"By Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor, 23 December 2003
"The founder of the The Big Issue made a savage attack on Britain's "dependency
culture" yesterday with a call for the jobless to be forced to work in
return for state benefits.
John Bird, who started the magazine to help the homeless help themselves, said
only radical action would solve the problem of the growing 'underclass'.
In a Christmas address for Politeia, a right-wing think-tank, Mr Bird also called
for the Government to pay for the poorest children, particularly those in care,
to attend the best public schools.
"A former homeless person himself, Mr Bird said tackling the myriad problems
of those at the bottom of society was 'the most pressing requirement of our
times', he added: 'The maintenance of the underclass costs big money.
"Its members fill up our prisons with their crimes; our hospitals and medical
services with their poor health and poor nutrition; they make many of our so-called
'failing' schools unmanageable.
"Policing, monitoring and controlling them is a vast waste of public time
and resources. They also represent a huge waste of human resources. Among them
are many talented people.'
"Mr Bird's chief solution to the problem was to end the dependency created
by well-intentioned but misguided social policy of governments, civil servants
and councils.
"The payment of benefit without work began in the early 1970s when for
the first time people who were able-bodied were allowed to live indefinitely
on handouts, he said.
Instead, the state should demand work in return for benefits, with some unemployed
forced to renovate housing estates, parks and other public places.
"By relating work to benefit, 'we get people up in the morning rather than
spending their time watching daytime TV. Recognition that you can't be supported
without making a contribution is paramount to challenging dependency and continuing
the underclass'.
"To help the children of the most deprived, action would include spending
the money now used on coping with truancy and other problems on sending them
to public school. With the cost of keeping a child in care at £100,000 a year,
the cash would be better used on giving them an education that would transform
their life chances, he said.
"Mr Bird warned that unless action was taken soon, the 'yobification' of
many British towns and cities would continue as the anti-social behaviour that
characterised underclass life flowed into mainstream society."
From The Independent, 23 December 2003.
The Cost of the Underclass: