I, Franz Kafka

For those of you looking for a feelgood film, the works of British filmmaker Ken Loach would not be high on anybody’s list. Loach is a renowned social commentator, whose political stance is avowedly socialist and who was described by the New York Times as having “the political outlook of a British Michael Moore.” Loach has been making films for more than 50 years and his 1966 television play Cathy Come Home was one of the most important British TV dramas of all time, offering a savage critique of the unemployment and homelessness problems facing those at the bottom end of the social strata. Such was its political impact that it prompted the foundation of Crisis, the charity for homeless people, in 1967.

Whilst Loach’s work may not be a barrel of laughs, it does shine an important light on areas of British society that may otherwise be overlooked by a wider audience. His 2016 Palme d’Or winner I Daniel Blake carries on this grand tradition, offering a gritty take on the Kafkaesque workings of the UK benefit system. The story centres on the eponymous Daniel Blake who has suffered a heart attack and whose doctor determines that he is medically unfit to return to work. However, his benefit claim is denied because the Work Capability Assessment, to which all claimants are subject, deems that he is not sufficiently incapacitated. The reason for that is that the criteria that claimants must pass in order to make a benefit claim did not cover his condition (see here for a list of requirements). As result, our hero is eligible only for a particular category of benefit which requires him to prove that he is looking for work, despite having been told by his doctor that he is medically unfit.

The point of Loach’s film is to demonstrate that the system is not fit for purpose and is designed to put obstacles in the way of claimants to dissuade them from proceeding further, which reduces the numbers and eases the state’s financial burden. This is not simply a piece of social drama: I have heard it time and time again from people involved in dealing with benefit cases. According to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee (WPC) “290,000 claimants … – 6% of all those assessed – only received the correct award after challenging DWP’s (Department for Work and Pensions) initial decision.” The DWP’s own statistics show that between October 2013 and March 2017 roughly half of those people initially claiming some form of long-term invalidity benefit either had their benefit withdrawn or were required to claim one which requires them to look for work whilst in receipt. The WPC highlighted “a deficit of confidence in the assessment processes. Central to the lack of trust are concerns about the ability of the Department’s contractors to conduct accurate assessments.” All in all, the WPC’s report was a damning indictment of a system which claimants increasingly distrust.

Although the WPC did not touch on the subject, there are many insiders who claim that there is pressure to impose quotas on the numbers eligible for benefits. The system of benefit assessment is in any case initially carried out by people who are not necessarily qualified to make the appropriate medical judgements, and in 2016 a United Nations report criticised the UK system for being “focused on a functional evaluation of skills and capabilities, and puts aside personal circumstances and needs, and barriers faced by persons with disabilities to return to employment.” 

Even though only 6% of cases are overturned, this still represents 290,000 claimants who are being denied the support to which they are entitled. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies put it, “this is arguably suggestive of a system that is not working well.” In an excellent article in the Financial Times in November, Sarah O’Connor highlighted that “while national policy has been focused on pushing people from incapacity into the labour market, it is not clear that every local labour market is willing or able to absorb them.” To put it another way, in areas where jobs are scarce, getting people off the incapacity register may fulfil one set of government targets but it does nothing to resolve the underlying problems.

This is unfortunately all very bleak and depressing and further undermines the public’s trust in government in general and the benefits system in particular. Whilst reform of the system is not per se a bad idea, the experience of the past eight years is that the government has failed to manage the process of welfare reform. Universal Credit, which was designed to replace a multitude of different benefits in a bid to reduce outlays, was unveiled in 2013 but is still nowhere near completion having initially expected to have been completed within a four year cycle. Moreover, in a report released last month the OBR questioned whether the savings promised by this reform will even be realised.

Quite why the reform of the benefit system has proven to be such a shambles is no mystery: It is too complex and insufficient resources have been committed to make it work. Meanwhile the most vulnerable members of society are bearing the brunt of the adjustment. For those of us who spend our time looking at the big fiscal picture, it is quite an eye-opener to look below the surface at how the system actually works. Whilst such methods have (arguably) been successful in helping to bring down the public deficit, the more we look at the social costs the less justified some of the actions appear to be. With the government now focusing all its policy efforts on Brexit, it is difficult to see any light at the end of this tunnel.

Of course, the supreme irony is that a good number of those who appeared to be abandoned by this failed benefit system are likely to have been those who voted for Brexit on the basis that they had nothing to lose. If the leading lights in David Cameron’s government ever wonder why they lost the Brexit vote, they might reflect on their inability to deliver a benefit system which provides the support it promised.