I can see why those of the left felt on the defensive after the programme begun to air. On screen appears one individual after another who is clearly physically able to work, but doesn’t. It’s hard not to feel irritated when encountering the feeling of entitlement combined with one of defeatism.
Paying people money to do nothing much is neither right nor sustainable. However, watching residents struggle to understand the terms of their rental agreement or how to avoid eviction, and seeing them turn to others for assistance who are almost as deficient in understanding as they are, it is made obvious that these people need more help as well as less help.
Without intense support and advice, without community workers to bring help right into the home, telling people to stand on their own two feet is just rhetoric designed to make the person using it feel comfortable. The challenge for the Right is that independence doesn’t begin automatically when dependence ends.
- Daniel Finkelstein on the new TV series Benefits Street
Paying people money to do nothing much is neither right nor sustainable. However, watching residents struggle to understand the terms of their rental agreement or how to avoid eviction, and seeing them turn to others for assistance who are almost as deficient in understanding as they are, it is made obvious that these people need more help as well as less help.
Without intense support and advice, without community workers to bring help right into the home, telling people to stand on their own two feet is just rhetoric designed to make the person using it feel comfortable. The challenge for the Right is that independence doesn’t begin automatically when dependence ends.
- Daniel Finkelstein on the new TV series Benefits Street
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