There is a sanctimonious strain in British society that likes to divide the citizenry into ‘working people’ on the one hand, and feckless spongers on the other. This is a form of the ‘us and them’ mentality that the populists love and the tabloids love to repeat. It is as simplistic as racism and just as pernicious.
Listening to the vox pops on last week’s budget, you’d think that all the money has been taken straight from taxpayers and put into the pockets of lazy people.
What’s lazy is this analysis. It is simply not true. Large portions of the new tax take will be given to pensioners, most of whom will have paid into the system throughout their working life.
Child benefits are paid to everyone, including families where the parents work.
Recipients of disability benefits may also employed.
I’ve just spent two years working for a local authority. Every day I encountered people subsisting on benefits.
It is a miserable, miserable life. It is no-one’s first choice. The Universal Credit system and the cost of living (especially cost of accommodation) conspire to keep people in the system. Receiving benefits erodes dignity. The pittance we grant serves to keep them hovering around the poverty line. That increases both physical and mental illness, and encourages people towards crime and substance abuse.
Whether you fall into this system or not has nothing to do with the content of your character, but the luck of your birth and your postcode.
I don’t know whether Rachel Reeves’ particular economic recipie will boost growth and living standards. But I wish that the responses to her policies were not riddled with classism.