Getting welfare support is a fate in itself that any healthy and able-bodied person tries to avoid as much as possible. Faith in the undeserving poor still lives on.
A bad part shows up in the recent government program as a fate for which a person most obviously wants to be punished. Such a conclusion can be made by reading the section on livelihood support in the program.
The government intends to find out whether the support could be denied to a person completely. At the same time, it aims to increase the reciprocity of the support so that receiving it would require the applicant to work.
In Finland, subsistence allowance is the last social security benefit. The condition for receiving it is that the person has no resources and his income is not enough for everyday necessary expenses. Kela does not pay support to anyone who meets his mandatory food and housing expenses otherwise.
Last year 7.2 percent of the entire population received income support. The government aims to halve this number. It estimates that this would save the public economy a hundred million euros.
For income support falling into is such a fate in itself that a person will probably do everything, or at least try their best, to avoid it. Hardly anyone voluntarily gets into a situation where they have to send their account statements to Kela in order to be entitled to a support of a few hundred euros per month.
It’s about quite meager financial security often for a person already in a tight spot who is unable to find employment. An obstacle may be physical condition, mental endurance, substance abuse problem or some other serious illness. Relying on support indicates real disadvantage in society.
Based on its program, the government seems to believe that everyone equally believes that the threat of falling on top of nothing produces a miracle cure and a person regains his ability to work in an instant.
Belief to find employment in the face of economic necessity seems to be somewhat characteristic of many politicians. They probably think of disadvantage, poverty, unemployment and inability to work as lifestyle choices that can be abandoned simply by getting yourself together.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (kok) and the ministers of his government are by no means the first decision-makers to embody this kind of thinking. The idea has existed in Finland since the recession years of the 1990s. Then former Green MP Eero Paloheimo asked in Helsingin Sanomat why the state was supported by social assistance “a bunch of helpless drunkards”.
In the political history of Western countries, the so-called unearned poor (undeserving poor) has been adventuring since the beginning of the 19th century. Belief in the existence of the figure has remained surprisingly strong over the centuries, even though he has been exposed numerous times forged into a fairy tale creature.
The author is HS’s financial reporter.
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