Turning away from The Lies We Tell Ourselves

A hard-hitting report published by a group of UK Churches takes several pernicious myths about poverty and welfare head on, calling for ‘a new story’ which is grounded in ‘truth, compassion and hope.’

The Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, The Methodists and the United Reformed Church have come together to publish ‘The Lies We Tell Ourselves‘ which tackles six widespread myths about poverty and welfare reform as well as the UK Government’s much-vaunted ‘Troubled Familes Programme.’ (The last of these has, of course, been comprehensively debunked in reports from the Poverty and Social Exclusion think-tank, and in an article from the British Association of Social Workers.)

Linked to a systematic process of what Prof. Ruth Lister calls ‘othering,’ these myths can reinforce the narrative that it is poor people themselves who are to blame for poverty. This thoughtless blame culture ends up ignoring the systemic drivers of inequality, individualising the problem and problematising the individual – thus absolving the rest of society, from profit-obsessed investment bankers to cuts-crazed local politicians from any responsibility for the social crises that our society faces.

• Myth One – ‘They’ are lazy and don’t want to work – the link between worklessness and poverty is now well-understood, with well over half of the UK’s children in poverty belonging to working households;
• Myth Two – ‘They’ are addicted to drink and drugs – fewer than 4% of benefit claimants report any form of addiction;
• Myth Three – ‘They’ are not really poor, ‘they’ just don’t manage their money properly – statistics evidence that it is poor people who have to plan and budget with the most stringency;
• Myth Four – ‘They’ are on the fiddle – the government’s own figures show that less than 0.9% of the welfare budget is lost to fraud;
• Myth Five – ‘They’ have an easy life – benefits demonstrably do not meet minimum income standards, and – besides – over the last 30 years benefit levels have halved in relation to average incomes;
• Myth Six – ‘They’ caused the deficit – while the ‘welfare bill’ has grown in absolute terms, it has remained stable in relative terms. Claiming that it is poor people who have caused, or exacerbated the recession – which, in turn, forces the government to cut welfare is arguably the most pernicious lie of all six.

Each one of these is tackled head-on, and comprehensively debunked.

If anyone is interested in the truth that is being systematically hidden behind ‘The Lies We Tell Ourselves,’ this report is well worth a read.

…And – tell your friends what you’ve learned!