ABSTRACT
Drawing from a biographical-narrative study with 17 male participants, this chapter shines a light on the fear and anxiety evoked from welfare procedures. Fears were linked to ideas of ‘entitlement’ to benefits, which are structured by hierarchies and moral economies of ‘legitimacy’ that come to be internalised by claimants. The sense of powerlessness evoked from welfare-related experiences led to fatalistic attitudes that reinforced stigmatising feelings of failure and self-blame. The men in this study elaborated how the structure of the transforming welfare state both produced and worked against the expression of mental health problems, effectively forcing claimants to discuss personal and sometimes traumatic experiences with assessors who may have little understanding of mental illness. This is problematic for those who lack insight about their own mental health, have a fluctuating condition, under-report, or have become adept at masking their difficulties. The necessary navigation of the welfare system demands energy, resources, and active agency, without which claimants are faced with emotional trauma or physical destitution, as detailed in the chapter. The narratives presented strongly suggest a need to question the fundamental ethics of the welfare system.
