Government seeks benefits system shake-up
Thursday 27th May 2010, 6:51AM BST.
Britain’s “deeply ineffective” welfare system means many people on benefits view those who take up jobs as “bloody morons”, the new Work and Pensions Secretary said today.
As he prepared to reveal plans for “once-in-a-generation” welfare reform, Iain Duncan Smith told The Guardian: “The present benefits system is so complex and unfair that no one understands it.”
The former Tory leader highlighted the fact that people are better off claiming dole rather than working in a job paying £15,000 a year or less, risking trapping them and their families in poverty for years.
He said: “If you are unemployed and you come from a family that is unemployed, all you can see when you think about work is risk. It is a real risk because for all the efforts you make the rewards are very minimal and in some cases none at all.
“Socially, everyone says, ‘You are a bloody moron – why are you doing this?”‘
Mr Duncan Smith also spoke of how people become “parked” on incapacity benefit, whose 2.5 million recipients face a status review in the coming months.
“People basically get parked on this benefit and forgotten about. If you have been on this benefit for more than two years, you are likely to die on it,” he told the Guardian.
As part of his launch today, the Government will publish a new report showing that 1.4 million people in the UK have been on an out-of-work benefit for nine or more of the last 10 years.
It also reveals that income inequality in the UK is now at its highest level since comparable statistics began in 1961.
The research shows that social mobility in Britain is worse than in the USA, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark, and a higher proportion of children grow up in workless households in the UK than in any other EU country.
A new Cabinet Committee is being set up, chaired by Mr Duncan Smith with Cabinet colleagues from across government, including the Treasury, Home Office, Health and Communities and Local Government, to tackle the underlying causes of poverty in Britain.
Mr Duncan Smith will say in a speech in London: “A system that was originally designed to help support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate. Instead of helping, a deeply unfair benefits system too often writes people off.
“The proportion of people parked on inactive benefits has almost tripled in the past 30 years to 41% of the inactive working age population. That is a tragedy. We must be here to help people improve their lives – not just park them on long-term benefits.
“We must not underestimate the challenge ahead. One of the biggest problems is that for too many people work simply does not pay.”
Martina Milburn, chief executive of youth charity The Prince’s Trust, commented: “Thousands of young people don’t have the skills, confidence and qualifications to break out of long-term unemployment and poverty. These youngsters have been pushed further from the jobs market in the recession, as they struggle to compete with graduates fresh out of university.
“It is hugely important to tackle this entrenched youth unemployment now. Government, charities and employers must work together to give them the long-term support they need to escape unemployment for good.”
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Incredible. I realise this is a Tory-commissioned report, but if these are the facts it paints a damning picture of Labour’s last 13 years of rule.
Not only that, but at a time of boom, a time of plenty. Now they’ve spent all the money and leave someone else to clear up the mess.
Most incredible of all is that almost 30% of people still voted for them. Including most people across the Midlands.
What kind of people would vote Labour after such a record? I find it hard to get my head round it.
reread those main points:
1.4 million people in the UK have been on an out-of-work benefit for nine or more of the last 10 years.
income inequality in the UK is now at its highest level since comparable statistics began in 1961.
social mobility in Britain is worse than in the USA, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark
[More] workless households in the UK than in any other EU country
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Its about time something was done.
Some countries have a limit to how much you can claim in your lifetime. If people know they can’t live on it for ever then they will do something about it.
Others adopt a policy where you can only get out up to what you’ve paid in tax over your career.
Whatever it is you’ll need to be careful because it will lead to a sharp increase in crime from those who can no longer get what they used to get and are desperate.
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Great! So does this mean that those on benefits will get all the help they need while the rest of us who take low paid jobs or struggle with selfemployment are left in the shadows to be forgotten? It seems the only way at the moment to make some decent money and survive is to knock out kids by the dozen, I know the system needs shaking up but lets hope they remember the few of us that make an effort to find something to do other than waiting for the next benefit payment.
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I’m not sure we needed a report to tell us those facts!
I sincerely hope that the new Gov’t actually make the tough decisions to turn this country around even if it upsets a few along the way!!!
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At least something ‘looks’ like its going to be done finally… I think they should also limit child benefit to only 2 children, stop people getting pregnant and having loads of kids for the benefits. contraception is free after all.
