Two more stories and some theoretical reflections

Today I'm posting two more stories, this time two men of different ages. Desmond is an artist in his mid 60s whose story illustrates how people from the creative community interact with welfare to work while they attempt to eke out their living as artists.  His story highlights the importance of classification struggles over definitions of what is valid and invalid activity and how this can be reflected in the judgements and treatments of the different workers he encounters.

Classification struggles have become an interesting preoccupation of this research, given they provide insight into how conflicts over valid and invalid social roles are acted out in social interactions. This theme was identified as having a strong presence in the analysis of the parents who formed the first tranche of interviews, and has also proven useful for understanding the dynamics of welfare service exchanges for the latest batch of interviews.

If you are interested in reading more about these see my latest theoretical reflections.

Matthew's story is similar in some respects to Kevin's - he is a younger man who has been suffering from a mental health condition which for him has only been recently diagnosed. I have posted the analysis of this below as I think it warrants a read as it helps to illustrate a phenomenon that I believe is prevalent under Workfare and which causes so much disruption  His story shows that being subject to workfarist type policy is unhelpful and damaging for people who are pre-diagnosis; or who have been diagnosed but don't qualify for exemptions, and/or are otherwise finding it difficult to adjust the social expectation to be "functional". Matthew's experience highlights another classification struggle over whether people with mental health conditions are worthy or unworthy of welfare.  As eligibility rules for DSP continue to become harder to meet, we can expect to see a lot more people like Matthew struggling to get by in the labour market. 

Another final important point Matthew raised is how difficult it is for people suffering from mental health conditions to access services and to create the right kinds of linkages between services to support their needs. Even Matthew who has worked as youth worker found it difficult to navigate service complexity and advocate in his own interests, it is like, as he said expecting someone with broken legs to run a marathon.

Analysis of Matthew

Matthew’s case study provides an interesting example of an individual who has the education and work experience (cultural capital) to observe his own experiences of welfare coercion with a significant degree of detachment and reflexivity.  He has recently become aware that he has been trapped in a destructive cycle because of a mental health condition that has recently been diagnosed and for which he is seeking support.

Matthew’s experience draws into focus another classification struggle for people on welfare over the status of mental health conditions. While severe and permanent psychiatric disabilities can qualify people for DSP if they don’t have the capacity to care for themselves and others, people with less severe mental health issues will not quality and be placed on NS. 

Pre-diagnosis Matthew experienced cycling in and out of employment on a conveyer belt of self-destruction. As he notes Newstart is so low, and the prospect of dealing with employment services was so distasteful that he does anything he can to avoid going to them.

I always with Newstart, I know you get 3 months, so I kind of breathe for two weeks, and then like hustle for jobs then I get a job because I was kind of stressed about and scared of having to deal with employment agencies, and it’s kind of like I have a fear of them, or don’t understand them, or can’t be bothered, or you know what, I don’ want to be forced into some shit job that’s going to deteriorate my mental state.

Matthew’s strategies are those of avoidance because he does not believe there will actually be any help provided to him and that he will be forced to take a crap job. He opts out by finding jobs on his own before he is fully coerced by employment services into finding jobs he knows will be even worse for his mental health than those he finds on his own.

The few times that Matthew reached the point where he had to use a JSA he reports it as not being very helpful. 

I had the feeling like I’d cycled in out of work a few times, but this isn’t what I need right now, and even if I did, I didn’t think this was going to help me. It was probably a bit arrogant, but if you don’t need help you don’t need help, if you do you do.  

He continued to explain how he felt JSA was a waste of resources because he was not accessing the services he really needed, while he was in the state of limbo:

You’re in limbo you can’t do anything. Yeah that’s the cycle I’ve been in for a quite a while and even though I’ve got that exemption it’s kind of like, oh well, that’s good enough for the moment I don’t have to worry about employment services busting my chops.

I just want to make the point, being in out of employment with mental health, I could have been highly employable highly work ready and the fact that I didn’t get a job slowly chipped away and I was little bit aware of this

I’ve been aware that I’ve taken that on in my own action which I guess is little bit lack of faith in the system then, that these people can’t assist me because I’ve been to uni because I’ve done this and that, that’s my core belief, that kind of sucks a bit because I’ve learnt now, if you give people like myself the right assistance, we will flourish so it’s like losing the resource.

This area of policy where there is greyness on definitions regarding mental health diagnosis and the severity of effect on “functioning” is not often scrutinised.  His explains for example how he knows others who go down to Centrelink and kick up a fuss, who get better treatment, something that he does not feel like doing himself.

But if I was in the red, and went down to Centrelink bang bang bang here you go. So I couldn’t get assistance because I was kind of OK, but kind of not, so that’s why I kind of had the thing where I just go and get myself a job and what are they ES going to do?

Matthew’s story shows how difficult and destructive life can be for people in similar situations to his.  The unhealthy cycle he was trapped in was made work by the poverty of Newstart which exacerbated his mental health condition, as if it is actually disabling:

Is surviving on Newstart difficult?

