Reform have a gone a bit Thatcherite. Well, they were always a bit Thatcherite, so I guess too Thatcherite would be more apt. When Robert Jenrick joined a few weeks back he was speaking about "scroungers" on benefits in his defection speech. It's not exactly loving language, is it. Now Farage is in similar mode. Though naturally his words come with an advertisement jingle charm. His latest line being that people are, "on the sick for mild anxiety." The word mild offering a nuance that Jenrick's cruder speech can't match.
I think this direction of travel is bad electorally, but more importantly, it's unfair on our population. We want a party (hopefully a government) that "looks after our people." We want a bit of care and attention. The pejorative language suggests otherwise.
It's understandable. Few, if any of these Reform politicians and ex-Tories have direct experience of being unemployed or of being on sickness benefit. They come from a different world. In short, they're not working class - and naturally it's hard to have a nuanced understanding of something without direct experience of it.
This brings us back to the mild in that 'mild anxiety' line. Someone off work for anxiety might garner some understanding and sympathy. The prefix mild renders any such sympathy unwarranted. There's nothing wrong with this person. They need to pull up their boots straps. No sympathy required.
But this is the thing..
This is partly why the economy is so skewed in the first place. Over the last twenty-five years 'fit and healthy' unemployed people have been demonised and hounded. The endless hoop-jumping and cross-examinations. It's like army boot camp. Sure, some people survive the process, get motivated and get into work, but others end up a nervous wreck. Their sense of agency and self-value dwindling by the day or week.
Try to imagine being a long term unemployed person. When you apply for a job you're putting yourself out there to be judged. It's a lot like asking a girl out. It's easy said, but harder done. The potential rejection, embarrassment, sense of humiliation. Imagine you're applying for jobs every week and getting knocked back. At some point you're going to think, "I'm not good enough, no one needs me ..I'm never gonna get a girlfriend."
"What's the point in putting myself through this endless humiliation?"
That feeling of, "I can't face this."
Now yes, I know what you're thinking if you're reading this and you're in work, or you're one of those hyper confident go-getter type people:
"That's no excuse," you'll think, "They need to keep trying; they need to keep knocking on the door and applying for jobs ..I get out of bed every day."
However, we're human beings, we're flesh and blood, and the long term unemployed are in a weird purgatory. Endless applying for jobs and trips to the jobcentre, mixed with an endless apprehension about what the next job application will bring. An interview, be it online or in person is stressful. If you do get a job it's a complete step into the unknown, and you naturally worry about how you'll fit in or be able to cope. Along with more practical concerns, such as how you'll get there/is there public transport. Even as you're filling in the application form you'll have these concerns.
So again, imagine the unemployed person. They have a bit of anxiety or depression, or they're just going through a few bad weeks. But, as they're 'fit and healthy' it's deemed that they 'should be looking for work with go-getting vigour.' So they're given zero leeway. They have to apply for more jobs this week, and if they don't then their benefits may get sanctioned.
Obviously it's going to be very tempting for this person to go on the sick with that anxiety or depression. Or whatever other ailment it is. That way they'll get some space and some sympathy. That way their benefits won't get stopped.
So, in effect, we're pushing unemployed people onto the sick.
It's such a dumb thing to do as well, as sick people are so much more expensive to the state than your standard unemployed. The healthcare, the medications - that they have to take, as it justifies the sick status. (Again, if you have anxiety and you're on the sick you can't exactly turn down the tablets, as that's like admitting your not sick enough to be on the sick. It's a vicious cycle: medication dependencies develop, when a bit of time off and space to breathe would've ameliorated the problem.)
Then once people go on the sick it becomes a lifestyle. It becomes habit. So it becomes even less likely the person will enter employment, as now they have two hurdles to jump. They first need to make the leap from being "On The Sick" to being "Unemployed," something that will naturally come with anxieties and apprehensions.
These problems could be avoided by simply giving regular unemployed people a bit more leeway.
Holiday Entitlement For Unemployed People
One of my ideas is to give holiday entitlement to unemployed people. Just as workers get approximately five weeks a year, so too should the unemployed.
I know, anyone one millimetre to the right of Jeremy Corbyn will be screaming right now.
"WHAT !! 😡 ..holidays for people who don't even work !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "
I'm not here to appease an audience though, I'm here to solve problems. If someone spends three or four months solidly putting themselves out there and looking for work then a break at some point will be great for their headspace. Once more, it's the endless sense of purgatory that makes unemployed people seek refuge in sickness benefits. If you can avoid that by giving them a break and a sense that they can switch off at some point, why not do that?
UBI is a whole year of that, and that's in the political dialogue, so why can't my more practical option be considered?
[And no, before you ask, I'm not unemployed myself 😅 I'm not arguing for my own freebies ..though I have been unemployed in the past. In fact, I've been in my current normie job for about five years now, which is my all time record. So I'm worried by writing about it I'll jinx things. Hopefully I won't wilt like a delicate flower again and end up back in purgatory. I am writing from experience.]
Conclusion
I've went on a bit long now. [You can throw the label "scrounger" around all you like, but somehow I've ended up correcting Reform's homework, on my day off work, for free. Perhaps some of these politicians need to work a bit harder ;) ]
Anyway, the conclusion is: politicians need to stop seeing unemployment as a cancer that requires zero tolerance, and instead need to start seeing it as a natural part of the economic bodily system. Yes, ideally there'd be less of it, but life is messy. Modern economies are very complex and messy. So fitting every human into the perfect slot, for every single day of their lives isn't going to happen.
The incentives need to be right. People need to be financially better off in work. Likewise, we need to stop pushing the unemployed towards sickness benefits. I compared being unemployed to being in boot camp earlier. A healthier comparison would be army reservists. Politicians would fare better if they viewed unemployed people as a reservoir of potential workers that can be used when needed - that need looking after - rather than viewing them as a group of people to be despised and hated.
They need to stop trying to purge unemployment with fire; they need to start manging it with intelligence.
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