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Although I see what your saying this would penalise me I have 4 and was happily paying for them myself with little of no help/interference untill I had a nervous breakdown, what do you I suggest I do with my youngest two? shove them back in ?
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How about never paying benefits to those that get pregnant under the age of consent!!! Starting young teenagers on a benefits system when they haven’t finished their education and are not qualified to gain employment seems to spiral this catagory into a life dependent on benefits.
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and how do you expect them to feed themseves and thier offspring? I DO agree with you that underage mothers should not be ‘rewarded’ with a free house and a life long income on benifits, just for getting pregnant, but we need to find another way….. not paying any benefits it the equivilent of starving them…….
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I agree, an article infuriated me today reading a women is addicted to giving birth, absolute rubbish, she has five children all by different fathers claims (by her own admmission) £20,000 a year in benefits. I wouldnt want five children buti have struggled but worked with one, now 18 and working herself but i am still on the bread line sometimes scrimping pennies together to eat and sitting without any heating or lighting. What happens to people on that line who decently go to work but still cant afford the ever increasing cost of living?
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ok just so long as they inform the people who need to know… like me I have high functioning autism and I have been on benefits since 2001 – no I am not a sponge and yes I would like to work there has to be a way for someone like me to work without having to demean myself to doing voluntary work… it’s ok for people who want to do it but I went to a mainstream school and I want a ‘real’ job – i am afterall a ‘real’ person!
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I think genuine cases like yours are fine. Anyone with serious disability has to be helped and I don’t mind that reflected in my taxes. Afterall no one knows whats around the corner in life do they??
However those people that bash out child after child and use this as an excuse to gain housing and whooping benefits per month are the ones who need looking into. Work for these people cannot pay at the moment simply because their benefits out way the reason to work.
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Demean yourself by doing voluntry work – explain please?
Do you mean voluntry work to try and gain skills that you don’t already have and may look good when presented to a prospective employer?
While I appreciate that your condition may have effect the jobs you can do, I have little understanding of it to be honest so I can’t comment on the how it may restrict you undertaking work, but many people including myself have carried out voluntry work with a purpose to gain jobs – If you attack it with a genuine enthusiasm it will be beneficial
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I went to a mainstream school ok? I don’t see why i should work without pay or dignity that is what i meant! it’s almost as if i would be ‘lowering myself’ to voluntary work why is it people like me who have gone to school and got an education but who have Asperger’s Syndrome or whatever autistic condition is wrong with my brain (no one knows for sure what the condition is I believe I was misdiagnosed and am fighting my doctor for a re-evaluation i had to fight to get counselling as well but that’s the NHS not the DWP!) can’t get a ‘real job’ I want to do a job that will allow me to USE my BRAIN – that is what it is for even if it does not work properly! I want to do a job which plays to my STRENGTHS not just a job for the sake of a job! i don’t want to be patted on the head and told ‘there there you poor soul you can come and work here we have work for disabled people like you you won’t get paid for it or have any dignity or self respect but we have a job for you!’
my brain is turning to mush because I don’t get the chance to use it properly! I am about to try college AGAIN maybe this time i will get treated like a person and not like a wastrel
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I am sorry but i wanted to be a doctor but i dint have the brains or money to do it, so i had to go to college to be something less interesting. do you know why? because thats what lifes about. if i lost my leg i wouldnt have someone pay me to sit on my arse all day because i wanted to be police officer, fireman or footballer ive had to get a job to pay my way. If the goverment gives you money and wants something in return then whats the problem with that. sorry to say u have to do what ever job u can. you were played a bad card in life but why should we have to pay 1000′s of pounds to make you happy. the system wasnt made for that it was made to feed you and put a roof over you head.
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Some of us find voluntary work rewarding. Its not just doing dogsbody work, can be doing virtually anything.
Trustees are volunteers – and all charities need trustees. Office staff tend to use their brains – I’ve met many voluntary trust & statutory fundraisers that just research and write – often doing finance stuff while at it.
Please, don’t write off giving of time to help others. Can make a big difference.
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Well said.. i have a 14 yr old autistic and partialy blind son,, who has just passed his GCSE maths and ICT a whole year early.Will it be all worth it..
I do worry about his future job prospects,, but at least Connexions can keep him in Education till he is 24…i pray he will be given a chance by some firm or other..
GOOD LUCK TO YOU CLARE…
Abbi
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So many genuine people out there who try hard to acheieve. yet the ones who love the benefits culture don’t try at all and you all get tarred with the same brush. Good luck to you and your son!
