I have lived on benefits. I have lived on benefits while pregnant. According to current thinking, this makes me a really bad person. But Im not ashamed of living on benefits when I did. I needed the money. I needed to eat and to buy things for the baby who was going to be born. The money provided was not a great deal then and its not a great deal now. However I was glad to benefit from a welfare system that ensured the poor could live, and I am happy to pay my taxes so that other people who need support can benefit. Living on benefits was tricky, to say the least, but at least I didnt have my spending controlled by a smart card. The kind of smart card proposed would limit people to certain kinds of purchases - and to shopping at places where the shops (mostly big supermarkets - the kind that make donations to political parties) can afford to, or be paid to install the technology. When I was poor, I learned to shop in markets at the end of the day, at car-boot sales and jumble sales. And I shopped around to get bargains while, in the past, smart card havent always allowed that. You may be shocked to learn that I didnt just spend money on essentials. Only spending on absolute essentials is a sure route to depression. Once a week I went to the pub. I didnt drink as I was pregnant but I took part in a pub quiz team. The league provided team members with an evening meal so it was a good bargain - and it was fun. I enrolled on a couple of evening classes, taking advantage of special offers for unemployed people. I went to local meetings of the Womens Institute, even when the talks were about flower arranging. (I learned to make jam that year.) And, perhaps most shockingly of all, I went to the theatre. The Royal Shakespeare Theatre had special rates for the unemployed and I saw a very young Ralph Fiennes as Henry Vi. I had to economise on food to take evening classes and go to the theatre, but these were the things that kept me alive. They reminded me that I was human and could associate with other human beings as an equal. They gave me the confidence, after the baby was born, to apply for jobs and return to an academic career. No training course from the job centre would have done this for me - and I still remember the contempt with which the job centre treated me. At least I wasnt restricted by a smart card for benefits. That would have wrecked my life and destroyed any sense I had that life was worth living. The people who imagine that this would be a good thing should try imagining what those restrictions would do to their lives.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 08:40:04 +0000
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