Cut Out: Living Without Welfare(Left Book Club)

Britain's welfare state, one of the greatest achievements of our post-war reconstruction, was regarded as the cornerstone of modern society. Today, that cornerstone is wilfully being dismantled by a succession of governments, with horrifying consequences. The establishment paints pictures of so-called 'benefit scroungers', the disabled, the sickly and the old. In Cut Out: Living Without Welfare, Jeremy Seabrook speaks to people whose support from the state - for whatever reason - is now being withdrawn, rendering their lives unsustainable. In turns disturbing, eye-opening, and ultimately humanistic, these accounts reveal the reality behind the headlines, and the true nature of British politics today. Published in partnership with the Left Book Club.

Table of Contents:
Series Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Welfare Cuts: The Wider Context 2. Being There: A Sense of Place 3. The Fall of Industrial Male Labour 4. Benefit Fraud 5. A Fate Foretold 6. Sheltered Accommodation 7. Zubeida 8. Azma 9. Kareema 10. Born at the Wrong Time 11. Abigail 12. Adele and Clifford 13. Graham Chinnery: Zero Hours 14. Andrea 15. Carl Hendricks 16. Arif Hossein 17. The Idea of Reform 18. People with Disability 10. Amanda 20. Belfort: Survival 21. Lorraine: In the Benefits Labyrinth 22. Jayne Durham 23. Paula 24. Violence against Women 25. Faraji 26. ‘Doing the Right Thing’ 27. Grace and Richard 28. ‘It Can Happen to Anyone’ 29. Andrew 30. Lazy Categories 31. The Secret World of ‘Welfare’ 32. Self-Employment as a Refuge 33. Joshua Ademola 34. Dayanne: The Right Thing and the Wrong Result 35. The Roots of Alienation 36. Imran Noorzai 37. Farida: The Duty of Young Women 38. Welfare and Mental Health 39. Alison: The Loneliness of Being on Benefit 40. Kenneth Lennox 41. Marie Fullerton 42. Gus: A Heroic Life 43. Stolen Identities: Epitaph for a Working Class Conclusion Further Reading

About the Author :
Jeremy Seabrook (1939-2024) wrote on inequality, poverty and the oppressed in Britain and across the Global South for over half a century. His articles were featured in the Guardian, The Times and the Independent. He has written plays for stage, TV and the theatre, some in collaboration with his close friend, Michael O’Neill. His many books include The Song of the Shirt and Cut Out: Living Without Welfare. In 2023 he published his memoirs, Private Worlds.

Review :
'For half a century, in one delicately textured study after another, Seabrook has established himself as perhaps Britain's finest anatomist of class, deindustrialisation, migration and the spiritual consequences of neoliberalism' 'Giving a voice to the many people who have become increasingly isolated and unsupported in their struggle to survive, this is a useful resource for activists campaigning for social justice and against the government's cuts'