Game shows pitfalls of welfare

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PCS Comment

22 May 2012

A game of snakes and ladders showing the pitfalls of the welfare system has proved popular with PCS members in Brighton.

The giant board game is the idea of the National Unemployment Centres Combine (NUCC) and uses the slogan: “Climbing out of poverty”. The game has been a hit with delegates to PCS group conferences this week. Among the ‘ladders’ are ‘accessed credit union for debt advice’ and ‘received support with health condition,’ while the snakes include ‘discriminated against due to health condition’ and ‘benefits stopped by the jobcentre’.

Colin Hampton of the NUCC said the game, exhibited in the foyer of the Brighton Conference Centre, came about after a group of people experiencing poverty were asked to produce something for a conference they were going to and they created a snakes and ladders mural showing the pitfalls of the welfare system.

“The board shows how people are helped and hindered by the welfare system, particularly highlighting the many pitfalls which prevent people from getting a permanent position with job satisfaction and good pay,” said Colin, a convenor at the Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres. “We desperately need to affect public opinion on the issue of poverty and social mobility and we are getting a lot of interest in people wanting to use the game at various events.

“Social mobility is lower than it was in the 1970s. And this is only a small step in countering the huge propaganda exercise which blames poverty on the poor and unemployment on the unemployed.”

Public and Commercial Services Union