‘I’m 65 and I don’t intend on stopping’: the Derbyshire man who has stood up for others for 40 years

This is Ilkeston-born Colin Hampton’s answer to an offer of a time machine, and it seems to say much about him. Colin has worked for the Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centres for nearly forty years. His job is to understand the situation of someone, and to fight their corner.

“It wasn’t a passive approach of ‘we’re just going to help people’. It was ‘we’re going to help people, and we’re also going to help them to be able to give them a voice’.”

“To find work, or if they couldn’t be found work, to make sure they could live in dignity. These two founding principles are still the two principles that we act upon today.”

Colin certainly seems a person who would stand up for what he feels is right. When asked where this came from, he laughs.

“My mum used to shut the windows, because when you say ‘debate’, in my house you had to defend your position from a very early age. And you could be discussing football, politics, music, anything. My family were very keen to discuss things, but they were loud. So we had to shut the kitchen windows so the neighbours didn’t hear us discussing the problems of the world.”

“My family always encouraged me to think for myself. That was the main thing they did. Don’t just follow suit. Always think for yourself.”

The DUWC represents the community with “Help, support, advice and representation for people who are both out of work and are claiming benefits, or are in work and claiming benefits.”

When asked how he feels about those who look down on people on benefits, Colin most certainly makes a stand.

“A lot of people think that the benefit system is something that happens to other people. And what I say to people is that you’ve got to remember, we’re all one visit from the doctors, or one visit from the boss’s office away from needing the benefit system.”

“Health is the biggest issue now. And poverty and inequality are the greatest drivers of ill health in our society… You hardly ever read that in the newspapers. But we can see it in here… We’re seeing far more people with mental health problems now than we did.”

“You can walk round Chesterfield and see people… scrawny, thin lads… we’ve all seen them… you see women as well. People who’ve got chronic mental health and addiction problems. And ‘they’ look upon them as being scum of the earth division two. ‘Why should they get anything?’ And a lot of people do say that.”

“I look at the horrific comments on the Facebook page of the Derbyshire Times… but if you were to find the backstory of everybody who’d arrived there, then you might have a different view.

“For instance, we all stand clapping and putting in for Help For Heroes, but you’ll find that lots of people who are on the street have been in the forces. So on the one hand, they’ve got sympathy, but on the other, they’ve not got sympathy.

“I don’t think it helps that we have a broadcast media and a lot of social media influencers now which try to make people prejudiced towards anyone who’s fell upon hard times. And the idea that it’s all about individual responsibility, to me just doesn’t add up.

“I think people need to ask themselves if they think people choose a life like that. Or, think to themselves, how did they end up like that?”

“Rich children don’t come from poor parents. And because the benefit system is so poor, unless you’re going to stop poor people having kids, then all the problems of their parents are going to be multiplied in their children.

“Research shows that the nutrition of a mother at the point of conception is one of the greatest indicators of physical and mental health in children. So why are we not concentrating on bringing up the levels of benefits in order to benefit our society in the future? But unfortunately it does not suit those who are doing well in society to help those who aren’t… That in itself is bizarre.”

He added: “I’ve been here years and years, I’m 65 and I don’t intend stopping… I don’t see any value at all for myself, in batting on behalf for those who’ve already got money. Who’ve already got privilege. Who’ve already got a voice. You don’t need to bat for them, they can do it for themselves. What really is a challenge is to give a voice to those who haven’t got a voice. Who haven’t got power.

“We need to remind people that we’re all interdependent, and it’s in our own interests to help the people who we see in the streets, who you might think are not worthy of help. Because one day, that could be your children, it could be your neighbours.

“I have strong opinions, but I also recognise it’s going to be an unusual person that agrees with everything that I say… And if someone believes that life is a competition, getting the better of other people, and rising to the top, and trampling on people, and that’s what life’s about, then they’re unlikely to agree with me.

“It’s only when the person who’s fighting to get to the top and competing with people suddenly finds that they’re handicapped in some way by ill health or bad luck or redundancy, that’s when they suddenly realise they might need other people after all.”

The Derbyshire Unemployed Workers Centres are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.