UK Poverty Post

Let’s watch our language when it comes to welfare

Iain Duncan Smith has claimed there is a ‘culture of worklessness’ that prevents people getting jobs. But what he describes is not a “culture”- it’s a set of facts that mean that, even where people desperately want to work, doing so makes them worse off.

Nor does the solution proposed by the DWP deal with this alleged ‘cultural’ aversion to work.  What IDS is describing is rational decisions by people who will be worse off if they work. When income rises, so do taxes, and benefits are lost.  This decision has absolutely nothing to do with people being part of a work-shy culture.  It is about rationality, and an understandable risk aversion – many of the jobs available to people who are unemployed are short term.  Many decide it’s not worth giving up benefits for a few weeks when they know it can take twice that to get their payments back when the job comes to an end.

People want to work, often despite the lack of quality jobs that match other responsibilities and offer opportunities for training and progression. The experience of work needs to be part of any restructuring of the welfare system.  Guaranteeing that people will be better off in work is welcome in every respect – but this guarantee needs to take into account unavoidable in-work costs like childcare, travel and clothing. Being better off in work is about a fair wage that recognises these costs- not just pushing people who claim benefits deeper into poverty.

We also need to debate whose responsibility it is to ensure that work moves people out of poverty.  Is it up to us, as taxpayers, to subsidise those employers who exploit the low bargaining power of their lower-skilled staff to pay wages that keep people in poverty?  IDS talks of the role of the welfare system as to make sure that work pays, but is it really the responsibility of the welfare system?  Surely it is up to employers to bear the costs of running a business– including labour.

I have worked with many people who are long term unemployed.  The men and women I have met do not come from a ‘culture’ of not wanting to work. Most of them are desperate to get work.  What is striking is the way in which a lack of confidence and low self-esteem can undermine the willingness to repeatedly apply for poor quality jobs that, almost inevitably, will result in rejection after rejection.

Blaming a “culture of worklessness” serves to reinforce this lack of confidence. As the Fairy Jobmother shows us, the best solution is to work with people to raise their self-esteem, to have some faith in people, to offer encouragement and support.