It’s all over the shop. The Making of Derek, bald bloke, Channel 4 2013
That wig. I did tell you. ibid.
I love working here. But I’m always sad. ibid. Derek
And they’re constantly shitting themselves. Derek – The Special, Hannah’s objection to babies, Channel 4 2014
Supervisor: Some of these are quite mental.
Derek: Yeah, roast dinner and bingo. ibid.
I don’t go along with the mumbo jumbo side of it. ibid. Hannah
Butterflies are the gayest insect. ibid. assistant
Not a bad idea – falling from the back of the flats. Better than living to be honest with you. ibid. Kev in hospital
Rule #1: Always get up. ibid. Derek
Technically he isn’t disabled. Just lazy. ibid. Kev mum, re Kev’s dad
You’re a selfish cunt. ibid. Hannah to Kev
You’re going to stop drowning your sorrows and get through the day sober. And you will lay awake at night wishing you were dead. And you’ll wake up in the morning wishing you were dead. But you’re just going to get through it. And that’ll keep going on, all right? You’ll keep wishing you were dead … ibid.
That hunch, that there were many scroungers, has never gone away. It motivated some extraordinary individuals over the next hundred years to try and crack the problem of the poor. Workers or Shirkers? Ian Hislop’s Victorian Benefits, BBC 2018
Can history tell us whether poverty is an inevitable fact of life, a moral fault of individuals or a failure of our whole society? ibid.
Jeremy Bentham – the godfather of Victorian rationalism. ibid.
1834 Poor Law … This is the forbidden world of the workhouse. ibid.
Bosanquet’s big idea that to tackle poverty you need to do more than just dole out money – you have to intervene early with chaotic families. ibid.
‘I’m undeserving, and I mean to go on being undeserving.’ ibid. My Fair Lady, Alfred Doolittle
Good morning, Mr Blake, my name’s Amanda. I’ve got a couple of questions here for you today to establish your eligibility for employment support allowance. It won’t take up much of your time. I, Daniel Blake ***** 2016 starring Davd Johns & Hayley Squires & Dylan McKiernan & Briana Shann & Kate Rutter & Kema Sikazwe & Steven Richens & Gavin Webster et al, director Ken Loach, opening commentary
We’re digital by default. ibid. benefits bloke
What’s wrong with you people? ibid. Daniel
I spoke to the landlord about it. Because I complained he kicked me out. ibid. Katie
Dan, they will fuck you around. I’m warning you. Make you as miserable. No accident. That’s the plan. I know dozens who have given up. ibid. friend
When you lose your self respect you’re done for. ibid. Daniel
The State drove him to an early grave. ibid. Katie
Piccadilly was already a seething mass of people; the hoarding around Eros was crowded with young people mainly from the Forces. Ken Loach: The Spirit of 45, woman, 2013
Will we, the people who have won the war, drive home our victory against fascism by defeating our pre-war enemies of poverty and unemployment? ibid. man
We’re still being taken in. ibid.
The great inter-war slumps were not acts of God or blind forces. They were the sure and certain result of the concentration of too much economic power in the hands of too few men. ibid. Labour Party manifesto 45
The Labour Party is a socialist party and proud of it. Its ultimate purpose at home is the establishment of the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain – free, democratic, efficient, progressive, public-spirited, its material resources organised in the service of the British people. ibid.
The best health services should be available free for all. Money must no longer be the passport to the best treatment. ibid.
Newspapers carried the astonishing news to an amazed public – Labour landslide. ibid. Pathé news
We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers, now we are the builders. ibid. Aneurin Bevan
The idea that people who worked in the industry had any say in how the industry was run was a completely foreign idea. ibid. Tony Benn
It was not until 1967 that dockers gained permanent employment. ibid.
They [police] seemed to enjoy inflicting pain and suffering on the working man. ibid. striking miner
The last registered dock workers did not get their jobs back. Casual labour has returned to the docks. ibid.
The government wants to use private companies to collect personal data from the public to snoop out benefit fraud. Newsnight, BBC
The government’s controversial new benefits system is in crisis. Families left penniless have been driven to despair. Tenants under pressure aren’t paying their rent and some face eviction. Panorama: The Universal Credit Crisis, BBC 2018
Vulnerable people struggling to cope now face an uncertain future. ibid.
For generations governments have sought to simplify the benefits system. The latest attempt, universal credit – merging six benefits into one – was supposed to make life better for claimants, many of them vulnerable, the least able to manage. Panorama: Universal Credit: One Year On, BBC 2019
Some seven million households are expected to be claiming. ibid.
Universal Credit is the biggest overhaul of the welfare state in a generation. It’s designed to simplify the benefits system and encourage the unemployed into work. But it’s controversial. Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State I, BBC 2020
In the UK 7 million working-age people receive some kind of state benefit. Since the 1960s benefits have grown into a complex system of claims. ibid.
‘All the time we’re here [welfare office] we’re under the threat of sanctions.’ ibid. claimant
We follow the people designing the new system, the claimants living on it, and the staff in the Job Centres keeping everything on track … Toxteth Job Centre Liverpool: more than 45,000 people on Universal Credit. Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State II
‘How long do I need to be doing this job-search thing? It’s stressful.’ ibid. middle-aged lady to case manager
In Toxteth Gemma manages a team of 41 life coaches who each have between 150-200 claimants on their caseload. ibid.
From the end of 2018 anybody whose circumstances have changed needs to move from the old system on to Universal Credit. For many there can be a gap of up to five weeks between applying and their first payment. Universal Credit: Inside the Welfare State III
For young people entering work for the first time low wages and zero-hours contracts have become the standard. ibid.
When Universal Credit was announced in 2011 it was widely supported by all main political parties. Since it began rolling out, the new benefit has been heavily criticised. ibid.
Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People. Benjamin Disraeli
We’re gonna put more of these little Negro bastards on the welfare rolls at twenty four hundred dollars a family. Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, Sky Atlantic 2018
Propublica: States are hoarding $5.2 billion in welfare funds even as the need for aid grows. Why Means Testing is a Terrible Idea, Youtube 18.48, Second Thought 2022
‘To qualify for TANF in Texas, a single caretaker with two children must have less than $1,000 in assets and bring in less than $188 per month’. ibid. MSNBC article
There is absolutely no way to make means testing work. ibid.
‘Means testing is not an effective route for reducing the cost of Social Security’. ibid. conclusion of study
When you means test a program you add cost. ibid.
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany – are the countries with the largest so-called social welfare states. They … have a degree of equality that is unmatched in other parts of the world … And people do want to go to work. The idea that this has taken away the work incentive is actually the opposite … a social welfare system does is enable people to live with dignity if they don’t have the means on their own … We should have the decency to provide dignity for everybody. Jeffrey Sachs, ABC 15th October 2018