UK Poverty Post

It’s time for welfare reform that builds on the strength in our communities

Another welfare bill, another round of cries of ‘benefit scroungers’ from some quarters. Now, as I’ve argued previously, the changes Iain Duncan Smith is attempting to push could well be the most positive in a generation. But there are two big questions that really need addressing: why are these changes needed? And why, invariably, does the cry of ‘scrounger’ go up whenever benefits are talked about?

The answers to the two are interlinked, as Oxfam’s new report, Something for Nothing, argues. For, as the report outlines, people living in poverty do make substantial contributions to society – be that through unpaid caring, or voluntary community work. Yet a complex web of negative media coverage, and the unfavourable tone of political discourse, means that public attitudes to people living in poverty are often based upon unfair and negative stereotypes.

These stereotypes are unfair because poverty is usually the result of circumstances beyond an individual’s control. The nature of the modern labour market – with jobs, especially in poor areas, often low-paid, short-term, part-time, unreliable or insecure – if they’re there at all – helps to exclude poor people systematically from the benefits of this rich society. And there is a thread running through from the unpaid and uncounted contributions people living in poverty do make, through the contributions they’d like to make through paid work, and on to a dysfunctional benefit system that fails to support people into the jobs that are available.

The welfare system is such that people trying to move from benefits to work would keep only a few pennies in the pound from what they earn. When the costs of getting to and from work are taken into account, work very often leaves people worse off. Add to this the high risk of financial difficulties and debt caused by cashflow problems between benefits stopping and wages being paid (and also if and when having to return to benefits from work), factor in the costs of preparing for and entering work – and it is pretty clear that trying work is, for many people, just too much of a risk.

In our report, we call for changes along the lines of what the Centre for Social Justice proposed, when Iain Duncan Smith was in charge of it. We need the welfare system to have a simplified and more responsive method for adjusting to changing earnings – because, in the modern world, work is not always secure, full-time, or long-term. The welfare system should act as social protection – helping to take the financial risk of taking work off individuals, and onto the state. But we also need people to be allowed to keep more of what they earn as they come off benefits, so that work always pays.

One thing Oxfam is campaigning for right now, while the complex detail of welfare reform is worked out, is a Community Allowance. This would build upon what we know from our work – and what our new report brings out – the desire among people living in poverty to contribute to their communities. But, by allowing people to take on small amounts of paid community work without losing benefits, it allows them to use this desire as a step up and out of poverty for themselves, as well as giving to society. A recent report found that, for every £1 spent on the Community Allowance, £10.20 of social value would be generated.

In all, Something for Nothing forcefully makes the point that anyone who gets their information from real life and not the media knows – that people living in poverty contribute an enormous amount to society. We must never fall into the trap of thinking that, if money doesn’t change hands, an activity doesn’t have value. But at the same time, there are millions who would greatly value the opportunity to do paid work – and it is imperative that, this time, welfare reform frees them up to do just that.