My own encounter with the benefit system

Why the new crackdown on benefits will put off thousands of genuine applicants.

And so Gordon Brown's government has decided unemployment and incapacity benefits are draining the country's wealth. In spite of successive crackdowns, 2009 will see even more restrictions and conditions attached to the country's social security. Lie detectors and rabid dogs against 'cheats' is James Purnell's idea of helping people find a job.

Harpymarx recently made the point that the new measures will simply put off more people from seeking help. What the tabloids don't tell you is the thousands of people who already refrain from applying because they find the system too hostile and/or complicated (the official figures of underpaid benefits are £1.8bn for the Council tax and £1bn of total benefit expenditure from the DWP).

Now, I've never signed on myself. But the one time I needed urgent help (after having paid tax for years) is enough to convince me that Harpymarx is bang on. In 2005 my council tax situation was becoming untenable. I was literally cutting down on everything in order to meet the payments. I found out that in such circumstances you can apply for a discount or Government help and I was probably entitled to some discount.

I don't know if you're familiar with those Birmingham City Council green forms, the size of a thick magazine- as many as fifty pages of complex papers to cope with, and they are nothing short of intimidating and the means tests unbelievably humiliating and invasive. There is no chance that even a literate or articulate person can sit through them and fill them out on their own. Granted, you can head to your local neighbourhood office and queue for a day hoping for help, and I guess it's an interesting observational experience too, but it's something more akin to Dante's 7th circle of hell. That is what I did.

I remember trotting there, 'Council Tax Benefit' form in tow, in a hopeful frame of mind, "don’t they tell you that those who are entitled to benefits shouldn't shy away from applying?" But, as I walked in, I realised how understaffed our local neighbourhood office in Ladywood was. Packed to the smithereens. The mere sight of it made me wonder whatever possessed me to even think that I could give it a go (perhaps the hallucinating prospect of a yearly bill of £1357.72- that is £113 a month, 15% of my monthly wage), filled as it was with kids running around bored, while their mothers were patiently killing time in a queue that in no way was going to be dealt with the same day.
That aside, there's the issue of having every penny of your income and your bank account scrutinised by your local authority. The queues, the complexity, the printed threats ("if you provide inaccurate information you can be prosecuted", just reading that makes you feel shifty) and the intrusiveness. Most people simply find it unapproachable, let alone OAPs. It's no coincidence a third of families entitled to Council tax benefits don’t claim and wrestle with their bills instead.

And, of course, even if you put up with the whole process it doesn’t mean the discount is granted. The previous year despite the tax going up way further than my salary, the Council rejected my offer of payment and demanded the full whack instead. Which is how my arrear payments started piling up.

That day, at the Ladywood office, I decided to give up. They told me they wouldn’t have been able to deal with that queue on the same day and asked me to come back another time. Which for me, meant booking a day off work, which was out of the question. You don’t want to lose your job. You won't be entitled to any dole for months if they sack you and anyway you don’t want James Purnell and his rottweiler telling you to get your arse into gear.

I was left wondering if the government expects all workers to demand an annual pay rise in line with the Council tax, but you already know the answer. It's no coincidence that the total number of those living below the poverty line in Britain has doubled in the last twenty years. But in Britain there are more pressing matters, such as Gordon Brown's crackdown on the culture of "life on benefits".