UK Poverty Post

Does having less money mean you participate less in society?

As a local charity working directly with 30,000 east London residents every year, Community Links often get approached by the media with requests for ‘case studies’ – people on benefits looking for work, or struggling on low incomes, who are willing to talk about their situation.

Then we face a dilemma. On the one hand, we know that the media portrayal of places like Newham is usually negative, and untrue. When people on low incomes feature in the news it’s usually either as criminals or ‘benefit scroungers’, and there is a strong tendency for the media to reinforce this. We don’t want to abuse the trust our users place in us by exposing them to public abuse or misrepresentation (it’s happened in the past).

On the other hand, the only way to challenge these stereotypes is to try and make sure that Newham’s real stories are heard. Last year, for example, Community Links relied on over 1000 volunteers, most from the local community, many on very low incomes. Without them we wouldn’t be able to carry on. Cliff, for example, is on Jobseekers’ Allowance, looking for work, but still volunteers most days at his local community centre, gardening, looking after young people, and sitting on the management committee.

As Oxfam’s latest report, Something for Nothing, excellently highlights, people on low incomes – just like everyone else – make huge but often unrecognised contributions to society, through caring, volunteering, and supporting their community. Carers UK estimate that unpaid caring saves the UK £87bn every year.

Much of this is informal and undocumented, so the only way to expose it is through individual stories. The scant evidence that exists suggests that activities like helping a neighbour with the shopping, or giving a bit of useful advice occurs far more in low income communities where individuals often rely on reciprocal relationships and non financial assets in the absence of material support. This conclusion is born out by our experience in Newham, where often thriving communities exist even in areas with very little money, and are often centred around community hubs run by us or similar organisations.

When the new government’s Big Society idea is presented as the antidote to “Broken Britain’s” more deprived communities it ignores the fact that many people on benefits, or struggling in low paid jobs, are nonetheless some of the biggest participants in communities that are thriving in many places. Recognising this, in the way that Oxfam’s report so clearly does, will be vital. Now we need to get better at telling those stories.