Malcolm Cunning: Deserving and undeserving poor?

Throughout the Victorian era and well into the 20th century, help and assistance distributed to those facing hardship was firmly based on paternalistic concepts that the poor had to be protected from themselves.

Left to their own devices, many were so feckless and irresponsible they could not be trusted to make sensible decisions on their own behalf.

The Beveridge Report of 1942 and the creation of the Welfare State by the post-war Labour Government was meant to have swept most of those patrician attitudes away.

Eighty years since the Beveridge Report, and almost two centuries since the Poor Law, it is astonishing that these views should still be core to the policy of Glasgow’s SNP administration, enthusiastically supported by Glasgow Tories.

Last week, the City Administration Committee considered a paper entitled ‘Covid Low-Income Gift Card’. Some £9.5m is to be distributed to over 84,000 households across Glasgow who have been identified as experiencing poverty. Each qualifying household is to receive £110, not in cash, but in the form of a Local Gift Card.

The Conservatives moved to amend the proposal to ensure that the card could not be used to pay for harmful activities such as betting, smoking or alcohol. In order to get their policy through the SNP were happy to accept a slightly amended version of the Tory proposals. The amendment also effectively delayed a final decision on distributing the cards until well afterthe council elections.

Labour proposed a far simpler and quicker way of getting money into the pockets of Glasgow’s most hard pressed families. We moved that we send the qualifying households £110 in cash.

This ‘cash first’ approach is supported by almost every organisation and campaign group working in the field of poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group, for example, says: “we advocate a ‘cash first’ approach to supporting families in low-income households. This has the greatest benefits for families and allows choice, accessibility, discretion and safety – which are all highly valued by families.”

The Glasgow Food Plan, co-authored by the City Council, states clearly: “work to tackle food insecurity has been strengthened and increased focus is placed on maximising household income, promoting ‘cash first’.”

The administration’s insistence on issuing gift cards might be less problematic if it could be used in the shops and outlets likely to be used by, for example, a hard pressed single mother in Castlemilk. The only participating retailers in Castlemilk are One-O-One and SemiChem.

Alternatively, the card can be used in various city centre restaurants such as Marco Pierre White’s, La Bonne Auberge or Hard Rock Café. The current list contains more jewellers and florists than butchers, more high end hairdressers than local fruit and vegetable shops.

We are promised that efforts will be made to extend the number of participating retailers. However, Susan Aitken made it quite plain that she would rather the money was spent in posh restaurants rather than paying for electricity at a local pay-point. It most certainly cannot be used to buy a small pack of Golden Virginia and some fag papers.

Those most in need after two years of the pandemic will now wait months for a gift card which may be virtually useless. Never mind, the SNP and Tories know best. We all have to be protected from our own failings and shop where we are told.

The Dickensian era has returned!