What is stigma?

It came up at an Economic Wellbeing Forum event a few months ago at Toynbee Hall, run by London’s mental health partnership Thrive LDN. Stigma was pinpointed as a major reason people do not access all the money help that may be available to them. This ranges from food parcels and crisis vouchers to Healthy Start Vouchers and benefits – of which there is an estimated £23 billion going unclaimed.

Google says it is a “mark of shame, disgrace, or disapproval that can lead to rejection, discrimination, and social exclusion.” That’s how it works (and feels) but, again, what is stigma?

As a result of the conversations held at the forum, Quids in! was one of two partners commissioned by Thrive LDN, with support and funding from the Mayor of London, to follow up on this. Our role is to raise awareness and reduce stigma among people in hardship and at risk of mental ill-health across ten London boroughs. And our first port of call was to ask the people affected by it.

NOT WELCOME HERE

Just as it’s problematic to discuss poverty with people from deprived backgrounds, stigma, they told us, happens to other people. They described why people didn’t feel welcome in some places but most of all they just felt left in the dark about what they’re entitled to and where to find help.

I made it along to one of the meetings and was kind of shocked to hear one barrier people could identify came from other people using services. “I went to a foodbank with a friend who is trans and we were told that only seat left was taken. It wasn’t. The guy just didn’t want my friend sitting there. Another friend is Jewish and he was made to feel very unwelcome.”

We also heard that social groups and faith groups can want to do things among themselves, but at the same time people don’t want their peers to know they’re struggling. 

We ran four sessions with over 50 people. Some used foodbanks. Some were from a Bengali-speaking women’s group. Some were homeless. It worked brilliantly well. We have more thoughts than we can use in one programme. But in terms of what people experiencing stigma can do about it, the options are limited.

A RIGHT TO SUPPORT

Instead they told us to try to empower people to get what’s theirs. Tell them, as best we can, where help is. Champion their right, and the imperative, to go get it. And that’s what we’ll do. [To find out how, sign up here.]

So, what can be done about stigma?

For me, stigma is not for people experiencing it to solve. I believe it is incumbent on service providers, commissioners and policy makers to ‘design out’ stigma.

CAUSES OF STIGMA

So, what do we know about the causes of stigma?

1. Lack of knowledge and misinformation, which is compounded by peers sharing their perceptions and misunderstanding. Quids in! readers say they are more likely to turn to family and friends for financial advice than anyone else. (23% would do so, 16% would talk to a debt advice charity, and 30% would speak to no-one.) Negative perceptions of institutions spread, poor experiences are shared, and half-truths fill the space where first-hand information should be. Benefit entitlements, for example, are highly personalised, and one person’s situation does not reflect another.
2. Stereotypes and prejudice, including negative beliefs about people outside an individual’s peer group.
3. Fear and perceived threat, which people told us include suspicions about change and that authorities do not have their back. In this context, people can feel Jobcentre Plus encouraging them to get a job can be seen as a trap where they might lose their benefits and can’t go back onto them. Local authorities are mistrusted when, on one hand, they say they want to help with a range of support, but on the other, they are talking about criminal proceedings for non-payment of council tax. For landlords, tenants are well-aware of the ultimate sanction of eviction, and this business relationship gets in the way of financial support for people who need it most. (Would you turn to your mortgage company or landlord if you were worried about being able to meet your obligations? Many wouldn’t, except as a last resort.) 
4. Previous, negative experience: Our trust in GPs goes down when we cannot get an appointment or our treatment doesn’t work,  (or where the receptionist makes us feel unwelcome). The same is true for all types of services. As consumers, we might choose not to go to the same shop after a bad experience, but people who need support stop seeking it altogether. If a service is online, and the last time someone tried web-based access, it was confusing and alienating, they’re less likely to feel another online service is meant for people like them.
5. Cultural and social factors, ie, the influence peers have over each other, as mentioned above, discouraging people from accessing support from services outside that group. It can also be generational, explaining the numbers of older people who missed out on Winter Fuel Payments because they had never wanted to claim benefits (Pension Credit), even though they saw drawing a pension as totally acceptable.
6. Discrimination from others, which causes fear, anxiety and a resistance to engage with that person or their organisation. One person at the consulation events told me, for example, about the hostility they received from other users of foodbanks, for example, although not everyone agreed.
7. Language. For Quids in!, this is the biggest one, and regular readers will know what’s coming… If we talk to jobseekers who struggle to feed their kids about their skills and career options, they will never engage. For them, it’s the money they’re looking for, not necessarily a high-flying profession. Sending emails in formal language, or articles written for Guardian readers, will alienate this audience. That is why Quids in! magazine looks like Take A Break and our content is more akin to stories from the Sun newspaper.  It’s why peer workers are core to our service delivery, and why we train and recruit them to join our team of money coaches. The same principle should be applied to our understanding of digital exclusion – ‘this information or support is not for people like me because I don’t even understand how to get to it’.

One of the straplines on Quids in! products is: Your money | Be informed | Take control. I’ve reflected a lot on this in the context of stigma. For the majority of the above causes, there isn’t much an individual can do about it, except to plough through regardless. Our strapline is designed to empower readers to take action.

When it comes to stigma, people in hardship can’t change it, but we can embolden them to cut through it.

Help us empower people in financial hardship who experience stigma that prevents them from accessing support. Find out more about the campaign and join our supporters across London here.

Image: Ground Picture / Shutterstock