Yeah extremely difficult, I am lucky, over last 3 years, this is how I’ve survived, NS, bits and pieces of work, basically only spending money on bare necessities

Not buying anything for myself, like clothes and stuff, like a tree stripped of branches and only keeping the trunk going, and borrowing money off my parents, and using my credit card, and living very unhealthy situations, because they were cheap, which exarcerbated the mental health

Yeah definitely, so you think living on low income has exacerbated mental health stuff?

Yeah it has just because it makes you make life choices makes you have to make life choices that aren’t healthy…

Matthew also described how he saw the low rate of Newstart as being like giving starving people rice, when they need a meal, causing them permanent malnutrition. He clearly sees the rate of Newstart being set so low as a form of punishment.

So they’re doing it it because they want to get people off social security by making life harder, its like saying, I don’t think you deserve $50k a year, it’s not realistic but, I don’t know, it’s just a fall out of being punished for being unemployed or underemployed, it’s just as hard, so yeah, there is definitely..

So you feel like the way it is set is about punishing people?

Yeah that kind of attitude, boot straps, why have they set it so low? There has to be a principle of why they’ve set it so low: that its dead money, it’s not going anywhere so we want to spend as little as we can - or is it connected to that idea that they’re not really working, they’re not being productive they’re not paying tax so we should give them anything.

I think there’s a lot of undercurrents

I think that’s Australia culture as well

Anti-bludging?

Anti- Bludging, Yeah I think that tars everyone with the same brush, and there are people like myself who are under and unemployed with health issues, so everyone’s not the same but they’re treating them the same. You can’t have one philosophy for such a complex thing, my feeling is they’re just thinking it’s too hard, why help the bottom, what’ the bottom gonna give us. I think it’s the government and our culture, we talk ourselves up as really generous I don’t think Australia’s that good for the resources we have, and I say this because I’ve worked in community services, with poor people so I have a pretty broad understanding of this.

Being on Newstart has involved him in racking up debt, and like many other of the research participant, being dependent on the goodwill of friends and family to help him out. The social networks of care and support that many people on welfare rely on are well documented by (Bodsworth 2010),  and it is often the immediate families who shoulder the additional burden of welfare that’s not met by the state/

Struggles for recognition of mental health

While he shows and speaks of high level of resilience in being able to negotiate between welfare agencies, something he has to do a lot of when he applies for the DSP, he speaks about how challenging it has been

I have I found their approach at Centrelink to someone has health issues, they treat you exactly the same as someone who didn’t, but you’ve still got to do this it’s kind of like, there wasn’t much understanding, how hard it is when you’re in that mental state.

Like many other people, Matthew identifies childhood trauma to be the cause of his mental health condition.  It has had a deleterious impact on his capacity to achieve in life that has only recently been able to recognise as having become a vicious cycle.  Recognition of his mental health condition continues to be something he struggles for, battling both unsympathetic GPs, and a maze of service providers he has to negotiate when as he describes It’s like:

Exceptionally [challenging] it’s like someone with broken legs now you’ve got do a fun run, or a marathon when you’ve got broken legs, when your brains not functioning that well and it’s the tool you need most, and I’m extremely resilient, people say it’s a skill, but I don’t think it is if you are forced to be

Relief and recognition

Admitting that he is unwell has brought Matthew relief, he no longer has to conform to the ideal of “functionality” a state he has been aware he has not been achieving for some time as he has cycled in and out of work after one incident or another.

His is an interesting portrait of what happens to people who are pre-diagnosis, or don’t feel quite “normal” but who are not ill enough to get off the “hampster wheel” of Workfirst. 

His experience is of “disconnection” or as he describes it, an affective state, where he is not in control of what is happening in his life and is going through the motions. He describes this experience of life in limbo, where it is like someone playing a guitar strumming the strings, but not really playing the instrument.

Even Matthew, who is talking to a psychiatrist about getting a second diagnosis to support an application for DSP when he did not have enough points, faces only being able to get an activity exemption and there will be an uphill battle before the system recognises provides him with a permanent exemption of DSP if he gets it.

However, knowing his mental health has afforded him a higher ranking in the JSA stream system provides Matthew with higher levels of confidence that when he does go back into service he will be treated more appropriately than he had been in the past.

I have highest stream of assistance for JSA, stream 4, so that made me feel a bit happier because it’s more appropriate to my circumstances.

You said you will be seeing stream 4. Are you curious?

I’m not too worried they’ll get my issues and it will be kind of more focused, that would be really good and Ill be really grateful that, that’s how I feel about that coming up, it shows that in my case that they’ve done something right

But you had to get to really bad place to get there?

Yeah I had to get to a really bad place, which and I had to get help from resources outside of Centrelink to get help from Centrelink it would be great if they could integrate that. You get really good at navigating at resources I’ve been taught that from really young, so I m really good at it, so I imagine if someone doesn’t have those skills it’s really difficult

I didn’t trust the system that’s how I felt, and it’s so hard to explain, at least you have something concrete with diagnosis, how can you explain, it’s so hard to explain

Not only does he find it hard to explain to me as well, he describes how hard it has been to explain himself to other service providers including Centrelink, and laments the lack of connectedness between social supports supposed to be there for people in crisis.

