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Virtual reality: Fighting government bureaucracy

Governance | Robert Ashton | 11 May 2011

Robert Ashton succeeded in persuading the government to make a positive change to the benefits system. Or so he thought…

I recently became very angry about the benefits system. I’ve been helping a lovely guy make a particularly arduous journey from incapacity benefit to social enterprise. He’d survived childhood neglect, sexual abuse and years of incarceration in mental health institutions. He’d grown in confidence, got married, had a child, started a part-time degree course and was really enjoying being part of a social enterprise start-up team. The benefits system knocked him out.

You see nobody could give him a straight answer. If he left Incapacity Benefit to start an enterprise, there was no guarantee he’d be able to revert to the same support package if things went wrong. He wasn’t expecting the business to fail, but when you’ve not been loved for most of your life, protecting those who love you now is of paramount importance. He’s now ill again and perhaps years from re-reaching a point where he can leave benefits.

Of course the real loser here is the benefits system. I challenged a group of senior local politicians, a JobCentrePlus manager and his local Mental Health Trust to reflect on my friend’s plight. By sticking to the rule book and refusing to take a risk, the system would now be paying him benefits for years longer than would have been necessary. That’s a waste of money, a waste of talent and frankly cruel.

To my delight, the group agreed to collectively promise a group of service users a benefits safety net. No questions asked, just a return to what you had before if self-employment doesn’t work out. I saw this as a hugely enlightened attitude and applauded the group’s courage and commitment.

Two days later I was at Westminster. I told a cross-party group of MPs about my success in persuading people to flex the rulebook to enable vulnerable people get back on their feet. They said ‘well done’ and asked to be kept informed as the pilot project develops.

Stalling

The problem is that the pilot has yet to start. Even though the County Council in question has set aside a significant sum of money to develop ‘Big Society’ initiatives, they have so far avoided all attempts to commit them to kick-start the project. The Cabinet member who so enthusiastically agreed their support has passed us on to someone else. He in turn has passed it to a senior manager. He’s stalling us too.

The tactic is well known. They know from experience that if you keep passing a proposal round, as well as play hard-to-get on the phone, people will lose interest and stop pushing. It’s victory by inertia. My former PA had Westminster experience and tasks I gave her that she felt were not up my street were constantly put to the bottom of the pile until I forgot about them. It’s how she managed me.

But how, when getting people off long-term benefits into economic activity is so crucial to Britain’s future, can the bureaucrats play those same games today? How can they be happy to throw away the opportunity to invest money already set aside, to do something that will show them in such a positive light when it succeeds? You see like the tightrope walker, if you give a benefits claimant a safety net they can see and trust, they’ll walk more confidently with less chance of falling.

But here, in this large British city, what looked two months ago like reality, is now very, very virtual. What might have won the city accolades and made the £5bn government Work Programme more effective is fast becoming a dream. I can see why it’s hard to escape benefits; the bureaucracy can quite literally drive you mad!

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Who's Who: Robert Ashton