14) Escaping Social Welfare Series #2. Behind the Statistics and Between the Lines.

 

By Sindy Wakeham

Societal Labels; Behind the Benefits Stats.  (Strap in. This might not be a smooth ride but there's light soon enough)

Have you ever been stuck in a situation that you couldn’t change? A situation where you were giving your all to change it even though you felt there was no way out. Have you been desperate for change that never comes and felt the awful stare of others’ judgements of you based on their presumptions of what and who you are because of the situation you couldn’t change?

Maybe people have made presumptions about your character based not on knowing you but based on a societal label. I don’t know many people who haven’t in some way or another felt that way about some trial they were in. Even those who have been in similar situations can unintentionally or deliberately label others.  

Being dependant for any amount of time, on a social welfare system is one of those situations that we have culturally become so used to labels, that even if we ourselves have been in that situation, find we label others too. It’s become a part of our ‘culture’.

Social Welfare Claimant Labels:

Doley

Scrounger

Freeloader

Lazy

Wants everything for nothing

Any excuse not to work

Swinging the leg

Hypochondriac

Career Doley

Cheat

Generational Doley

These are just some of the labels I have heard used over the years. It would be inappropriate to list some.

We are fed the same stories over and over. I mentioned in my latest podcast looking into the statistics around the number of people on the Dole in the UK. It was a follow on from my previous podcast which received responses from listeners. I chose to deep dive into the details before giving a full response from myself.  

The comments were invited. They were offered in sincerity and possibly frustration. I chose to interpret the one as a genuine query or idea that if people in South Africa could manage without a Dole (Social Welfare system) while there are such high numbers of unemployment then surely we can. 

The person contributing also voiced concern that our system in the UK was overused and under contributed to. There are 'too many takers and not enough givers',  based on statistics. I fully understand where this person is coming from and in one way, I completely agree. 

The Stereotypes

When we are daily fed statistics backed up by the predictable appearance of all programs and media surrounding people on the Dole. The usual reruns are Rab C. Nesbit, Bread, Benefits Street and even a few new ones. Reality TV shows about people dependant on the system are rarely reflective of the facts but more for views, entertainment or agenda. One that turns the general public against benefit claimants and feeds the societal shame of benefits.

In my latest podcast, I looked closer at the statistics. I went onto the Gov.UK Website and typed in; “How many people are on benefits in the UK in 2024?” It came up with a graph that floored me for a second. Ok, it floored me for long enough to think, “Flippin’ heck! Those are some scary numbers!”

I checked out the sources of statistics which were Gov.UK, The House of Commons Library, Stat-Xplore and Google, Office of National Statistics (ONS). There are more.

looking Deeper.

There were vaults of summaries and sources of information. It took me down a rabbit hole and I came out feeling that people just don’t see the inconsistencies. There's details that aren’t mentioned in the summaries which would give greater perspective and maybe even compassion for those trapped in the system that’s a ticking time bomb ready to implode under pressure of the numbers.

Seeing Both Sides

When Governments are looking at statistics, they are looking at balances; income and expenses. Income is good; expenses are bad unless they generate income. A Social Welfare system is an expense that never generates income. It is a constant expense that takes from the coffers and never returns it. I get it. That’s not a healthy pattern and the numbers are truly scary if taken at 'ink' value.

In any household budget, you try to reduce those types of expenses and increase the income. There are expenses that are necessary and others to which you are morally bound but hopefully you feel are a privilege, like providing for your children until they are legally old enough to provide for themselves.

Just a little side not here: Politicians themselves could vastly improve our country’s financial situation if they weren’t so highly paid and get the ‘benefits’ that their citizens never would get. I have many more suggestions but won't mention them here. That’s all I’m saying about that...even though I have more to say.

A wise budget manager would find ways to better use the finances available instead of only increasing income. Here’s the thing; people are not numbers. They are not statistics. They are not expenses or cash cows.  The real issues behind the numbers are complex. Humans are complex and there are some surprising reminders behind the statistics.

Here are a only a few ideas I hope people will consider before freely handing out labels.

1) Many benefit claimants DO work. They claim top-up benefits like housing and council tax benefit or tax credits because their wages are so low, that they cannot meet all their needs on their wages alone.

2) Those graphs, tables and pie charts lack summaries explaining that the numbers for each of the different benefits are not one claimant to one benefit. There may be households that claim two or three different benefits as their needs qualify them. This reduces the general numbers.

3) You cannot take the statistics from another country and compare them to your own. Their systems are as different as are their situations, cultures and demographics. Their political situations also contribute and if there’s corruption, you won’t get complete or accurate numbers.  

4) Might there be something wrong with our own systems? Obviously! We know there is. We just don’t all agree on the best way to fix or change it.

5) And this is just a suggestion based on my own observations; we may be deliberately manipulated by many organisations and leaders to steer us in a specific direction for a specific agenda. You know what I’m talking about.

6) At least two generations have people without some basic life skills (self-reliance) and have accepted the labels that others place on them. They don’t thrive because they don’t know how.  It’s about a lack of knowledge and opportunities, NOT always their own fault.

7) People on the Dole are NOT necessarily unintelligent. Some are there because they are full time, long term carers for their sick or disabled family members. Not because they have no skills, qualifications or intelligence and ethics.

8) For every problem there are many solutions. Solutions need to be based on helping people to improving their own lives and perspectives. Solutions have to provide opportunities that help people change their own situations and self-reliance abilities.  They also have to have compassion for those that due to disability or advanced age cannot and will not be able to change their situations.

No, the solutions put in place up to now have NOT been adequate or helpful. 

Conclusion

It might look like I’m just trying to justify benefit dependence. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I AM defending our unique system of caring for those in our society who are in desperate need for many different reasons and for differing periods of time. I’m defending the genuine needy. I’m advocating for a better system that provides opportunities that don’t in fact punish you for leaving the system or never being able to.

If you have read my book, my other blogs and watched both my YouTube channels and Podcast, you know I am all about self-reliance and on a journey to freedom from the system myself.

We all know the issues. We know the problems. We can let our focus remain on the negative situations and numbers or we can offer helpful solutions.  Positive perspectives and even create opportunities.

We are human beings and have the capacity for creativity, invention, compassion, adaptation and resilience...and a whole lot more.

Those are helpful labels.

How can we transform and improve our Social Welfare System in the UK? I’ll bet you can come up with amazing, helpful solutions.

I can’t wait to read them in the comments.