‘Dependency sounds like people are addicted to rewards. If that is the prevailing perspective, then no wonder people who need to have help come to feel picked on and ashamed.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Iain Duncan Smith’s speech last week on jobseekers possessing to search for perform just before they can sign on, talked about “dependency” 14 occasions. He didn’t mention individuals created redundant, or staying at house to care for loved ones or, like me, who are also sick to operate. I uncover that deeply disturbing and I compose in the hope that the operate and pensions secretary thinks about the consequences of what he says and changes how he speaks in the potential.
I’m 52 and live in Newcastle with my wife and two young children. Six many years in the past I was diagnosed with a uncommon and incurable form of leukaemia (cancer of the blood). My objective is to live long sufficient to see my young children grow up.
I left college at sixteen and have worked all my life due to the fact that is all I wished to do. I come from a loved ones which was hardworking and was brought up to understand that you got a task and worked all your existence. I’ve worked in retail, the motor business, in insurance coverage and, for 12 years I worked at the Department for Operate and Pensions. It truly is been a good daily life. Not rich, not bad, but I’ve loved every little thing we have worked hard for.
For 4 years right after my diagnosis, I worked complete time but I was extremely tired, in ache and choosing up every cold and flu going due to the fact of my weakened immune technique. I retired due to ill health at the finish of 2012 and given that then have claimed the advantages I am entitled to and that I have contributed to all my existence so that we can proceed to pay the mortgage loan and place food on the table.
You could say that me and my family are dependent on rewards. In the exact same way we had been dependent on my salary and we are still dependent on my pension and the income my wife earns. Unless of course we are born rich, we all depend on the funds coming in every single month. But Iain Duncan Smith makes use of dependent in a way I reject. Dependency sounds like folks are addicted to positive aspects. If which is the prevailing attitude, then no wonder folks who need to have help come to feel picked on and ashamed.
I’m not unusual. Other folks who have had help from benefits have essential that assist because they were operating in reduced-paid jobs, looking for work or, like me, unable to function. Perhaps we are an inconvenient reminder that becoming unable to pay the expenses with no aid is not a straightforward moral failing – it truly is anything that so several of us are only a diagnosis or a redundancy letter away from. If I can not persuade men and women in electrical power to stop speaking about dependency, possibly they would agree that, for each and every time they do, they match it with a reference to the millions of us for whom help from rewards is a lifeline, not a trap.
Iain Duncan Smith says I am dependent. But my benefits are a lifeline, not a trap
