Funciones del Ministerio Público y de la Policía Nacional

Of the 23 participants in this study, seven were in work at the time of their interviews, of whom two were working part-time, and five working full-time. Three were studying, one full time, and two part-time, while another participant was taking part in a training scheme with a view to moving into paid work. Seven participants had previously worked but had chosen to retire, or had taken early retirement due to ill health, and were claiming a pension. A further seven were of working age but unable to work because of their impairment or their experience of societal barriers to work. Of these, only Michael (41) had never undertaken any form of paid work, while a further three had only had short periods in the labour market.

In the course of each interview, participants were asked for their views on work and employment. All participants recognized the benefits that work could bring to them both socially and financially. This was summed up by Anthony, who had worked since leaving school until being medically retired due to the deterioration of his condition eight years previously:

[It’s] the social contact, earning your own money, your own independence, your own income, you know, the self-satisfaction of doing something worthwhile or [doing] something that you find rewarding, […] the people you meet, the socialization through work. (Anthony, 46)

Some participants explicitly contrasted working with choosing not to work, and claiming benefits instead. This narrative was particularly acute for Fiona, who had spent a period of time on ESA between completing her Masters and starting her PhD. She had found this to be a very difficult experience, which she was keen to avoid in future. However, she also felt that working had positive features other than simply not being reliant on benefits:

I know that I probably if I really had to I would [give up] work, but I want to work because I’ve got a good brain! My legs don’t work but my brain does. And I want to be able to keep working as long as I possibly can, and have nice things and I know that I’m not going to be working till I’m 65 but I’ll just need to see how it goes. (Fiona, 28)

The majority of the remaining participants felt that they were unable to work at the time of their interviews. In most cases this was either due to the effects of their

impairments, or the disabling barriers they faced in society (see section 5.3.2 below), or a combination of the two. Nevertheless, participants who were not working still demonstrated a strong positive orientation towards work:

I want to go back to work. It isn’t a case of I have chosen, I mean effectively I’ve taken about an 80% drop in my salary, to sit at home and do nothing. I mean that isn’t a lifestyle choice, whatever [they say]. I got ill, I lost everything. (Adrian, 50)

For Adrian, working had been an important source of self-esteem, and being unable to work was extremely frustrating to him. This highlights the importance of work not just as a source of income, but also as a bolster to individuals’ sense of self. This echoes findings by Flint (2008), who discusses the way in which individuals in receipt of benefits associated work with status and self-esteem. None of the participants who were out of work expressed views that suggested that this was an easy option for them. In most cases, they had given up working because they acquired an impairment, or an existing condition had worsened, which meant that they were unable to continue working. Two participants, Liam and Donald, had been involved in skilled manual work, one as a central heating engineer, and the other as a

plasterer/roughcaster. Both had wanted to return to work, but had been unable to because of the physical demands of their jobs. Liam (50) in particular felt that these demands had contributed to his impairment:

I: And do they know what caused it [back problems]?

LIAM: Probably the work. I: The work that you did?

LIAM: Aye, hanging over roofs in the pouring rain […] snow, everything. Lifting, whatever – 50/60 kilos at a time, when you’re only supposed to lift 25.

Both Liam and Donald felt that they were too old to retrain for different occupations. Four participants who were not in work were optimistic about being able to return to employment at some point in the future if their conditions improved. However, the vast majority were pessimistic about their future prospects, feeling that their

conditions were unlikely to improve sufficiently to enable them to return to work. This was especially so for those who had retired from work due to ill health. All of the retirees felt that they had contributed to the system throughout their working lives, and had earned their pensions. However, they also spoke positively of their time in employment and felt that it had brought them a sense of self-esteem and enabled them to contribute to society. The participants who hoped to return to work also

discussed experiencing additional barriers that would make finding a job harder for them.

Given the emphasis placed on work in the Coalition’s discourses as well as media coverage of reforms, it was perhaps unsurprising that some of the participants echoed these narratives in their discussion. However, this was the case for only a small proportion (n=6) of participants, who felt that there was a difference between themselves as legitimate benefit claimants, and those who were out to scam the system. Liam expressed this view perhaps most candidly, echoing some of the rhetoric used in media discourses around benefit claiming (see section 3.5):

There’s one down the road there. Next door’s never worked. The one after him that’s never worked. […] So, in this street, before I stopped working, there were only two that never worked. […] Everybody’s always worked apart from two, and now they get everything. (Liam, 50)

Fiona expressed similar views, but slightly more cautiously:

I know it’s terrible, but there’s certain people you can tell a mile off that they just do not want to work. Whereas I was kind of in the opposite position. I was frustrated that I couldn’t work. (Fiona, 28)

She also expressed concern about the way that people who she felt were genuinely too ill to work were being treated. She felt that the actions of the small few who didn’t want to work were being used to punish people who were unable to work:

I feel really blessed that I can work because I’ve got something that I can offer. But I do feel genuinely sad for people who are unable to get out and they’re constantly being asked ‘are you still ill?’ That just makes me feel so sad because I could easily be in that position. (Fiona, 28)

However, these views, though present, were expressed only by a small minority of participants. The majority of participants either made no mention of the ‘other’ or felt that benefit claimants like themselves were out of work for legitimate reasons such as ill health, labour market disadvantage arising from discrimination, or other barriers to work. Nevertheless, it was also apparent that these discourses were beginning to have an impact on how participants viewed themselves when they were unable to work:

You felt out of place. Everyone was away at work and you weren’t, and that was very difficult. And as much as even now, it doesn’t bother me anywhere near as much as it did, but sometimes I get a reflection that I’m not seen as part of society anymore, because I don’t work, and so I’m not a contributor. But I do try to contribute in other ways. (Harry, 60)

The impact that these narratives were having on participants’ daily lives is discussed in Chapter 6.

Discussion in this section has highlighted that in contrast to depictions of those on benefits as feckless and lazy, the participants in this study demonstrated a strong work ethic. However, as will become apparent in the next section, they faced considerable barriers to finding and retaining work.