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Demean yourself by doing something for someone else with no financial reward?! I AGREE you SHOULD have the same opportunities that everyone else has regardless of your Autism (I am registered disabled) but, have you got any work experience?? Volunteer work is an EXCELLENT way to fill up your CV! work, paid or unpaid IS STILL WORK!!!! Good luck with your job hunt, you WILL get a REAL job when/if you have some REAL work experience to put on a CV!
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it is so sad to read how many people are so angry about people on benefits. Surely each individual case is different. Some may see it as an easy ride, but what about the people who struggle on it. Financially and emotionally.
The woman next door to me, who has a beautiful home because she worked for 30 years. Lost her husband 2 years ago, then became ill herself with a brain tumour. 14 months later, she is left unable to work, claiming benefits, she now sits in her house, struggling on benefits. Making all the cuts she can possibly do to save money and still she goes without. She wont put her heating on because she cant afford the bills.
She scrimps and saves to get enough money from her benefits to buy her weekly shop. She has had to cancel her life insurance because she can no longer afford to pay it. She sold her car because she cannot afford to run it.
She hs been on benefits just 13 months and she is grouped in now with people calling her a sponge. Surely its the people who show up at the DHSS in wheelchairs in the morning and are playing golf in the afternoon that should be frowned at and not EVERYONE one on benefits.
Not all MEN are rapists and not all people on benefits are spongers.
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nat
May 27, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Demean yourself by doing something for someone else with no financial reward?! I AGREE you SHOULD have the same opportunities that everyone else has regardless of your Autism (I am registered disabled) but, have you got any work experience?? Volunteer work is an EXCELLENT way to fill up your CV! work, paid or unpaid IS STILL WORK!!!! Good luck with your job hunt, you WILL get a REAL job when/if you have some REAL work experience to put on a CV!
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I agree Clare and all these people who are asking for benefits to be dropped or decreased, should try living on them. I was made redundant almost two years ago. I am a carpenter/ machinist and used to make antique reproduction furniture. I have been trying with no luck to get a job, but getting nowhere.
I have two children who live thirty miles away and have sixty pounds a week to try and see them and pay my bills, that’s without eating. I applied for a position the other week putting shed panels together, a job i could do with my eyes shut, but they didn’t take me on as they thought I would get bored. How do they think I feel at the moment, not to mention depressed. I am not disabled, and they wont give me a chance, so I can understand how you feel. But we are all tared with the same brush, we are spongers because we have to live on benefits. Just give me a job with pay that makes it worth traveling to the place, and I and many others wouldn’t have to rely on these benefits.
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i am fortunate to never have been in a position to claim benefits.. as i have worked ever since i left uni.
i work in a job where i deal with all walks of life. i meet people who dont/cant work and are devestated and embarressed by this.
however i deal with a majority of people who describe their benefits as ‘getting paid’. these are the same people who waste their chance at education, waste the chance to be trained in job skills, and waste an almost weekly opportunity to get into work.
i resent these people as i pay tax nat ins etc to see them standing in their front gardens wearing all the new chav clothing drinking cans of beer and taking drugs. ummm whered all that money come from.
if they dont want to work, then dont let them collect benefits. if they dont accept jobs they are offered then put them to work in the public domain… clearing litter, tidying public parks painting run down buildings etc…
mook
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I do not live in England or receive benefits…
The problem is not the the minimal benefits given to keep people at poverty level…
The problem is high rents and low wages…
This is where the reforms are needed…
Bring back the Fair Rent Officer Jobs that were got rid of in 1985….(Conservative-Thatcher)
This would then make private renting affordable again…
Instead of just being a way to launder money from the Housing Benefit fund to Rich Landlords…
Pay people a Fair wage for work,not just keep them at minimum wage,which just keeps them at poverty level….
As always the Rich get richer,while the poor are kept poor….
Of course people are scared of coming off benefits…They fear loosing their home and not being able to eat and pay bills if they take a job at minimum wage….
Once again a witch hunt against the poor and vulnerable…
When the Rich should be Reforming the Actions of Themselves….
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I agree entirely i am in a financial muddle but i have been to my bank and they actually told me oh dont worry if you had a mortgage it would be a long time before you are thrown out! I dont i pay rent and if my direct debit bounces im evicted. I have already spoken to the council and they say they wont house me cos i havnt lived here long enough. I cant get benefit because i earn too much. Cant be too much if my living costs out way my earnings!!
