A popular neoliberal refrain is that the welfare state is failing, and needs to be drastically abridged through further privatisation. This position bemoans what it sees as an irredeemable social security model, riddled with inefficiencies, and haemorrhaging money. The extent and accessibility of benefits is as maligned as it is misunderstood, casting benefit claimants as scroungers stealing from the taxpayer’s pocket. Within this rhetoric, abandoning the vulnerable and the disabled is championed as a vital cost-cutting exercise.

“Does your condition affect your washing and bathing? Does your condition affect you using the toilet or managing incontinence?” These are just two of the questions UK citizens are asked when applying for Personal Independence Payments (PIP). PIP provides extra money for those who have a long-term physical or mental illness or disability. However, the application process is long-winded, intrusive, often arbitrary, and must be regularly repeated, even for those with long-term conditions which are unlikely to get better. Assessments are regularly determined by the Department for Work and Pensions, without the involvement of healthcare professionals. Many applicants claim that the process of applying for PIP is degrading and humiliating, making them feel even more unwell.

Jack Moyse makes work as someone with lived experience of the benefit system. The Sorry State highlights the intrusive and demeaning nature of the assessment process, mapping scenarios with Moyse’s own body and then photographing them remotely from a distance. His imagery evokes the surveillance and suspicion to which he and others are subjected, by materialising the rhetoric that surrounds disability.