On Nursery Hill
Benefits
By Zoë Fairbairns
23 Nov, 2025
Because My Tears Are Delicious To You
Zoë Fairbairns’ 1979 Benefits is a dystopian near-future novel.
In the sunset years of the welfare state, having made irreconcilable promises to the (almost entirely male) trade unionists and to mothers, the government chose to please the first and anger (many of) the second by deferring the long-promised child benefit.
It seemed a safe bet. After all, men matter and women don’t, save as a means to an end. As well, women, particularly those in that ramshackle bastion of Women’s Liberation, Collindeane Tower1, were not united in the matter of benefits. Surely, no crisis would result?