An independent Scotland would protect vulnerable welfare claimants claims I, Daniel Blake screenwriter
BY ANDREW WHITAKER
AN independent Scotland would not allow welfare claimants to be persecuted and humiliated in the same way as the main characters are in the newly released film, I, Daniel Blake, according to its screenwriter – who also called on the Scottish Parliament and opposition parties to make the present sanctions system unworkable.
Paul Laverty, director Ken Loach’s main collaborator, said that in an independent Scotland the “welfare regime would totally change in tone,” while speaking about their new film which tells the story of a middle-aged joiner denied state support after suffering a heart attack.
Laverty, an Edinburgh-based writer, has worked with Loach on most of his hit films, such as Angel’s Share, Jimmy’s Hall, the Wind That Shakes the Barley and Ae Fond Kiss. He made the claims in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald as the new movie opened across the UK.
He claimed that in an independent Scotland there would not be the same “instinct to punish the most vulnerable” claimants like Daniel Blake, whose harrowing story about benefit sanctions is captured in the film.
The plot of the film is built around Blake, who has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the state following an illness.
HOWEVER, he is denied help after suffering his heart attack, when he’s told by doctors not to work – yet because of flaws in the system loses his entitlement to disability allowance. He then crosses paths with a single mother of two, Katie, whose only option has been to accept a flat 300 miles away from her home town.
The film, which won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in France, charts the desperate struggle of the pair facing grinding poverty and reliance on food banks.
Although I, Daniel Blake is set in north-east England, Laverty researched the film by spending time meeting people at foodbanks and welfare rights advisors across the UK, including in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.
He said: “There’s a massive challenge for the body politic in Scotland where you don’t get that same systematic bullying of vulnerable people. The welfare regime would totally change in tone [under independence].
“If there had been a Yes vote there would not be a magic wand, but I’m absolutely sure that in Scotland you would not get the same instinct to punish the most vulnerable. It would put a stop to all that.”
Laverty also said that a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn would also make a “massive difference” to ending a punitive regime for those on welfare – and he pushed for progressive leftwing forces in the SNP and Corbyn supporters and Greens all to work together to co-operate on such issues.
He said: “He [Corbyn] would make a massive difference in the way the welfare state is run and would take away the sanctions regime. Progressive wings within Labour and the SNP want to stop that really bullying regime within the Department for Work and Pensions.”
The acclaimed screenwriter added that although the poverty and hardship facing welfare claimants was equally brutal in all parts of the UK, the difference in political attitudes north and south of the Border was “unbelievable”.
Speaking about his research in Scotland, Laverty said that he had spoken to an unemployed man whose experience mirrored that of the lead character in the film.
He said: “In one case a guy had had a heart attack while he was having his ESA [Employment and Support Allowance] assessment.”
He added: “There were some really terrific people we spoke to in places like Edinburgh and Glasgow where there was a real barbed wire of bureaucracy. We spoke to some terrific people at the food banks, people who are having horrendous experiences and are living with serious experiences.
“These are the people with the lived experiences that you’ll see in the film.”
Laverty, despite his backing for independence, said that the SNP Government should seek to challenge Westminster over its welfare policies and aim to prevent claimants being treated like Daniel Blake. The writer also suggested that SNP ministers should commit to using new powers coming to Holyrood to top up welfare benefits to protect vulnerable people.
He said: “The Scottish Parliament can say as a general policy that we are going to undermine and make the sanctions regime untenable. A great coalition of opposition can make it unworkable.”
However, a Department for Work and Pensions spokesman, in response, said: “This is one person’s artistic interpretation of the benefits system. We have transformed Jobcentres for the better, and recently announced that people with lifelong, severe health conditions will no longer have to be continually reassessed for their benefits.
“Our staff are committed to helping people who are able to work find a job, and we spend around £90 billion on working age benefits to ensure a strong safety net for those who need it most.”