Symbolic violence

The symbolic violence of misrecognition is present for Matthew, when he talks about feelings of failure and the compulsion he has experienced to be functional.  It has taken a full scale breakdown for him to realise there was something wrong that needed recognition. His experience prior to this is one of feeling like there was something wrong, but something he has only recently been able to articulate and seek help about.

Matthew describes an outlook similar to that of Kevin, where he feels a sense of helplessness. He feels helpless only in his case he describes how his resilience has enabled him to keep going to connect himself with services that many others would not have been able to. This resilience is derived from his  cultural capital, he knows the community sector because of his work as youth worker, and because he has had support from family and friends (his social capital).

Like Kevin there is tension between what he feels are social expectations about work ethic, and his own state of helplessness.  He expresses a strong work ethic and belief in the rewards of work, but also see that any old crap job such as that he might get through employment services, would exacerbate his mental state.  He knows this because he has tried it and it hasn’t worked out. 

Conflict between values

There is a feeling of ambivalence about himself, where he judges himself from the position he assumes is social attitudes that his negative towards people on welfare, and his own preferences not to be exploited, that appears in his interview, where he appears both to blame himself and find ways to explain how to exonerate himself, that he finds incredibly hard to explain. 

Yeah, I’ve and I’ve had massive issues with work in my 20s, and also as well, it’s more personal I don’t want to a job that I don’t want to do, not because I’m lazy, but because it will exacerbate my mental health, and then I’m just going to go in a cycle, but its more I’m struggling to identify how much it’s because of that because it’s complex and me personally.

Researching rules for better outcomes

When asked whether he would be interested in seeing the impairment tables, which prescribe how high a score you need in order to qualify for DSP, Matthew did not show a high level of interest. He says he is an honest guy, and not interested in manipulating the system, as a feels he has observed others doing. There are therefore limits to the benefits that can be obtained from researching rules that are sometimes a result of the motivation of individuals to pursue strategies to optimise their outcomes.

And then what do you do (after the exemption?)

I’ve started getting my next application for DSP together and ideally as well, I feel like want to be working a bit so I don’t have to rely, I cant rely on Centrelink that’s the feeling overall I get,which is

They make you wait a year now as well for DSP, certainly if you feel you have entitlement stick with process

Im just gonna stick with it, and fuck it, what can you do?

He says he does not undertake research to help optimise his outcomes because his focus is on everyday living which he said he is already finding challenging enough. This suggests the relationship between the capacity to research welfare rules is dependent on the pre-condition of a kind of security

Symbolic value

Matthew is conscious that the symbolic value (prestige) of his qualifications affords him a position in the eyes of Centrelink workers he describes as looking up, rather than down at.  Once they have read his file, he says he thinks they become confused about who he is, because on paper he appears to fit the mould of success, that does not correspond to their mental assumptions about who people are on welfare are.

In describing this treatment Matthew is reflecting on the symbolic categorisations he assumes are occurring in other people’s judgements about people.  He knows he doesn’t fit with their assumptions, and also observes, that whether they view him as being “higher or lower” than themselves, that these again are only assumptions because they do not really know him.

Symbolic recognition and workers

Symbolic recognition is a two way street and often people don’t feel workers are actually qualified enough to help them:

…and I remember thinking you know the girl who was trying to help had just started in the job, she was like 19, and I’ve been at work for years in this industry, I thought you can’t help me, I thought kind of arrogant

I felt like a bit kind of like, the help wasn’t specific, I felt like it wasn’t going to help me, just something that I wanted to do, and I was also aware that I was OK, and there doesn’t seem to be much impression of them helping me, and if you in the stream, at that point stream 1 ready to work sweet kind of thing

Variations in offices and treatments

Matthew observed great variation in the ambience of Centrelink offices he attributed to the higher levels of complexity and stress involved for both workers and clients. He learns to avoid the more chaotic offices in favour of those that are more “chilled” because he experience has shown him he will get a better outcome, and the experience will be more stressful for himself if he adopts this strategy.

I am big on the office, so I’ve deliberately gone to one’s that are nice, so I’ve deliberately gone to the ones that are, to be honest, certain offices, to be honest, it’s like, you know, so hectic

Where’s the worst one you’ve been?

X places,  and let’s be real that’s a lot to do with the clientele

How much stress their under?

How much stress their under, the socio-economic status, levels of poverty in that area

So where less poverty it’s calmer?

Yeah and I think you get better service so therefore those areas they have to resource  a lot more highly.

He also observes different judgements are made by different workers depending on judgemental or authoritarian they are.  Furthermore he finds the quality of services at Centrelink are hampered by the levels of confusion they experience because of the frequent changes to rules.

One of the experiences when I came out of uni I was on student payment, one of things I’ve found they’ve changed the policies so much, often Centrelink staff are confused because policies changing so much, so I remember getting my student allowance, they kept telling me something different, it was really frustrating.

The outcome for people like Matthew is an experience of Workfirst that is frustrating, unhelpful and that through their failure to treat people according to their individual needs, actually contributing to make the causes of welfare dependence worse.