30 million people work in the UK. Two million are on disability payments.
Dear Petaro,
Cordial greetings and a very good day. Thankyou for your (name removed by moderator)ut into the discussion.
The significant point to be grasped here surely is that the vast majority of the population do in fact work, with only a relatively small percentage on the sick list. Moreover, disability-related fraud is estimated at a mere 0.5% (Source: DWP), which necessarily means that only an infinitesimal number are actually bogus claimants who are swinging the lead and milking the system. It is extreme right-wing commentators, edged on by tory politicians with an axe to grind, that have irresponsibly whipped up public ire and prejudice against the disabled by speaking of a bloated ‘sick note culture’. Thus it is hardly surprisingly that there is now almost a presumption of malingering in modern Britain, coupled with a cynical but mistaken belief that most welfare claimants are probably being dishonest respecting the gravity of their physical/mental condition. However, the simple fact is that such miscreants are a small minority, as has been corroborated time and again. Those who are recipients of disability benefits are mostly
bona-fide claimants with serious mental or physical illnesses (sometimes a combination of both) which preclude them from being a part of the workforce.
Unfortunately, dear friend, everything in the welfare debate now begins with the prevailing Tory narrative that ‘welfare’ is a luxury that we can no longer afford. The counter-narrative, alas, has been jolly patchy and dispersed. Certainly there have been splendid accounts on what it is really like to have to live on welfare benefits with all the impoverishment and stigmatisation, but not sufficient emphasis on the fact that most of the budget goes to pensioners and the
working poor. Then you have all this hysteria over households where there have allegedly been ‘generations of worklessness’, notwithstanding that it applies to only 1% of claimants. The clear subtext is that people are getting benefits to which they are not entitled. However, owing to a hardening of attitudes towards the sick and jobless, fuelled by certain fanatical commentators like Katie Hopkins, many it seems are quite happy to swallow all the propaganda hook, line and sinker.
Many of us here in Britain, dear friend, remain very proud of our Welfare State because we know that it has provided a vital safety net to multitudes who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. However, many men are of the opinion that the current unpleasant discourse regarding the sick and unemployed is really more about getting rid of the Welfare State entirely. This would be a monumental tragedy of the first rank. If one were to visit any place where there is no such safety net for the poor and vulnerable, one would see people who appear prematurely old, or severely obese and toothless, or the sorry sight of the disabled out on the street begging. Moreover, some of these poor souls will be vacantly staring into space or scavenging on refuse heaps. Not everyone who is unemployed and claiming sickness benefits is able and capable of work. It is really quite that simple. A civilised society must provide for this very
small number of people through a benevolent welfare state so that they are not cruelly left to fend for themselves, being left entirely to the mercy of charities.
The case for the Welfare State (not welfare dependency) needs urgently to be made again given times in which our lot is presently cast. Some men deviously argue for getting rid of the Welfare State by removing the moral obligation. They do this by contending that welfare somehow creates moral disaster by acting like a soporific, resulting in welfare dependency and those much talked about ‘generations of worklessness’. No, dear friend, this only results in disability denial and a more callous society that is very intolerant of those who are losers in the struggle to survive, for whatever genuine reason. Moreover, it also ends with politicians on both the right and left uttering like a mantra that work is *always *the route out of poverty and
always the way forward, though they and we know that this is not always the case without exception. That work is a positive reinforcement in giving a man a sense of self-worth and purpose is something I would not stop to deny - provided that he is truly able and capable of such work in the first place. This sounds jolly obvious, but not so in modern Britain, I’m afraid.
From what I have observed, dear friend, none of the main political parties here in Britain represent a challenge to the idea that a ‘culture of entitlement’ exists at the bottom of society. If there is a culture of entitlement then it exists at the top in the form of sanctioned tax avoidance. The supposed trickle down of wealth does not occur in reality and the poor still remain poor and vital cuts to welfare benefits remain necessary as an act of so called ‘tough love’. If there is any ‘trickle down’ then it is a trickle down in the attitudes of the wealthy, namely a disconnection from the state, mutual obligation and shared humanity - in short a rejection that I am my “brother’s keeper” and a survival of the fittest mentality.
In closing I will say that of the five evils that William Beveridge set out to end - want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness - at least four are still going strong and that ought to cause modern Britain to hang its head in shame.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
In Christos
