Offering a helping hand to tackle our poverty complex

The idea that being poor is somehow the byproduct of bad personal choices, as opposed to, say, badly designed government policy, is a lazy, sloppy cop-out, writes Joyce Fegan.

Offering a helping hand to tackle our poverty complex

The idea that being poor is somehow the byproduct of bad personal choices, as opposed to, say, badly designed government policy, is a lazy, sloppy cop-out, writes Joyce Fegan.

WE GIVE hampers to the poor at Christmas, and drop coins, maybe even a silent note, into choirs’ collection buckets. But, when it comes to social welfare and hardcore poverty, that’s where our humanity falters and our generosity mutates.

As a country we need to talk about “welfare”. We need to talk about the latent disgust of the poor that’s becoming more and more evident and that simmering hatred towards anyone on the fringes.

Here are three conversations I’ve either been party to or eavesdropped on recently.

“I’d love to get a free house,” he said, “look at them over there in their pyjamas at midday.” This man, as is practice in these kinds of conversations, was shooting off. No one replied to his unsolicited remarks. There were no open questions. His view was the gospel.

“I go to work all day, I pay my taxes and my mortgage, and sure look, there’s no need to work when you can just get a free house,” he said, pointing to a gathering of neighbours standing outside a new (and temporary) social housing development.

This man is someone I know to be kind, decent, and supportive, yet he had a serious issue with people living in social housing (which is not rent-free). With a moment’s observation, he had their whole lives worked out. For all he knew, these women worked nights, weeks-on and weeks-off, or had a child with a severe disability.

His mind, of course, never went there. Aside from his one-second analysis and sweeping judgment, the only real facts he had pertained to his own life. He and his wife both work, sometimes nights, they have children they run to and from GAA matches and training, and they have bills to pay. He is a classic case of the “squeezed middle”, living out the aftermath of the recession. He compared his entire picture, in an instant, to a snapshot of a stranger’s life.

The second conversation I eavesdropped on. It was at a local swimming pool one afternoon. There was a group of women waiting for their children’s afterschool swimming lessons to finish up. Again, a lone voice, in a larger group, plays the “I’d love to be able to get a free house” card.

“They can’t be turning down houses when they’re looking for free ones. Grand if you’ve loads of kids and you’re being offered a one-bed, but otherwise? Seriously,” she said. Her statement didn’t provoke any engagement. The bell rang and the kids were ready for their showers.

This “turning down houses” angle is an interesting one. You hear snippets of one story on the news headlines and you assume all 10,000 homeless are at it. There is no room in the headlines to explain about non-existent bus routes, school spaces, friendships made, and lack of work in the ghost town of this “turned-down” house. Handy soundbites are great for coffee chit-chat, but short on detail and terrible for nuance.

The third and final conversation which I was a part of was over WhatsApp. The person in question leads a very comfortable life, thanks to hard work on their part and a good early footing in life.

The phrase “welfare state” was thrown out. “Let’s all live like the Italians. Socialism. Free stuff for everyone,” they wrote. “A third of the budget goes to welfare spongers.”

The hatred of people in receipt of social welfare was sudden and surprising. Again, this is someone I know to be kind, generous, and caring, but unlike conversation number one, this person was not of the “squeezed middle”.

In the end, there was no discussion to be had. They had the gospel, according to themselves.

Ironically though, that 30% or so of the budget going to social welfare touches off everybody’s lives, including all three of those mentioned above.

If you’ve an elderly parent or a disabled child, you can get the carer’s allowance. If you have a baby, you get maternity benefit and children’s allowance. If you are sick or disabled and unable to work you could get disability allowance. If you’re past the age of retirement, you can get the State pension. You get the picture.

Hate is such an easy game to play. When we give out about “welfare” in this country, we are speaking from a place of hate, discrimination, and fact-less judgment.

But if you care to look under the hood, you’ll see a plethora of human stories. You might even see your own. Did you or someone close to you lose a job in the recession? Were they acquainted with the social welfare slips? When you’re out for your walk, do you ever see that guy in your local town, the one who had the fall and must now use a wheelchair for life? Did you hear about the 51-year-old father of three and marathon runner who lost his sight at 50 and had to give up work?

Do you know what it’s like to run a household with only one parent, who constantly tosses the coin between working and not working, between doing all the childcare themselves and going out to work part-time? Were you reared in a house where education was so far down the priority list because there was only room for alcohol and drug addiction between those four walls? Or have you heard of the house where education is the be-all and end-all, but with annual college fees creeping up over €3,000, the dream might be beyond grasp?

THE idea that being poor is somehow the byproduct of bad personal choices, as opposed to, say, badly designed government policy, is a lazy, sloppy cop-out. Poverty is multi-factorial.

And the idea of personal responsibility, as a solution to all our economic woes, is an idyllic one.

Of course, in any system, there are cracks that get exposed by a small few. But when it comes to poverty, the solution lies not in condemning the poor but challenging our politicians who bailed out banks and continue to under-tax multibillion-dollar corporations that call Ireland home. But it’s a lot easier to give out about “pyjamas at midday” than it is to wrap your head around government policy, isn’t it?

Within our shared humanity, there is the potential for both empathy and discrimination.

At a time of rising hatred, we need to, at the very least, arm ourselves not with ignorance but with fact, if being the best version of ourselves is what we’re really about.

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