Smart cards and food stamps

Ian Duncan Smith is according to a Daily Telegraph report looking at giving 120,000 families their benefits through smart cards. Never mind that the 120,000 is a zombie number with no relation to what is being talked about, this is just a bad idea. No matter how priority items are defined this is a bad idea. I’m going to just address two reasons why this is such a bad idea.

Firstly it means that all of those who have their benefits administered through this scheme will be labelled as benefit claimants whenever they shop. This stigmatises the card’s users even though they have done nothing wrong (again look at how the troubled families’ statistic was created). There’s been a strong suspicion that violence against disabled people is rising because they are viewed as undeserving benefit claimants. How do you think people will react when they see people using cards that don’t just label people as benefit claimants but specifically as what the government has defined as the worst of the worst of benefit claimants? If you look at how the troubled families are selected mental illness plays a large part in the selection criteria. I didn’t think it was possible but somehow the government have actually managed to increase the stigmatisation of those with mental illnesses. Even if they do manage to come up a better way of selecting these “troubled families” it will almost certainly still be about the characteristics of one family member but end up stigmatising the whole family.  

Secondly they are trying to create a system that can’t be bartered with and that is doomed to failure. You can’t resell the cards like you can sell food stamps, however you can still sell on the food. But realistically it’s not food that will be the flaw of the system. It will be electronics. If electronics are included then they are incredibly easy to sell on with very little value lost. If they are not then the families involved are effectively excluded from a large part of modern life. A mobile phone is almost essential for someone seeking a job. It’s just not possible to be searching for a job whilst sitting at home by the phone (especially if you can’t buy a computer).

It took me less than ten minutes to think of these really simple problems with the scheme. I guarantee you there are more. But even beyond these practical problems it is an immoral policy. These families would be stripped of their liberty because of their poverty and that is abhorrent.