackbooted police ‘forces’.
Once you enter Job Centre Plus you can never get out…
Mr Yogurt..sorry to hear about the troubles you are having. Here in the Land of Bored Again Wingtards, we is doin jes’ fine with the results of 8, make that 30 years of unregulated free market trickle down. And boy! is it a tricklin’ down, son. A nice yellow stream from the banks, who we just bailed out to the tune-ski of 1 Trillion PLUS (your final amount may vary)cause they forgot to check if the missus had any money to buy that 3200 square foot vinyl cladded palace, complete with matching Hummer and x’ta Sport Utility Ve-Hick-Le for Bubba, and lil’ Bubba jr too.
Time to go, I haffta read all that stuff from your commie writer Man be out, I tell ya, what with him on yer side of the pond and ol’ Jimmy Kunstler over here, there’s a MESS of trouble comin down the pike. Good thing I didn’t pawn my gun.
btw, I am subscribing to this thing you got here; I was sent by the dodo guys, and any pal of theirs..but where do you keep the beer?
Right it’s not £60 is it. your going to get your rent paid and your council tax which is about £100 a week so it’s £160.
I worked and earned £120 a week as a disabled person, I paid my rent and council tax and had £60 left for food yes I was broke and deep in debt yes I struggled yes, I had serious problems ok your right is crap but thats New labour for you
£60 – to cover food, gas/electricity/water, phone, TV licence, possible internet connection, mobile, travel, newspapers, tobacco (if you smoke), booze (if you like an occasional drink), plus a little for emergencies. If you’re used to earning a lot more than that, you’d either better have plenty saved or be prepared to work within a very tight budget.
Robert, you don’t automatically “get your rent paid” – you get what the local council deems your rent would be in a “fair market” where demand and supply were in perfect balance (the difference becomes clear when you consider the fact that spiralling house prices and buy-to-let are part of how we got into the current crisis). If you happen to live in a council house, they can’t really argue; but private lets are another matter, and you may well find that your Housing Benefit covers only 60-80% of your actual rent. That’s why so many landlords and letting agencies have a “No DSS” rule.
Fairly sure the No DSS rule is more cos private landlords believe DSS tenants will be Bad Underclass Sorts who’ll destroy the property and make other tenants move out, but I could be wrong.
Housing Benefit is now paid directly to the claimant and has been for a little while. Providing you can make the shortfall between the benefit and the actual rent, the landlord need be none the wiser that you are dole scum.
“the landlord need be none the wiser”
Which was my attitude precisely when I was in that boat. The point I was making was that if you’re using your actual dole money to subsidise your own housing benefit, then suddenly you’re living rather lower on the hog than Robert in his shitty job enviously supposes…
Well, provided you have more than a verbal contract with the landlord in the first place. Otherwise you need to explain to them why you suddenly need a letter…
“Traditionally and through little fault of their own, the unemployed have not had a voice in the media or mainstream, which is why the government has been allowed to get away with treating them as the have and do.”
I don’t mean to be facetious, but isn’t this a bit obvious? I mean, if you’re unemployed you don’t by definition work for a mainstream media organisation.
But yes, the unemployed are one circle in the Venn diagram of people that don’t get mentioned in the Mail, and therefore don’t count towards government policy.
The demented reality is that unemployment was far less demeaning and authoritarian during the Thatcherite 80s. I spend most of the 80s and a good chunk of the 90s on the dole, and for most of that time all I had to do was sign on every fortnight and the dole cheque came in the mail. And had all my housing benefit covered. But since the advent of Major and Blair a vicious and malicious overtone has taken hold, wherein those who have to rely on benefits to keep a roof over ones head and food on the table deserve to be treated as some kind of untermenschen. Yes, regardless of national insurance paid or the circumstances by which you land on the dole, you suddenly find you’ve become the enemy of the Daily Mail and its snarling, bigoted readership. So you better get ready to jump through any number of humiliating hoops, sit through useless lectures on the bleeding obvious, and take yawnworthy tutorials on writing CVs. Because you have to be the one living in fear of them; you have to prove to them that you’re pathetically desperate and willing to take any job just to satisfy their personal quota targets and thereby ensure that the derisory benefit cheque arrives on time.
So you better get ready to jump through any number of humiliating hoops, sit through useless lectures on the bleeding obvious, and take yawnworthy tutorials on writing CVs. Because you have to be the one living in fear of them – as this government training video, sorry, as The League of Gentlemen explain here
I think your analysis is largely correct. I feel somewhat guilty about my grim satisfaction as more hit the dole queues, but when the sky began to fall in it occurred to me that many of those who had been indoctrinated into the ‘benefit scrounging scum’ way of thinking would soon be getting a taste of it themselves. I sense a shift in social attitudes is coming, one shaped by events and unhindered by the doublespeak of the political class. I hope it is beneficial, ultimately, and that few are hurt (despite my schadenfreude).