Curious Femme

Dedicated to my Nan, born on 1 September, who came to Britain from Ireland as a midwife and faced both prejudice and resilience.

Tap turners: Responsibility in action

Some people live their lives down to the very last penny. They budget carefully, switch off lights, turn off the tap when brushing their teeth, and account for every expense. Psychologists recognise this as conscientiousness, a trait characterised by discipline, responsibility and future-orientation (Roberts et al., 2014).

Research shows that conscientious individuals are more likely to succeed in employment, manage finances effectively, and practise small but consistent pro-social behaviours (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Thøgersen & Ölander, 2002).

In Britain, many such “tap turners” are also among those receiving Universal Credit, despite working. Department for Work and Pensions data show that around 34 per cent of Universal Credit claimants are in employment, while the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2021) found that 68 per cent of working-age adults in poverty live in households where at least one adult works. These are people taking responsibility, working, and still struggling under a system that does not reward effort fairly.


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Tap runners: Avoidance of responsibility

By contrast, there are those who behave as “tap runners”, leaving the water on, spending without thought, treating benefits as though they are wages rather than a safety net. This reflects psychological entitlement, linked with narcissism, externalising blame, and short-term thinking (Campbell et al., 2004; Furnham, 2019).

This group is small but visible, and crucially, they are not migrants. They are British citizens who could work but choose instead to rely on others. Their actions foster resentment and allow populist voices to shift blame away from deeper structural problems such as insecure work, low pay, and rising costs of living.


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Migrants and misplaced blame

Immigrants are often cast as the villains in debates about poverty and benefits. This is not new. My own grandparents came from Ireland, my Nan worked as a midwife in the Dudkey area, my Gramps in the steel industry. Both contributed to Britain’s workforce. Yet my Nan was spat at and cursed for being Irish.

The 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, which killed 21 and injured 182, unleashed a wave of anti-Irish sentiment. Irish businesses and community centres were attacked, St Patrick’s Day events were cancelled, and Irish workers were threatened with violence in factories such as British Leyland (Schaffer, 2018; Irish Post, 2023). The Irish became a “suspect community” (Hickman & Walter, 1997). My Nan lived through that hostility while continuing her service in the NHS.

Irish women, in fact, were integral to the NHS from its founding, filling critical nursing and midwifery roles at a time of severe staffing shortages (McCarthy, 2018). They contributed despite being marginalised.


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The real divide: Responsibility versus entitlement

History and psychology show us that hardship in Britain cannot be blamed on immigrants. The real divide lies between:

Tap turners: Conscientious people who work, budget and take responsibility, even when the system leaves them in poverty.

Tap runners: Those who are capable of contributing but refuse, expecting others to provide for them.


Blaming immigration distracts from this reality. Responsibility is not about nationality but about personal behaviour. The lesson from my Nan’s life, and from today’s benefit statistics, is clear: Britain is sustained by those who turn off the tap, not those who leave it running.


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References

Campbell, W.K., Bonacci, A.M., Shelton, J., Exline, J.J. & Bushman, B.J. (2004) ‘Psychological entitlement: Interpersonal consequences and validation of a self-report measure’, Journal of Personality Assessment, 83(1), pp. 29–45.

Department for Work and Pensions (2025) Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 12 June 2025. London: HMSO.

Duckworth, A.L. & Seligman, M.E.P. (2005) ‘Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents’, Psychological Science, 16(12), pp. 939–944.

Furnham, A. (2019) The New Psychology of Money. London: Routledge.

Hickman, M.J. & Walter, B. (1997) Discrimination and the Irish Community in Britain. London: Commission for Racial Equality.

Irish Post (2023) ‘When the Troubles came to Birmingham’. Available at: https://www.irishpost.com (Accessed: 30 August 2025).

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2021) In-work poverty in the UK. York: JRF.

McCarthy, A. (2018) From the Shamrock to the NHS: Irish Nurses in Post-War Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Roberts, B.W., Lejuez, C., Krueger, R.F., Richards, J.M. & Hill, P.L. (2014) ‘What is conscientiousness and how can it be assessed?’, Developmental Psychology, 50(5), pp. 1315–1330.

Schaffer, G. (2018) ‘The white essential subject: race, ethnicity and the Irish in post-war Britain’, Contemporary British History, 32(1), pp. 63–83.

Thøgersen, J. & Ölander, F. (2002) ‘Human values and the emergence of a sustainable consumption pattern: A panel study’, Journal of Economic Psychology, 23(5), pp. 605–630.