Villification of the social "underclass"

this was a topic of much discussion over on the old book of face yesterday. it was all prompted by this.

Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: RIP Karen Sherlock

and an issue also blogged about by a good friend at

Mystic Moaning

the villification in the media of the so called social underclass.

it was a rant about this that led to a friend suggesting maybe I should blog. I didn't want to make it my first post, as I don't want to pigeonhole this blog. I don't want people to see this as my thing. this isn't how I define myself. I don't want to alienate people on the grounds of politics. but I DO want to maybe give a few people a reality check.

time and time again in the press we see an image projected of people on benefits. that they all drink too much, chainsmoke, sit around in a cannabis fueled haze of careless procreation and a private life befitting a regular slot on the Jeremy Kyle show.

all in their palatial council houses, watching their massive flatscreen TVs, playing their Xboxes, planning their tacky holidays where they will return with a massive hangover and a nasty rash downstairs. a life of luxury, debauchery and not a care in the world. while the hard working tax payer eats beans on toast and wonders how to pay the electricity bill.

how many people believe this myth of life on benefits? well everyone knows someone that knows someone that lives like that, right?

someone on benefits couldn't possibly be, Oh I don't know. someone like me.
with a husband I love dearly who is not well enough to work.
someone who never once imagined they wouldn't work full time and pay into the system their whole life. with a good work ethic. good manners. a strong sense of right and wrong.
no, never someone like me.

never the widow who following the death of her husband of 60 years, finds that on her pension alone she cannot afford to stay in the house she's lived in all her life. where she was carried across the threshold, where she raised her children and cared for the love of her life in his last years.

never the comfortably off, two good, well paid jobs. who decide to add another child to their family. of course they can afford to, if she goes back to work when the child starts school. they've thought about this carefully. they can afford this. they've budgeted for the maternity leave. they can do this.
but their child turns out to be severely disabled and will need round the clock care for the rest of their life. and on one income they will struggle.

never... people like you. who knows what circumstances the universe has lined up for you.

you never think that is what your life is going to be until that is what it is.

these blogs are an insight into what life is really like when you rely on benefits.

PLEASE remember that the people who claim fraudulently are in the minority.
most people on benefits aren't in that position through choice (why would you choose to be?) and are good people.

and people always complain when they see people on benefits with any kind of luxury.like they haven't saved for it, or unwisely run themselves into debt for it. or carefully budgeted for it. 
because of course, if life deals you a beating with the shitty stick, you deserve a life knowing that if you carefully save for a holiday, or are cheaply sold or given a relatives half decent old car when they get a new one, or if you have ANYTHING nice, someone will go around muttering about benefit scroungers with holidays or cars or nice things. because of course, being on benefits you deserve to scrape along and never have anything good in life.
oh, you've been through a shitty and disastrous experience in life? well you can look forward to deserving only just enough to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly? some people will say this is how it should be. that a life on benefits should never be anything more than the bare minimum. a half life.

Karen Sherlocks story is the reality of life on benefits. yes, I will say I am comfortable, and if I budget carefully I can have some luxuries. but I will always have the fear that everything can be torn out from under my feet and I'll be left with no way of paying the bills. 

and that kind of anxiety isn't good for anyone. especially people with mental health issues.

so what does the media do about it?

focus the eye of the world on the minority of benefit scroungers and frauds that work the system for every penny they can, with no intention of ever being a productive member of society.  paint that as the norm, rather than the exception that it is. 

if you turn the general public against the most vulnerable in society, then who will stand up and cry foul when they take away vital funds and resources?

 

 instead they paint us as lazy, fradulent scroungers. so that when benefit cuts are announced, the public are not on the side of the people that rely so much on them to get by. 

because they believe the lies that the press are encouraged to spread, of a life in a palatial council house with flat screen TVs, no worries and two holidays a year doled out to the undeserving. the hard done by taxpayer isn't encouraged to see what is really there. instead they see the lineup of the Jeremy Kyle show, getting fat off the hard won fruits of their toil.

 

THIS IS NOT THE REALITY. THIS IS THE FICTION. 

a fiction we are all encouraged to believe.

and if it draws attention away from how much money is lost to tax evasion, which far outweighs how much is lost to the benefit fraud minority, all the better.

Camerons big society.
demonise the needy so that when you kick them when they're down, you get hailed as a hero.