A benefits system that is heartless and cruel

IWAS privileged on Sunday to attend the UK Premiere of the latest Ken Loach move I, Daniel Blake. It’s a harrowing indictment of the cruelty imposed by the current benefits system. I’m not prone to being emotional at the cinema but could feel tears welling at scenes that left me angered at the cruelty inflicted on our fellow citizens. It’s no wonder it won the prestigious Palme D’Or at Cannes.

It’s not a Hollywood blockbuster but the reality of Britain today for so many. A work of fiction set in Newcastle it may be but, it’s life, or more likely existence, for hundreds of thousands of people in communities the length and breadth of this land.

That was made clear by the Scottish scriptwriter Paul Laverty, who spoke after the showing and related the research he had put into it, with further stories underlining the theme.

TV and cinema can change and challenge perceptions on critical areas of social policy where politicians have failed or have shied away from. It’s also an alternative and a more truthful narrative than the poverty porn that appears on so many channels.

These invariably portray the feckless or the afflicted as the recipients of benefits. That simply confirms the narrative of a deserving and undeserving poor that has been allowed to develop over recent years. This film shows that’s far from the truth.

The young woman introducing the event made the point that it is almost 50 years since Loach wrote Cathy Come Home, which sparked outrage at the extent of homelessness and even launched the charity Shelter. It is to be hoped that this film can do likewise with poverty and the benefits system. It will be in cinemas from next month and there are to be community showings, which can only be a good thing for those too poor to afford the admission price.

Throughout my life this country has prided itself on a welfare state. The basis of the system was the Beveridge Report. The author, Lord Beveridge, was not a Marxist but an old-fashioned Liberal. He wasn’t designing a socialist plan but the basis of a caring society.

Our world and, accordingly, the benefits system is more complex than before and has been affected by factors such as mass unemployment or immigration.

Changes have had to be made but the ethos of provision for all has to remain. Sadly, a

‘‘ As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Ian Duncan Smith presided over a system that’s grinding folk down, not the tiny minority who abuse it

target culture to remove people from the system arbitrarily has arisen, management of health aspects have been outsourced to an American multinational and zero hours’ contracts proliferate in the work place. Beveridge would be appalled at the cruelty inflicted by a system intended to ensure that no one fell by the wayside.

It is no wonder that the movie had a cameo shot of a Scot ranting about Ian Duncan Smith. It is many years since his apparent political road to Damascus brought him to Easterhouse. He confessed to being appalled and pledged to change things.

Yet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions he presided over a system that’s grinding folk down, not the tiny minority who abuse it. It has not come about by accident but by political design.

As the safety net has contracted, food banks have multiplied. Paul Laverty confirmed what the organisers of the one near me articulated. It is not run by revolutionaries but by a local church.

The main users are not those on benefits but those against whom sanctions have been taken, more often than not in appalling heartlessness for trivial breaches. There was a woman sanctioned as she had failed to attend, having suffered a miscarriage in the street.

Added to such cases are the working poor who have to choose between eating and heating as they don’t earn enough to survive.

Short hours and low pay have seen us return to days that Beveridge was seeking to remove us from and which each good samaritan needs to try to act so that the worst excesses are alleviated.

Yet pension funds can be filched by company owners and not even the sanction of the loss of the luxury yacht is applied. Banks can falter, depriving hard working employees of the small nest egg they were encouraged to invest in through company shares.

Yet not just huge salaries but bonuses continue to be lavished on the culprits. As soldiers sang in the First World War: “It’s the poor what get the blame, it’s the rich what get the gravy, ain’t it all a bleedin’ shame.”

New powers for Holyrood will mitigate some of the hardship but they cannot plug every gap. There’s something fundamentally wrong in our society when the vulnerable are abandoned.

It is to be hoped that this movie can change policy, as well as challenge perceptions.