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Call me stupid but when you wanted to earn extra money…you worked overtime. I work with men (by no means on minimum wage) who wont work an hour over as “it affects their benefit / working tax credits”. How can it be right that we have an underculture who can get everything for free and leaving school and having numerous babies (so you will be looked after by the state) is an alternative to work. Labour gave,gave,gave and it all came from the pockets of people that work.
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You dont live in England….so how can you comment or know how bad it has got here in the last few years?
High rents and low wages – I know single parents getting £600 of their £700 monthly housing rent per month paid for them!! A fair rent officer may set the rent at £400….but they don’t pay it anyway.
I kid you not, we were sent someone elses tax credits in an enveloope addressed to us 2 years ago….a single mother, with three kinds in the Walsall area, working part time 21hrs per week she received £18,500 per annum tax credits….tell me thats fair or justified!!
The labour government has destroyed manufacturing industry in the UK and happily waved it off to China / India where we conveniently forget they pay peanuts. How do UK manufacturers compete against an country that can pay £1 an hour and not worry about environmental taxes etc,etc – pay everyone £15.00 and hour?…how competitive do you think the UK would be, how long would companies last? Come into the real world!
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Manufacturing has been on the decline for years in this country. Out of the controling hands of any government.
You say that the Labour government waved it off to china..Then you say how can we compete. Who’s to blame then?? Unless of course you want to gain the work back from china and work for £1 an hour??
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Errr…you could support UK manufacturing, Tax imports from countries don’t make it easy or attractive for UK companies to outsource ab road…we can make ourselves competitive rather than contributing to the success of foreign economies…how about helping our own…Common sense, thats all it is. labour were supposedly the “working class party” now they are shine, spin and no substance..they have forgotten their roots….thats why extreme parties such as the BNp get votes…core labour voters are disenfranchised and look elsewhere.
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yeah youre right, so individuals have had plenty of time to work out a solution for themselves. and get their arse into gear!
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If you are ill cant work then stay on benefits
When you apply for job your housing benefit a coucil tax will stop this needs to look at why stop if dont stop give you chance to save your money up.
All so when you apply lots of jobs and dont get nothing back you should cut the employers money this has gon fare to long this need to be look at to.
end of my feedback.
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Just to let you know John, if you are on Incapacity benefit or ESA – when you start work you get a 4 week run on of council tax and housing benefit to help you with the ‘no pay for 1st month’ problem… I am not sure about job seekers allowance, but i guess its the same…… I have just come off ESA (was on it 8 months and was very sick!) but I have now been back in work for 8 weeks and love it! It is NOT hard with the CUREENT finacial help (benefits run on for houseing costs etc) but under the tories I fear it may actually make things harder for people to leave benefits! Mad hey?
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Not everyone who as more than 2 kids as them for extra benefits I have 4 kids and both me and my wife work full time. So we shouldnt get any help with to of our kids because some people have kids to get extra benefits.
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I think if you work and are on low wages then thats what tax credits were invented for to help everyone out and try to make work pay. I agree you should get help with low wages. The people I was on about are those that have loads of kids and are on benefits anyway. They get better housing and more money than us who work. there was a documentry on tv a few months back about a familly of 7 with another child on the way living in a 5 bedroom council house with over £600 a week plus in benefits.The Tv personality Dairmuid gavin the Irish gradener stayed with them to try to encourage the father to work. Why should he work when he’s on those kind of beneifts??
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Having kids is a CHOICE.. A stork does not drop a child off on your doorstep.. At some point you made the decision to have sex, get pregnant and keep the child, so therefore you should have to pay to look after your choices. How about people like me, me and my partner both work full time on not particularly great paid jobs, we have made a choice not to have children, and we are not taking out of the system as much as people who have children do (free health care, schools etc) shouldn’t we get a tax break then?!
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There must be a whole generation of young people who have never heard an alarm clock go off in the morning or needed to get out of bed for work. Let’s hope this plan really gets off the ground. There’ll be much wailing and complaining from the leisured classes, but we shall have to learn to live with it.
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I think when a person becomes unemployed whether he or she has children or not, after drawing benefit for 6 months if they don’t take a job then they have to work for their benefit. The present system makes you attend once a fortnight to sign on, after 6 months attending government work is your signing on and failure to attent simply stops benefit being paid just like an employer wouldn’t pay it to a person who fails to turn up for work.
