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I was sickened when I saw this morning’s Daily Mail front page. Not because of the evil Mick Philpott (although I’m sickened by his actions), but by the way the events were being reported. The clear implication of the headline is that he killed his six children because he was in receipt of benefits, with the wider implication that those on welfare are somehow an underclass. It’s a very worrying trend in today’s society. Of course Mick Philpott abused the benefits system (that’s self-evidently the case), but the responsibility for the deaths of his children is solely down to him. If we continue dehumanising everyone on benefits, we’ll slide into a very black hole! The headline perpetuates myths about poverty, some of which are demolished here. Ann Widdicombe has a good perspective on the issue in this BBC video, as does Bishop Nick Baines in his blog, and Owen Jones in this piece for the Independent.

David Robinson (a friend of mine) used to work as a benefit fraud investigator. He points out that very few individuals actually committed fraud, and says that the big cases were landlords who made up claimants who didn’t really exist, although (again) only a small minority did this; but the amount of money defrauded on this way was staggering. He was involved in one case where the landlord claimed hundreds of thousands pounds falsely until he was uncovered. Most claimants he came into contact with were just trying to get by!

At our weekly Salvation Army drop-in meal for the homeless and vulnerable yesterday, I went round (as I always do) speaking the people who come. I approached one man and said, “How’s things?” To which he replied, “You don’t want to know!” I explained that if I didn’t want to know I wouldn’t have asked, so I sat down and he started talking. Because it had been a double Bank Holiday weekend he hadn’t been able to get his benefit, and hadn’t eaten for three days. He’d been on the telephone to the benefits office for over an hour and had been cut off when he didn’t pass a security check as he’d recently moved. After leaving us he was going to have another go, and then probably eat another charity meal in the evening. Some of the stories I hear are heartbreaking, especially from those with untreated mental health issues. Yes, there will always be people who are after what they can get, but generally (as David said) they are just trying to get by, and are often thwarted at every turn.

It’s long been my contention that the rich have more opportunity to cheat the system, and we know that many do. A few years ago Chancellor George Osborne was on BBC television explaining how it was possible to fiddle (sorry, legally avoid) paying inheritance tax, even admitting that he probably shouldn’t be saying it. The poor often have fuel meters that have to be paid in advance at high cost, compared with those who pay by direct debit in arrears much cheaper, the cards are stacked against the poor in so many ways. Yet, interestingly, those on lower income give a greater proportion of it to charity than the rich.

A couple of things to finish with. Larry (the Number 10 cat) on Twitter said, “I must have missed the Daily Mail front page where hereditary privilege was blamed for the murder Lord Lucan committed.” It was also suggested that this is what the Daily Mail front page should have looked like, click here. Finally, The Sun had to make changes to its editorial after complaints, which you can see here.

Note: I telephoned the Daily Mail news desk to complain, and the person I spoke to could at least see where I was coming from. Mind you, at one point he suggested I was supporting Philpott! We agreed to disagree.

Update: BBC News report on the Derby fire deaths: Philpotts and Mosley jailed.