An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September...
-
Upload
debra-gibbs -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
Transcript of An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September...
![Page 1: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in
the media
Richard BaillieSeptember 2010
![Page 2: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
![Page 3: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Background
Legislation
Social Security Administration Act 1992
Social Security Fraud Act 2001Welfare Reform Act 2007Welfare Reform Act 2009
![Page 4: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Natural Justice?
Is it just to punish those who have already been punished through their exclusion from society? (Klein, 1990)
![Page 5: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
• £148 billion paid by DWP• £1 billion lost to fraud• £1.1 billion lost to customer error• £1.1 billion lost to official error• £1.3 billion to underpayments of
benefit• Source NAO report on the DWP resource accounts for 2009/2010 (2010)
![Page 6: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Shaping public opinion
• Media commentary on social security fraud tends to indicate that the public may collude in punishment of Social Security Fraud (Chunn and Gavigan, 2004)
![Page 7: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
The ideological turn
• From– Welfare fraud
• To– Welfare as fraud
![Page 8: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
• ‘There must be something terribly wrong with a community which tolerates tax evasion…and other types of frauds …but which becomes enraged by the actions of people who act, so often out of need to fulfil basic requirements of living’ (Thacker, 1998)
![Page 9: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Selected Themes
• The media’s role in equating welfare with welfare fraud
• How the media send a moral message (Hall, 1980)
• The relationship between the state and the media
![Page 10: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Conflation of fraud
![Page 11: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Intensified state regulation
Intensified surveillance
![Page 12: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
• CAUGHT ON CAMERA: THE BENEFITS CHEAT WHO CLAIMED SHE COULDN'T WALK PUTTING OUT THE BINS
• Daily Mail, 30th April 2010
![Page 13: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
• 'SINGLE' MOTHER'S £6,500 BENEFITS CON EXPOSED AFTER SHE ANNOUNCED MARRIAGE ON FACEBOOK AND FRIENDS REUNITED
•
• Daily Mail, 26th May 2009
![Page 14: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
• Man on disability benefits secretly filmed playing golf
• Daily Telegraph, 15/06/09
![Page 15: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
The legislation of consent
• Self Regulation
• Compulsion
![Page 16: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
The manufacture of consent
Diffusion of reality
Agenda setting
Enforcing powerful prejudices
Public opinion/media content/policy initiatives.
![Page 17: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
What fuels the debate?
• State policy
• Fiscal constraint
• Concern about the ‘other’
![Page 18: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Superstructure
• Reproduced through language
– ‘scrounger’ ‘scam’ ‘cheat’ ‘fraud’
• Reinforced by selection
– 43 stories on benefit fraud, 1 on tax evasion
![Page 19: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
What Welfare Rights Advisers do
• Create an event– Of our choosing– In the mind of the decision maker– In order to persuade
![Page 20: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
What the media does
• Report on events– Of their choice– To be consumed by an audience– In order persuade/ to influence
![Page 21: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
The sample
• 12 months leading up to 2010 General Election
• National newspapers
• Online search engines
![Page 22: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Results
• Where?– Parliament– Courts– Council Estates– Large rental properties in London
![Page 23: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
• Who?– Politicians– Judges– DWP– Pressure groups– Single mums– The sick– The disabled
![Page 24: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Moral Regulation
• Cross media 16-20% of stories were about single mums.
• RETURN CASH BY THE TIME YOU'RE 120: JOBLESS MOTHER GETS 81YRS TO REPAY £60,000 BENEFIT FRAUD
• Daily Mail, 23/05/2009
![Page 25: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
The case of Fiona MacKeown
– Headlines focus on attention grabbing figures – GOA MURDER GIRL'S MOTHER IS CHARGED O
VER £50K BENEFITS FRAUD– Daily Mail, 19/11/2009– – THE MOTHER OF MURDERED SCARLETT
KEELING APPEARED IN COURT CHARGED WITH A £50,000 BENEFIT FRAUD
– Daily Express, Friday December 4,2009
![Page 26: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
The case of Amanda Hyett
• SHANNON MATTHEWS 'AUNT' JAILED FOR BENEFIT FRAUD
• Amanda Hyett sentenced to a year for making false benefits claims worth almost £36,000
• • The Guardian, 5 November 2009
• SHANNON AUNT IN BENEFITS RAP
• Wednesday, July 29, 2009,The Sun
![Page 27: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Welfare as Fraud
• JUST ONE IN SIX INCAPACITY BENEFIT CLAIMANTS ‘IS GENUINE’ AS TOUGH NEW TEST REVEALS TWO MILLION COULD BE CHEATING
• Daily Mail, 20/10/2009
![Page 28: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
• THIS MAN FRAUDULENTLY CLAIMS £159 A WEEK IN BENEFITS. INVESTIGATORS FOLLOW HIM AS HE STROLLS ROUND TOWN AND GOES IN THE BOOKIES. IT IS SICKENING.
• The Sun, 04/07/2009
![Page 29: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Political interventions
• General Election 2010: Tories say benefit cheats should lose state support for 3 years
• Daily Telegraph, 09/04/2010
![Page 30: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
• MP’s fury after mistakes help benefits overpayments to double to £800 million
• Daily Telegraph, 09/02/2010
![Page 31: An examination of the public discourse on benefit claimants in the media Richard Baillie September 2010.](https://reader033.fdocuments.net/reader033/viewer/2022051619/56649da75503460f94a927f4/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
….and finally
• Benefit claimant’s demands for cash going unchallenged by Government
• Daily Telegraph, 23/05/2009