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I care for my sick partner He is 25 and has heart failure and other medical problems his outlook isnt great.. my point is i dont work as i am his carer BUT i do not claim carers allowance.. Also he worked from when he left school right up untill he became seriously ill.
I agree there is to many people put on benefits and left on them but you really cant tar everyone on benefits with the same brush..
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i think it’s a good idea to make them work for their benifits. from helping elderly to cleaning streets,helping local community or involving themselves to any volunteering work
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this is great! a country like great britian needs a great charge in the economy pls befor the system is been reform try as much as possible to provide job for the work force and reduce the benefit especially for those who are fit and able to work but ferusing. these shows there are lots of lazy people in the system right now you have to try and see how the deficit is been comb or cut down to the bearest minimam so you could achaive your goal
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I have applied for loads of jobs and i get nothing back from employers i am recieving jobseekers allowance and am sick do death of ppl associating ppl on this benefit as not doing anything but drinking and buying new clothes i can’t afford to even do that and i also look for work but they rather hire ppl that are trained and have experience than given some1 a chance of a job. What this country needs to do is getting ppl that do not want to work and are claiming these benefits as they willing to do nothing shud get nothing and see how they cope. i am sick of ppl brushing ppl claiming benefits getting brushed with the same brush
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I am an employer. We recently advertised for 2 positions in the local Job Centre. We had numerous replies. Some you could see were only applying to be able to say they were doing their bit and so keep their benefits. We asked 11 people to come in for interviews (the rest were sent letters saying thanks but no thanks). ONLY 2 BOTHERED TO TURN UP!!
So its no wonder employers get fed up.
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I lost my hubby who was 78 and in receipt of Attendance Allowance as well as his pension. Household income was immediately cut by £700 per month. When you lose a partner, you don’t just loose the person you share your life with, but you loose their income as well. This has made my life very tough, but it was the right thing to do. The benefit system helped my husband (who worked non stop from 14 until he was 70, paying tax etc) to have eight good and dignified years. The benefit was his right, but only as long as he was entitled. I watched a tv programme recently about celebrities involved with people on benefits. Each one of those who made money refused to disclose it to the benefits agency, stating they would keep it because “They Had Worked For It” meaning that as far as THEY were concerned THEY they were entitled 2 whatever they received in benefits as well as what they earned illegally. I wonder if this is the mind set of some others on benefits, who appear to live better lives than I do even though I have always worked very hard. Benefits are abused, we all know that, but some people are entitled and I wouldn’t want the job of deciding who was or who wasn’t, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to identify areas and families who obvious are playing the system. I hope and pray that this government doesn’t take the easy option by making the critically ill and severly dissabled their scapegoats.
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Hi
people are not allowed to just be ” parked on benefits” as duncan-smith claims
anyone on jobseekers is continually scrutinised
this is tory propaganda
the truth is the rich have become filthy rich
whilst the poor have become poorer
only people living chaotic life style’s want to be on benefits.
the tories & labour are centre right parties
who give tax breaks to the rich
whilst slashing the pay of the poorest.
personally I think it’s evil how they treat people.
even now the bankers are getting paid bonuses.
everybody else is suffering or will be because of these cuts. despicable are these so called leaders of society. worse spongers than anyone claiming benefits.
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Well I wish some one would tell me how to survive on £65.45 a week jobseekers allowance.
I lost my job a year ago through a breakdown.I would love to get back into work, but I have to face facts there are younger people out there who are getting job priority over a 56 year old engineer.There are people and I know some one who has never worked, he has a bad backlets get these people off the sickness benefits and back to work.
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At long last we seem to have an officer in place with the right info about the mess of benefits. Long on it & yr self esteem is gone. On buses etc u find experienced benefit cheats advising others. Free house, money & shopping in oxford st where we the working can’t dare. What Irony!!!!!! Good Ian just get on with the job, you have our support. Asylum seekers too should do work to get big houses, benefits, single working pple still can’t get housing. Unfair, unfair,unfair……
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why did the “other” parties agree to allow the labour government to “tell” REMPLOY employer of disabled people to CLOSE 44 factories amd more or less forcing disabled people to take voluntry redundancy and try to get into mainstreem employment on remploy’s terms and conditions!! come on it was never going to happen was it!!. also if the government would just sort out the immagration problem and give the british people the employment then we would’nt be having this problem in the first place!!
