this man (the symbol, the system, not the person) has power over if I can feed my children next month or not. One button from him on his computer and my benefits could be stopped or reduced. He has that kind of power over me and mine and probably dozens of other families he coaches too. And yet he is so painfully unaware of his own power, his own privilege. I feel so small and unimportant when a man who most likely is a normal human, probably has his own insecurities that he turns off for work like millions of other do, probably has his own struggles and trials, a man who is my equal socially, conversationally, intellectually and technically legally. And yet due to being on benefits I am inferior to him, I talk to him and am reminded, just through the system of our talking not through anything that he says, just through the rules of the benefits game, that he can press a button and we'd be hungry. And for him to be so unaware of how much power he has over the lives of the people he must call or see to get his job done adds to the sense of my own, and others like me on benefits, our own unimportance and insignificance socio-economically. Just by being on benefits we are deemed less valuable, less important. Governments pat themselves on the backs and say "we have a welfare system, we're humane". It's horribly not enough. It's depressing.
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Covid Realities
is a collaboration between the Universities of
York and Birmingham, and
Child Poverty Action Group. The project has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation
but the views on this site are those of the project team and not necessarily the Foundation.
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