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No More Benefit Cheats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2022

Simon Duffy  and
Jonathan Wolff
Simon Duffy*
Affiliation:
Citizen Network
Jonathan Wolff*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
*
simon.duffy@citizen-network.org
jonathan.wolff@bsg.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

The concept of the ‘benefit cheat’ plays a critical role in political rhetoric and public policy and it has been deployed to justify changes to the benefit system that have had a very negative impact on well being and justice. The authors argue that the concept is dangerous, adding to the existing burdens of poverty and exclusion and that it must be eradicated by a reorganisation of the welfare system. Dignity and a spirit of equality must be the starting point for any system of welfare that aims to promote universal well being.

Type
Paper
Information
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 91: A Philosophers' Manifesto: Ideas and Arguments to Change the World , May 2022 , pp. 103 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 2022

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