Who am I? A lazy, feckless, scrounger? Is
that what you think of the man that ‘steals the tax payers money’? In case you
hadn’t already gathered, I live in social housing, and to you, that’s most
probably known as ‘a council house’. Now, what springs to your narrow minds
when I tell you that I live in a council house? I can probably paint an acutely
accurate picture of what you’re thinking: chavvy single mum on the dole wearing
a luminous pink Lonsdale tracksuit, smoking a pack of ‘roll ups’ whilst my 6
children, each from different fathers are up to God knows what. Well I can tell
you that while you’re recovering from a hard week at work, enjoying the
weekend, or sipping sangria, soaking up the rays in summer, both my husband of
30 years and I are slaving away trying to provide for our family. Both of us work 60 hours a week to put food on the table for our 3
children, and to provide them with the correct help they need for educational
purposes. 5 years, 5 whole years it’s
been since I’ve taken a sick day off work. I pride my self on being a reliable
employee, so your stereotype that people living in social housing are ‘just
lazy’ can end there.
Now, I can’t say you’re entirely to blame
for forming this stereotype; programmes such as ‘Benefits Street’ and ‘How to
Get a Council House’ on Channel 4 don’t do much to correct this. Sure, why not
make out like we’re all unemployed and just sponging off the government? Why
not create an image that we’re the downfall of society? In fact, you might be
surprised to learn that only 2.6% of government expenditure is on the
unemployed; a much larger proportion is spent on the elderly. But yes, I understand, people’s entertainment
needs are far greater than the need to create an accurate perception of people
living on benefits. If Channel 4 decided to create a more accurate TV show
about what life for some of us is really like, I’m not so sure the show would
fit into the genre of ‘entertainment’.
How did I get here, I hear you ask? Was it
drugs? Alcoholism? No. When I was very young (14) my father died and my mother
was very ill, meaning I had to leave school to look after her. By the time she
died I was 17 and had been out of school for 3 years. I had no useful
qualifications, so my employment prospects were limited. No money to go to
college, no real way of paying rent and covering the costs of living. Despite
this I continued to search for a job, and eventually found one, cleaning and
looking after two young children for a family of four. So before you start
pointing your pitchforks at us scroungers, take a moment to realize we’re not
all using taxpayers’ money to score our next hit, or using it to pay for our
Sky HD subscription, but some of us need it to support our children so they can
have opportunities that we never had.
