Café Economique talk by Matthew McVeagh (group member)
When: Thursday 21st February 2013, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Where: Upstairs room at the Peacock, 11 Mansfield Road, Nottingham, NG1 3FB
Attendance is free although a voluntary collection will be taken to help with the group’s future expenses
Matthew McVeagh, who has extensive experience of living on social security benefits in the UK, will give a talk on what it is like and how it affects your life and involvement in society. Areas covered will include how come we have a benefits system at all, how the system works and how it treats claimants, practical day-to-day living, psychological effects and self-identity, relations between claimants and the rest of society, coming changes, help, resistance and prospects for a better situation.
Matthew welcomes contribution to this talk from others, especially those with similar first-hand experience; please get in touch and we can arrange a sharing of time. The talk will be 45 minutes and after a break there will be 45 minutes for question and answer and discussion. Discussion will also probably continue later into the evening.
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/287125941413008/
Report on the talk
This talk went well and was well received by the 20 or so attendees. I would like to expand the material to create a better future talk and one with attractive visual aids such as a projected presentation rather than just text read put and expanded upon. Several attendees said they had learnt quite a lot from the talk and the discussion afterwards was lively. It could be useful to repeat it and encourage others to do similarly. There were no immediate practical steps towards organising Nottingham benefit claimants.
Matthew
Café Economique Nottingham 