'Society thinks unemployed don't deserve phones - but they need it to find work'
“How can you afford that?” It’s a question I was often asked when I was on out-of-work benefits.
Every time I bought a new lipstick, got my nails done, got takeaway or anything else that was deemed a “treat”, I had people asking how I was buying it when I didn’t have a job. And the subtext was always there “You don’t deserve this”, “you’re wasting our money”.
In a new survey, YouGov put 35 expenses to the public and asked them who should be able to afford them, from just the richest in society to those on an “Average” salary, and minimum wage then if those on benefits deserved them. 76 per cent think everyone should be able to afford their utility bills, but that’s still 24 per cent who said people on out-of-work benefits don’t deserve electricity and water.
And that’s the best stat. 55 per cent said everyone should be able to have a TV. Just 51 per cent said everyone, including benefits claimants, should be able to afford to rent a house. The ones that really got me were who deserves technology. Only 57 per cent think everyone should have an internet connection in their house. 45 per cent think benefits claimants should be able to afford a basic phone and just 41 per cent think they should be allowed to buy a basic laptop. That’s not even a good or new one, just the bog standard cheapest.
What this doesn’t take into account is that nowadays everything to do with Universal Credit is done online. From applying for the benefit, booking appointments, supplying evidence, And all communication from the job centre or DWP comes online via the Universal Credit Journal space.
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So if you don’t have a phone, the internet or a laptop you essentially miss updates on your claim or appointment changes, which you can be sanctioned for missing, fined or lose your benefits. If you don’t have home internet you have to use your mobile data, but this is limited if you can only afford a basic contract.
“But surely everyone has internet access?” 1 in 5 households in the UK earning under 25k have no internet access at all. Rising to 1 in 3 disabled people earning under 25k. The same study by The Institute of Developmental Studies found that almost a third of people (31%) with a smartphone or tablet ration mobile internet use to avoid running out of data. 9% stop using mobile data until they can top up or their contract renews, including waiting over a week to top up. Almost 1 in 5 (17%) run out of data before the end of the month.
Upsettingly, 1 in 10 (9%) reduced spending on food or clothes so they could afford phone or home internet. “Oh, but they can just go to libraries” I hear you cry - like libraries aren’t already under immense pressure, facing closures or have staff who are qualified to help. The other alternative is to do it in the Jobcentre, but that again means getting yourself and sometimes your kids there, where you aren’t guaranteed to get to use a computer, in an oppressive place that is stressful for many. There’s also a lack of privacy in the job centre that surely all people should be afforded.
There’s also the assumption that everyone knows how to use computers when the government itself estimates that there are still over 5 million adults in the UK who regularly don’t use the internet and 66 per cent of those are disabled. This is the nuance that is missed by those who think poor and disabled people don’t “deserve” to spend their benefits on whatever they want to.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this comes after over a decade of a government that vilifies poor and disabled people and pits them against “average” people. You only have to look at the right-wing press on any given week to see columnists asking if we should be giving people who don’t work taxpayers hard earned money or the government bragging about benefit fraud crackdowns - which I have debunked before.
We should be ensuring disabled and poor people have enough to live on and can access basic services, instead of asking if they “deserve” them. Why should anyone get to decide who “deserves” a decent quality of life?
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