So in light of my last post about the use of a good threat I thought it might be good to look at whether claiming benefits affects how people see themselves. The public debate about benefits and the laziness of claimants/ benefit fraud as well as the slew of negative coverage both from the press and TV in such programmes as On benefits and proud (Channel 5) Benefits Street (Channel 4) may well have changed the way people look and feel towards people who are claiming benefits.
In fact, I feel very much that the latest coverage has really not had time to have such a bad effect, but the public debate in earlier years may well have coloured the views of many far more.
This report by Who Benefits touches on the issues in it’s opening although I admit I haven’t read the full report from turn2us yet.
This report looks at the impact that these attitudes to benefit claimants has had on the people who have claimed and it is this that I am going to write about. Unlike my last post that sheds some light on how people are treated by the people administering the benefits this looks directly at the impact claiming benefits has had on people. As you may have noticed from some of my previous posts I am not a fan of small reports done to prove a concept as they can sometimes give very skewed results particularly if you incentivising people with money or other inducements including an arena to mouth off about all the things that have gone wrong for you.
Having said this I would point out that I haven’t seen the whole report either as this was the only bit I could find and is really a summary of information. To get a better idea of how well the research was done I would prefer to look at the questions asked and the responses but hey ho you can’t have everything.
So, as I suspected the reasons why people claim benefits are the reasons why benefits get paid: Ill health and disability, not enough money to pay for housing, not being able to find work/not having work, low hourly wage, not enough paid hours, extra costs because of children, caring for relatives, illness or disability.
In fact throughout the report there is nothing that really surprises me.
· 38% of people currently supported by benefits say their confidence and self-esteem is affected because they worry that the general public think negatively of them being on benefits.
· 18% have been treated less favourably by potential employers when seeking work
· 16% have been refused by landlords or letting agents to rent a property
· 15% of respondents had experience verbal abuse because they clam benefits.
· 10% of respondents thought their child/children had experienced verbal bullying because they were in receipt of benefits
These are just a selection from the short summary but I think it paints a picture that is less than good. In short being on benefits is affecting the people who claim and the children of them and really if you are surprised by these results then I wonder how much attention you are paying to the world at large.
In fact, I feel very much that the latest coverage has really not had time to have such a bad effect, but the public debate in earlier years may well have coloured the views of many far more.
This report by Who Benefits touches on the issues in it’s opening although I admit I haven’t read the full report from turn2us yet.
This report looks at the impact that these attitudes to benefit claimants has had on the people who have claimed and it is this that I am going to write about. Unlike my last post that sheds some light on how people are treated by the people administering the benefits this looks directly at the impact claiming benefits has had on people. As you may have noticed from some of my previous posts I am not a fan of small reports done to prove a concept as they can sometimes give very skewed results particularly if you incentivising people with money or other inducements including an arena to mouth off about all the things that have gone wrong for you.
Having said this I would point out that I haven’t seen the whole report either as this was the only bit I could find and is really a summary of information. To get a better idea of how well the research was done I would prefer to look at the questions asked and the responses but hey ho you can’t have everything.
So, as I suspected the reasons why people claim benefits are the reasons why benefits get paid: Ill health and disability, not enough money to pay for housing, not being able to find work/not having work, low hourly wage, not enough paid hours, extra costs because of children, caring for relatives, illness or disability.
In fact throughout the report there is nothing that really surprises me.
· 38% of people currently supported by benefits say their confidence and self-esteem is affected because they worry that the general public think negatively of them being on benefits.
· 18% have been treated less favourably by potential employers when seeking work
· 16% have been refused by landlords or letting agents to rent a property
· 15% of respondents had experience verbal abuse because they clam benefits.
· 10% of respondents thought their child/children had experienced verbal bullying because they were in receipt of benefits
These are just a selection from the short summary but I think it paints a picture that is less than good. In short being on benefits is affecting the people who claim and the children of them and really if you are surprised by these results then I wonder how much attention you are paying to the world at large.
It is very easy to get wrapped up in your own worlds, myself included, and miss what is really happening. The press report is so much that is emotionally charged and inflammatory and it is easy to get the wrong impression about what is really happening so what I am hoping is that people will start passing along the message that has been clearly evidenced by this report.
The impact on people’s desire to be on benefits, the effects on those that do claim is large and extremely negative. When society is wishing and demanding that people be less dependent the negative way that people who are taking about those who are taking up the offer of help is pushing people into positions from which they are less likely to come away from, thus creating a vicious cycle that will push those already in need of help into positions from which they cannot recover.
So please read the report pass on the figures and show off the problem for what it is because no one wants a benefit cheat, no one wants those who commit fraud to get away with and really it doesn’t matter if they are on benefits or not fraud is a crime but when the over payment due to fraud and error across all benefits is estimated at £3.3bn just 2;0% for 2013/2014 I am quite sure that the negative coverage of benefit claimants is to blame for peoples negative attitudes. The press and the government have pushed inflammatory stories out there and no one really has the time to see beyond them but it really is time to take a closer look and consider the knock on effects of what such negative comment is having on us all because lets face it it could be any of us needing help and if we all believe that we should help each other then why make it so hard.
The impact on people’s desire to be on benefits, the effects on those that do claim is large and extremely negative. When society is wishing and demanding that people be less dependent the negative way that people who are taking about those who are taking up the offer of help is pushing people into positions from which they are less likely to come away from, thus creating a vicious cycle that will push those already in need of help into positions from which they cannot recover.
So please read the report pass on the figures and show off the problem for what it is because no one wants a benefit cheat, no one wants those who commit fraud to get away with and really it doesn’t matter if they are on benefits or not fraud is a crime but when the over payment due to fraud and error across all benefits is estimated at £3.3bn just 2;0% for 2013/2014 I am quite sure that the negative coverage of benefit claimants is to blame for peoples negative attitudes. The press and the government have pushed inflammatory stories out there and no one really has the time to see beyond them but it really is time to take a closer look and consider the knock on effects of what such negative comment is having on us all because lets face it it could be any of us needing help and if we all believe that we should help each other then why make it so hard.
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