Demos

+e problem occurs when a person becomes ‘unable to do without’ state hand-outs. +ey then lose their capacity to earn for themselves – to be independent. Moves towards greater ‘conditionality’ in the benefit system, asking more of claimants in return for their claim, task the welfare state with building, or rebuilding, independence: of being a ‘liberation welfare’ system +e government has just introduced a new top rate of tax, *" per cent, for incomes over £&*",""" a year, in addition to the existing rate of )" per cent on incomes above £)",""", and the basic rate of !! per cent. Higher rates might be necessary simply in order to raise sufficient revenue, but they provide no grounds for celebration Recent work in psychology and behavioural economics has generated compelling empirical evidence that people are myopic and weak-willed. Most of us knew this already. Hence the importance of what Professor Avner Offer has labelled ‘commitment devices’ and ‘commitment strategies’, which people adopt to help themselves resist short-term temptation, apply themselves to necessary but onerous tasks, and save and plan for the longer-run +e sight of women drinking heavily seems to excite particular outrage. But alcohol is relatively cheap, young people are unmarried, childless and – until the recent recession – fairly affluent. +e freedom to drink carries substantial attendant costs in terms of crime, injury, costs to the NHS, illness and public disorder. +ere is an argument that ill-health ‘harms’ others through the price tag for the welfare state. +ere is an argument that ill-health ‘harms’ others through the price tag for the welfare state. But there can be no doubt that a capable life requires enough work – not too much and not too little. +e problem begins at home. +e child of professional parents is exposed on average to !,&"" words per hour, but children with parents on benefits hear on average only '"" words per hour.40 +e Joseph Rowntree Foundation research highlighted in the previous chapter suggested that a minimum acceptable income for a single adult of working age is £&(,)"" p.a. before tax, and for a couple with two children it is £!',%"". +is means that a large proportion of the working population earns an income insufficient to support the capability needed.

+e links with other problems are very notable: half of those misusing drugs and alcohol have mental health problems. A general lesson can be drawn from the specific way in which mental health treatment is organised. +e problem is that someone has to be acutely ill before they are helped. Provision according to need means, in conditions of financial scarcity, that minor ailments receive no great attention. Early intervention, which is critical, requires mental health problems to be recognised in schools and workplaces. +e most common alarm bell is usually a decline in physical health, but it is rarely bad enough to trigger action. Finally, many seriously mentally ill people are in the criminal justice system just for the want of somewhere else to put them. Small crimes are o-en the direct result of being ill and treatment is better than punishment. A jail sentence can be waived on condition that a treatment programme is followed rigorously. It might be better, in all these instances of capability deprivation, to apply a broken families approach analogous with the ‘broken windows’ theory, which suggests that rapid and decisive action on the small crimes will help to prevent the big ones. +e same will apply to a family living a chaotic life.