Olive Stevenson - Claimant or Client?: A Social Workers View of the Supplementary Benefits Commission

Volume 34

CLAIMANT OR CLIENT?

OLIVE STEVENSON

First published in 1973 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

This edition first published in 2022

by Routledge

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1973 George Allen & Unwin Ltd

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-03-203381-5 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-00-321681-0 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-03-205781-1 (Volume 34) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-03-205801-6 (Volume 34) (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-00-319922-9 (Volume 34) (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003199229

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

OLIVE STEVENSON

First published in 1973

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers.

George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1973

ISBN 0 04 360027 1 hardback

ISBN 0 04 360030 1 paperback

Printed in Great Britain
in 11 point Fournier type
by Unwin Brothers Limited
Old Woking, Surrey.

Civil servants traditionally get brickbats rather than bouquets. It is, therefore, a pleasure to record my gratitude to those in the Supplementary Benefits Commission who read this book in detail and offered constructive comments on it. In these, they distinguished at all times between corrections of fact and suggestions about my opinions. I am also deeply appreciative of the speed with which the draft was circulated: it reached the Supplementary Benefits Commission in mid-November and came back to me with comments before Christmas. Lists of names are dull and invidious, and many persons were involved. However, it is appropriate to single out Antony Crocker who rapidly collated his own and others views and presented them to me with kindness and diplomacy, and Peter Harmston whose advice on the voluntary unemployment chapters was invaluable. Of course others outside the civil service, to whom I am also grateful, have helped me clarify my mind, especially Professor Titmuss. Colleagues in this Department have been much involved, directly and indirectly, and my thanks are particularly due to Michael Hill for the stimulus of his wide knowledge of the subject, to the social work tutors who have been generous about the time the book has taken and to the secretaries who have responded so well to pleas for speed.

Although all case examples used in this book are based on fact, anonymity has been preserved not only through change of name but alterations of details not relevant to the illustration.

O. S.
(Department of Social and Administrative Studies, The University of Oxford).

The focus of this book has its dangers. It derives from the study made by the writer between 1968 and 1970 of the British Supplementary Benefits Commission. In analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the present system it does not attempt, except in passing references, to make comparisons with similar institutions in other countries or to draw attention to the many parallels in other sectors of the social services. Unfortunately, therefore, the book may encourage those scapegoating processes it was intended to correct since it will not show how our provisions compare with others or how universal some of the problems are to all aspects of our social services. The writers hope, however, is that it will encourage a more reflective consideration of the fundamental issues involved in the admission of a means-tested benefit scheme which is, in effect, the safety net of our social security scheme.

Readers will note two major omissions. The first is that Reception Centres, an important aspect of the work of the Supplementary Benefits Commission are not discussed. The second is that the place of the Appeal Tribunal in the total structure is not adequately considered. These omissions should not be taken to mean that the writer does not consider them to be of major significance. The explanation is simple. It was not possible in a period of eighteen months as Social Work Adviser to study every aspect of the Commissions work. Indeed, there was a grave danger of superficiality in what was attempted. As to Reception Centres, their work merits much closer examination; provision for homeless single persons is a vital aspect of our social services. Appeal Tribunals are crucial to the credibility of the scheme as a whole, since they involve (potentially) all claimants. But the writer preferred not to embark on discussion of areas of which she did not have first hand experience as Social Work Adviser.

This book has been written from a social workers viewpoint. It should not be thought, however, that this emphasis implies a complacent view of social workers present skills and their contribution to the amelioration of social distress. There is certainly no intention of conveying that injections of social work skills into the Supplementary Benefits system would work miracles. It may well be that there are deficiencies or intractable disadvantages in the present structure that only radical change of law or of organisation would remedy. Furthermore, social workers are, or should be, aware of the criticisms that have been levelled at them: first, of inadequate evaluation of the skills they have practised with emotional conviction; second, of reactionary tendencies in working to paper over the cracks of an unsatisfactory social structure. The worker is aware that this last accusation may be levelled at much of this book. The justification is twofold: it is agreed even by its most stringent critics that the British Supplementary Benefits scheme is one of the best of its kind in the world; and the writer is, temperamentally and by training, inclined to work for change rather than revolution. Nothing the writer saw as Social Work Adviser to the Supplementary Benefits Commission convinced her that its present workings were, in general, incompatible with the values of a civilised and human society, with the possible exception of the cohabitation rule. This is not to deny the many deficiencies of the scheme in its present operationdeficiencies with which much of this book will be concerned. It does, however, suggest that moderate improvements, if they are continuous and initiated soon, may avert a head-on collision between social security and social work, which some fear and some foster.