ABSTRACT
The term ‘voluntary unemployment’ is loosely and somewhat confusingly used within the sbc to cover both a subject and the attitudes of mind of a range of claimants. The range of attitudes which it attempts to describe varies from deliberately doing as little work as possible to settling down on benefit without making any particular effort to find work. Formal policies in relation to unemployment and their application in practice demonstrate more clearly than in any other sphere of Supplementary Benefits administration the tension between the need to protect public funds and the need to have regard to individual welfare. There are a certain number of unemployed claimants who suffer from mental illness with clear-cut clinical symptoms. Even for the wage-stopped claimant, there may be some financial incentive or disincentive to work. Physical symptoms of emotional disorder also present considerable difficulties to the Supplementary Benefits administration.
