Carl Havern is a model Big Society citizen. He volunteers for three different causes every week and cares passionately about improving his community.
He is also a recovering heroin addict on benefits, who has spent much of the past decade in prison.
I just
love the idea that I’m working my guts out to provide tax revenue to these people…
Sorry, these ‘vulnerable’ people!
Mr Havern is a member of a community group in Salford starting a quiet revolution against the prevailing stereotype of some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. It has been meeting every Thursday since October, plotting ways to challenge the increasingly incendiary rhetoric about people on benefits. This month the group launched to the public in the hope that others who are fed up of being labelled as scroungers will follow suit.
Oooh, this’ll be good! *grabs popcorn, settles in*
The group’s long-winded name – the Non-judgemental Integrity Compassion and Equality group – thankfully boils down to the acronym Nice.
And it’s about as much use to society as the
other NICE…
Funding cuts meant Golda Bolanda, 33, lost her job as a project coordinator for a charity in June last year. In the past four months alone she has been to interviews for more than 50 jobs but got nowhere.
She says the stigma around benefits almost stopped her claiming them – until things got desperate.
“We’re called scroungers, but the work that we do in the community is so important. Yes, we’re on benefits, but in the meantime we’re doing something.”
But clearly, it’s not something anyone wants to
pay you to do. I wonder why?
Letitia Rose, 46, struggled to cope with the prejudice she encountered when she found herself with a new baby and no job.
At 46?!?
Now she works part-time, but is still frustrated that lone mothers who stay at home face prejudice that mothers in relationships do not. “A mum with a partner gets the right to stay at home and look after the kids and bake cakes and go to pre-school without being judged. But mums on their own are seen as sitting on their backside claiming benefits. What’s that saying about society and how women are being judged?”
It’s saying that the ideal start for a child is two – count ‘em, two – parents, not one, plus Government stand-in.
Letitia’s neighbour, Fred Pilling, 60, is also in the group. He has lived in his three-bedroom home for the past 44 years but now the bedroom tax is making it unaffordable. Now that he has £26 less in housing benefit, he is often left with just £10 to spend on food.
He has arthritis and literacy problems and survives on benefits, spending his time keeping his local area tidy. He said: “If I see rubbish I’ll put a pair of gloves on and pick up the kebab boxes and pizza boxes.”
So…I should pay excessive tax so an illiterate with no job can live in a three-bedroom home? I should coco!
I suppose the problem is that "drug addled dole scroungers with fake issues" doesn't roll off the tongue quite so well.
ReplyDeleteAll of their problems seem to be of their own making; wonder why that is.
Drug Addled Dole Scroungers. DADS. Nice. Shame there is a current shortage of 'em.
Delete"Lost her job as a project coordinator for a charity in June last year. In the past four months alone she has been to interviews for more than 50 jobs but got nowhere"
ReplyDeleteOh Boo Hoo... Perhaps she would like to run that past the guys featured in the CH4 documentary "Worst Place To Be A Pilot". All these people will have spent a 5 figure sum getting their licences - one had applied for hundreds of jobs, and only received FOUR replies. He is now away from family and friends on the other side of the world, and taking a considerable risk flying to remote strips in the middle of rainforests. Some of his passengers are thought to still practice cannibalism!!!
I think we can guess the sort of "Charity" Ms Bolanda was "working" for, and I very much doubt she was taking her life in her hands every day.
Where's your miniature violin, Julia?
Hey, I did like this bit:
ReplyDeleteBut mums on their own are seen as sitting on their backside claiming benefits.Yes, much as dolphins are often seen as a type of mammal that lives in the sea.
They're not worried about being slimed, they worried about being called that they are.
Perhaps Carl Havern's group could be called "Substance Loving Users Doomed to Gripe Eternally" or SLUDGE.
ReplyDeleteThe two women need to take responsibility for bad decisions that they have made with and in their own lives. As for the 60 year old man, I have some sympathy. My parents lived in a three-bedroom council house. They were both unwell and had applied for a smaller flat but the council could not get itself in gear, and offered my mother sheltered housing two days before she died of cancer. If he is willing to move then I think he is being treated unfairly under the present rules, but if he wants to continue to live there,then he needs to pay.
The main problem is the entitlement culture, and its extension the social pressure against tax avoidance. If we are honest, all tax is theft, at the barrel of a gun, and this campaign against tax avoidance is no less than a threat to everyone to put the state before oneself.
"All of their problems seem to be of their own making; wonder why that is."
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
"I think we can guess the sort of "Charity" Ms Bolanda was "working" for..."
Indeed so. The fake kind.
"Perhaps Carl Havern's group could be called "Substance Loving Users Doomed to Gripe Eternally" or SLUDGE."
:D
"Drug Addled Dole Scroungers. DADS. Nice. Shame there is a current shortage of 'em."
Oh, even better!