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drinkanddrugsnews
| 23 March 2009
Voices for choices |
Service user conference 2009
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
As part of our service user consultation at
Voices for Choices
, delegates were
asked what impact they thought the proposed measures in the welfare reform
bill might have on them and others.
DDN
reports
‘We need to consider how society views drug users...
They want them back in employment, as long as it’s
not them employing.’
Delegates were asked for their own experiences of the welfare
system and how it has affected their drug treatment goals, as well
as how the reforms might support – or conflict with – those goals.
In terms of their experience of the system, respondents
described how being in receipt of incapacity benefit had helped them
from a financial point of view – as it meant more money than Job
Seeker’s Allowance – but that it could potentially hinder their return
to work. One described people ‘using just before the reviews’ in
order to continue receiving benefits, and a corresponding fear of
abstinence because ‘suddenly you’re well, and there’s no concept of
recovery time and all the anxiety that goes with it.’
People felt that in the system as it stood there was no incentive
to earn money on a part time basis – as benefits would be reduced
accordingly and prescriptions would also have to be paid for – and
that the system also needed to be flexible enough to adapt to
claimants doing brief periods of work, as at the moment it was
‘easier not to let them know.’
More than one service user said they – or people they knew – had
kept their drug use a secret when dealing with benefits agencies for
fear of having their children taken away by social services, and that the
proposed requirement to declare problematic drug use could mean
WELFARE TOWORK?
‘I
don’t think it’s worth the paper it’s written on,’ said one
service user of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP)
welfare reform bill. ‘It’s all stick and no carrot,’ said another.
Under the bill’s proposals, claimants with problematic drug
use issues who do not enter treatment could see their benefits
withheld, as well as face benefit fraud investigations for failure to
declare heroin and crack use (
DDN
, 28 July 2008, page 4). Benefits
could also be withheld for failure to attend special employment
support sessions, and the proposals allow for extensive information
sharing between the criminal justice system and the DWP.
However the bill does include the creation of a ‘treatment
allowance’ for drug users who are stabilising their condition, and also
aims to encourage employers to take on people with a history of
problematic drug use. Many in the sector are sceptical about how
effective this would be, given the likely attitudes of employers and the
many barriers towards re-entering employment. Despite the DWP
characterising the proposals as ‘more support in return for greater
responsibility’ they were widely criticised in the field for being
discriminatory, ill thought out, likely to increase stigmatisation and an
attack on the civil liberties of service users. According to Release, they
display a ‘failure to understand the fundamental nature of addiction.’