Following the publication of my Blog Skiver or Striver, the Methodist Recorder asked me to write an article based on the blog. This was published on 24th January. But as the Recorder isn't available on line I've been asked to publish the article via my blog. So here it is!
Are you a Skiver or a Striver? These two words have featured widely in the tabloid press and in the speeches of politicians recently as the debate about the fairness of the benefit cap continued.
If you’ve missed these terms, put simply the Skivers might be described as those who rely on benefits. And the Strivers are those who work.
But the trouble with labels like this is that life isn’t as simple.
The Skivers label implies that all those on benefits are workshy or perhaps on the fiddle. Whereas the reality is that some people receive benefits they are entitled to because they work in low paid jobs. And very few benefit claimants are fraudulent.
Prior to entering ministry I spent much of my working life in the banking sector. But during the 4 years I was training for ministry part time, I worked for a local council as the manager of a benefit fraud investigation team. It was our job to investigate people suspected of receiving benefit illegally and bring prosecutions. Each year we identified around 100 people in our borough who were claiming fraudulently. And this fraud amounted to perhaps a couple of hundred thousand pounds in our area. Nationally, I’ve seen it estimated that benefit fraud costs between £1billion and £3 billion each year.
That’s a lot of money. And people need to be stopped from claiming benefits they are not entitled to. But in 2010 (the last figures I’ve found) the total benefit claim for the country was £148 billion.
So here’s the uncomfortable truth. Very few people receiving benefits are skivers on the fiddle. And most people who are unemployed would prefer to be in work, not least, because in many cases, they’d be better off. I’m sure the 800 people recently made redundant from Honda in Swindon for example, aren’t skivers. But as many of those will soon be claiming benefits, some newspapers and politicians would regard them as skivers.
So Skivers aren’t as easy to identify after all. Whereas it is easy to spot the Strivers. They’re those who work hard to earn an honest crust. Unfortunately though, I think some of the apparent Strivers are in fact Skivers, albeit in a different way.
As the benefit cap debate was happening, another news item caught my eye although it didn’t get much publicity.
Accountancy firm BDO published a report in which they estimated that £10 billion a year in VAT was being lost, of which £3.3 billion was down to VAT fraud. In the same report HM Revenue & Customs was quoted as estimating that the total tax gap each year is £32bn. That is, the tax not paid as corporation tax, VAT and by individuals in the UK amounts to £32 billion a year.
Meanwhile those Strivers at the bank Goldman Sachs suggested they would not pay out annual bonuses in March as usual but would wait until April when the top rate of income tax in the UK fell to 45%.
Not all Strivers strive as hard as some would have us think.
As the saying goes “What would Jesus do?” A search of the Bible shows that Jesus was silent on the matter of multinational companies avoiding paying corporation tax. (Though he did say people were to pay just taxes.) And he said nothing about people on benefits.
We know Jesus had plenty to say about rich people and poor people. A quick look in a concordance shows over 20 references by Jesus to the poor and how they should be treated. There are over 20 references to rich and riches and how the rich should use their wealth. So we can draw a pretty good idea about what Jesus’ feelings would be about our situation today. Jesus’ stance would be that the poor must be cared for, and the rich should use their money wisely and justly to assist.
Terms like Skiver and Striver or indeed Pleb or Toff, make good copy for tabloid newspapers and useful sound bites for politicians. But such labels only demonise people and cause division.
My concordance also has no references to Skivers and Strivers but then again Jesus would not have used those terms as he showed respect to all people. Jesus was not afraid to criticise people he disagreed with or challenge values he disagreed with, but he did so by avoiding insults (though I suspect the Pharisees might see things differently!)
Jesus’ kingdom is a place where all people are accepted for who they are whatever their status and where all people act fairly and justly. Jesus’ kingdom has no place for insults. The values of the Kingdom mean that people should only claim benefits they are entitled to and those benefits are set at a fair level. And people will pay the taxes they (and their companies) are supposed to pay and not seeking ways to avoid taxes.
600 or so years before Jesus the Prophet Micah wrote these words:
Micah 6:8 The Message
8 But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what GOD is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.
Wise words for Strivers and Skivers, plebs and toffs, alike.
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