Right moves made on social security
EN Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake struck a chord with many people who have experienced Britain’s benefit system.
The central character’s shock at the uncaring, illogical and inhumane face of “welfare” in the 21st century prompted an online trend with commentators declaring “I am Daniel Blake”.
Now the Scottish Government is to seek 2,000 such people to help it establish a new Scottish Social Security Agency, to administer benefits set to be devolved to the Scottish Government.
Much is still to be decided about what it will do and how it will work, but if that development is to be influenced by those who have worked in or been affected by the system that can only be welcomed.
Decisions made by the UK Government in a bid to rein in the cost of benefits in the light of austerity policies, have appeared uncaring a bout such experiences. Changes to make it harder for claimants, have been justified by a misleading narrative which overemphasises abuse of the system.
In fact, most Job Seeker’s Allowance claimants go back to work before they ever need help finding employment, only 0.8 per cent of claims are fraudulent, and researchers looking at the archetypal family in which three generations have been out of work were unable to find any examples.
Yet our system has been made punitive. We have seen rigid and unfair medical assessments for the sick and disabled, harsh sanctions imposed for alleged rule breaches and bad decisions regularly overturned when claimants appeal. The Government denies any link between cutting off a person’s income and the rising demand for foodbanks, yet Oxford University researchers this week begged to differ.
In looking to change this, the Scottish Government’s search for expertise from the sharp end of the system is welcome. So is the change of language used.
The gradual rejection of the phrase “social security” in favour of the American “welfare” has helped to undermine support for a coherent universal safety net, lending itself instead to a view of benefits as unearned and the characterising of claimants as scroungers and shirkers. Scottish ministers insistence on social security is a vital rehumanising of the system and reassertion of our shared responsibility.
Yet there are real questions about whether the Scottish Government can deliver on the heightened expectations these new powers bring with them.
Already, it has pledged to increase maternity grants and carer’s support, and introduce a new Job Grant. A social security agency running in parallel to the DWP will itself be a costly business.
Consultation respondents have assembled a handsome wish list. Yet only 15 per cent of the benefit spend in Scotland is to be devolved.
The Scottish Government will not succeed by trying to be all things to all people.
But it is headed in the right direction and by consulting with those on the front line ministers can make the best of the new powers available, to deliver a more humane, more efficient and more effective system.