I'm saying this as someone who is comfortably middleclass and doesn't interact with the benefits system at all, but I do think that labelling everything a government plot to kill people, as she seems keen to do, just makes her look hysterical and ridiculous.
Are there huge problems with the benefits system, the amounts that people are entitled to, the way it is administered, the way it is easy to fall through the cracks, the way DWP employees hassle people who are clearly incapable of working and the ease with which they apply sanctions or stop benefits? Yes, of course there are. But just because the system is badly designed, underfunded, and poorly administered doesn't mean that the government is planning a modern Aktion T4.
There is no excuse for frightening people who are encountering the benefits system for the first time with "the government want you dead," all it does is devalue the message that the social security system is massively threadbare, significantly underfunded, and failing people. That's the drum she could and should be banging.
Well said
@Witchfinder Sargeant and
@Wooh
I've survived on benefits for a while now and it IS brutal for all the reasons you mention.
This week's announcement by the Work and Pensions Minister has sent chills up my spine, along with many others who have to go through their awful work capability assessments. Just because it's SUCH a slog to get all the benefits you're entitled to and, once you finally get eveything sorted, you're just hoping for it to remain stable so that you can focus on your life. So, whenever govt threatens to make life harder for welfare claimants, it does freak people out.
However. The govt ALSO likes to throw out periodic clickbait announcements like this which are intended to get the press activated (left and right) and send a message that it's somehow tough on welfare spending. It means nothing until it's been through the whole parliamentary process and things like this take months or years to come to fruition.
The media doesn't help because they immediately pick up these stories and run sensationalist headlines, mostly fact-free. They are very few journalists who actually understand the complexities of the benefits system and there's so much misinformation in the media which contributes to agitating both the left and right wings.
My policy -- whenever one of these announcements lands in the media -- is to take some very deep breaths to calm my anxiety and then look at what credible people are saying about it. Organisations working with ill and disabled and low income people. Reputable think tanks. MPs on the relevant committees or portfolios. If it looks like a big new policy shift (like introducing Universal Credit for example), then there'll be months and months of political to and fro and plenty of opportunities to join campaigns, air your voice and use social media to put out a message.
Even if there is some hideous change to the system coming down the line, we have time to prepare for it and to mobilise against it. Nothing is going to be taken away overnight.
This kind of hysteria displayed by Roadside Mum serves no purpose other than attention-seeking. She's not working with anyone else to create a broad representation of voices on this. She's not allied to any organisation or citizen group or anything. It's just drama with her. And that pisses me off just as much as the weaselly ministers dropping little bombshells in the press for clicks.
