Speech marks: the impact of language stigmatising benefits

Community Links has published a brief discussion paper examining evidence of the impact of stigmatising language on people claiming benefits. For example, what is the effect of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions describing people unemployed for a long time as ‘a block of people in Britain who do not add anything to the greatness of this country?’ And how does it square with his thought that, ‘Too often in some of these areas people have been out of work for a long time, they’ve lost confidence, they’ve lost courage, they’ve lost any sense of self-worth. What the Work Programme I hope will do will be to tackle that and start to bring them back to the workforce.’

They suggest that stigmatising language – which is certainly not confined to this government or to one political party, as the report shows – actually undermines government’s attempts to support people into work. Directly it worsens health and reduces confidence and self esteem which – as the Minister admits – are crucial to getting a job, and indirectly it affects the attitudes of employers and support agencies towards people receiving benefits.

‘Speech marks’: the impact of language stigmatising benefits