blog.world3.net

I read the BBC article on benefit reforms for those out of work with interest and some concern. The Daily Hate Mail reading morons who were voted to the top on the Have Your Say discussion were even more disturbing.

There seems to be a perception that everyone on benefits is a scrounger, simply work-shy and looking for any excuse. Well, I am currently signed off work, and so I want to set a few things straight.

Without going in to details, at the moment I suffer from arthritis amoung other things, and often can’t sleep either. That means mornings are very hard, because I am both tired and very stiff. Those arn’t the only things but they are the main ones. I am just now starting to look for a new job (so will hopefully not be signed off soon), but the situation I face should really be understood before people start their rants demanding a crack down on the likes of me.

I am an honest person, I will not lie to an employer. So, they are going to know that I am ill. They know I will need significant time off when things get really bad (can’t walk, let alone drive to work etc), that there are things I cannot do (heavy lifting, spending all day on my feet or at a desk (a mixture is okay)), and that I will be unable to start at 9AM every day. It’s not because I’m lazy, it’s because I am ill and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. No cure, no “pull your socks up”. Faced with that, what employer is likely to want me?

So, if I eventually do find a job, what is it going to be like? Well, I expect I will get some abuse from the Mail readers working there for a start. But beyond that, can I now only expect a crappy “hand-out” job, or at best a lower wage? You might argue that as a less capable person, I should expect a lower wage, but then what I am supposed to do about a mortagage etc? The Thatcherite view is “tough shit, fuck you”, but I was kind of hoping I was living in a society that at least tries to help people with some unfortunate chronic illness. I can sort of understand why people feel resentful when they have to work harder because one guy can’t do part of the job, but all I can say is that I am more than willing to do it for someone else. In fact, we all do when we pay National Insurance, and I’m largely okay with that because I’d rather everyone had a chance at a reasonable life than just discard them like a broken tool.

Sure, I hate the real scroungers as much as anyone, but I really don’t think there are that many. Of course, they always find them for TV shows and newspaper articles, but the reality is that dole/incapacity benefit money is crap and I think most people on it would prefer to work. What puts a lot of people off is the fact that they would end up worse off – they loose the support, gain all the new bills and end up with a shitty part time McJob that makes them truely miserable and gives them no prospects. If someone told you that your salary would be halved, everyone would hate you and there would be no chance of improving your lot, how would you feel?

That is my main concern with the plans as laid out really. They seem more about forcing you off the books rather than trying to help the majority who want to work find a half descent job. Maybe that’s a namby-pamby left-wing PC brigade view, but I happen to think that everyone should at least have a chance at a descent job and descent life. Not a hand-out or job given to them, but a real chance. Quite how you get capitalist employers to do something that does not generate maximum profit I don’t know.