Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Benefits Britain 1949, Channel 4, review
There are few more emotive issues than the welfare state. As government benefits have expanded since the Second World War, more and more people are on its payroll – pensioners, the sick, the disabled, the working poor and the straightforward unemployed. The Coalition has identified ways the system could be improved though their solutions are as yet unproven. While the language of scroungers and shirkers has unfortunately returned to public discussion, some campaigners refuse to acknowledge any need for reform.
Given such a sensitive subject Channel 4 have, naturally, made a tasteless and exploitative reality documentary. The set-up for Benefits Britain 1949 is that three modern-day recipients – this week a pensioner, a disabled person and someone on incapacity benefit – spend a week under (roughly) the same conditions as pertained in the year the welfare state started. Amenities such as televisions and cars are removed and (adjusted for inflation) they are given the same amount in cash.
To add an authentic flavour, two real-life benefits officers dressed in Forties clothes delivered stern judgments from an old-fashioned labour exchange. Retired railwayman Melvyn Rowethorne was shocked when his pension was cut by more than half – "£5.49 per day… bloody Nora!" he exclaimed – but was determined to cut his cloth accordingly. The programme makers clearly designated him as light relief, filming him riding round on a model railway set.
Karen McIndoe was supposed to be the difficult one. A former care assistant with a variety of ailments including arthritis and diabetes, she was filmed undergoing humiliating physical tests such as picking up a potato. We were supposed to be laughing at how backward the 1949 tests were – but at least they didn't broadcast them on television. The hopeful narrative came from Craig Newman, who has Spina bifida. He had unsuccessfully applied for 1,200 jobs, but found that the 1949-style interventionism helped him to find a job in a call centre.
Whatever we might have learnt was undermined by the cruelty of the camera's eye. Poor Rowethorne was pushed to the verge of a breakdown when he was told that he was being packed off to a retirement home. The obviously unwell McIndoe, who had paid into the system for 30 years, grew tearfully angry when she felt her honesty being questioned. Newman wept with joy when he got his job – but by this time I was feeling thoroughly manipulated.
One aspect of 1949 life not mentioned at all was the place of charity and the Church. At the time, it was quite likely that the vulnerable were part of a community that could keep on an eye on them. Now we have outsourced welfare to the government many of us have little contact with the people we are helping. This breeds suspicion and resentment on both sides – something this programme did little to counter.
Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568414/s/2fdf8448/sc/2/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Ctvandradio0C10A2385320CBenefits0EBritain0E19490EChannel0E40Ereview0Bhtml/story01.htm