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I don’t think the disabled and the sick should be the first people targeted in this shake up. I think those who just have children to prolong their benefits claim should be, but I don’t agree with a man who makes a home with a woman who already has children being left to pay for all of them when some of those children are not his. That is not fair on the man at all. My plan would be to do this. If the woman is registered as living on their own but becomes pregnant they can’t claim money for the child they are expecting as there is clearly a man in their lives. They are told that he must pay for the child and, if he doesn’t, it is their problem as they knew they were on benefits and couldn’t afford another child so should’ve made doubly sure they didn’t get pregnant. If the man is willing to and wants to make a life with the woman he should be able to move in with her and pay for her, meaning she loses the part of the benefit for her, and the child she is expecting, but not for any other children she has that aren’t his as he would be expected to do now. I think if a man knew he could move in with a woman and only had to pay for himself, her and his child/children it might give him the incentive to make a proper family with the woman. It would still save the country quite a bit as she would only receive benefits for the children she had before she met the man and no more. She wouldn’t be able to claim ad infinitum as we all know happens now.
This, I am sure, is where a lot of the abuse happens, although I do realise some people say they are sick or disabled when they aren’t that bad. It’s the single mums stories in newspapers that seem to get the taxpayer’s backs up, though, not the sick and disabled claimant’s ones.
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This coming from the middle ages? Where women “need” a man to survive and bring up the children. I assume women should also be staying at home to look after the kids while the man goes out and brings home the bacon like a “real man”
God forbid a woman gets pregnant while on benefits, send her straight off for an abortion! She should have made sure she didn’t have any kids!
As long as there is a man in a womans life she is saved! She will never have to claim benifits (oh, except if she has previously had children with a different man. Do they just get away with not looking after their kids then?)
Are you for real?
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Its a fair point that the benifits system is screwd, i had a PT job last year that i was happy to be doin tho i new id be working hard for the same amount id get anyway (because im in a situation were i dont have to worry about rent otherwise i most likly would of been worse off) but i was worse off! For some unknown reason the Job Centre couldent appear to explain to me properly i ended up with less money and unable to live properly. I am still paying back chrises loans i never wanted to take out in the first place 6 months on!
So yeah it needs to be re-reviewed BUT its just a diversion to destract people from the fact that the reason (now) over 2 and a half million people are claiming jobseekers isnt because ‘they dont want to work’ (tho no argument ther are those FEW that dont) but because ther ISN’T 2 and a half million jobs out ther going free!
Fine they want to get more people of off sickness benefits but… TOO WHERE!?
And about the Conservatives idea of ‘people have to take a job or ther bennifits are stopped for 3 years’ rubbish! even if ther wher anoth jobs, I do not want to be stuck working minimum wage in a deppressing job working for some wannabe’ hitler feeling more and more deppressed and NEVER being able to save up any money at all for a future that seems entirley bleek and eternaly dark (And for those who dont know it is IMPOSSIBLE to save up on minimum wage atm) Whats my third option? Go out and hunt for my food? build my own house out of wood from trees i cut myself?? Ohhh wait, i dont have the basic human right to do that! (Without it costing me more money than i could EVER possibly earn…) Anymore ideas please?
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Well if you dont want a minimu wage job perhaps you can be using your qualifications to get an ace,interesting well paid job like a pilot or a popstar. Get in the real world..no one owes you a living.
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What else are the sick and disabled supposed to do!! (The geniune one’s i mean) This is just tpyical of any government coming to power!! pick on the elderly,sick,and disabled!!.
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would just like to say i am returning to full time work after having my little one to be worse of because of having to pay for child care whats goverment going to do about this!!!!????!!! nothing!!!!
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all you do is make a simple policy change no benefit whatsoever to any one under the age of say 25- you should be either in some kind of training or education.
Simple nothing for nothing should be the norm.
Then help those who really need the help.
Reward those who work by allowing them to keep the money they earn and let them spend the money on what they like
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Its a fair point that the benifits system is screwd, i had a PT job last year that i was happy to be doin tho i new id be working hard for the same amount id get anyway (because im in a situation were i dont have to worry about rent otherwise i most likly would of been worse off) but i was worse off! For some unknown reason the Job Centre couldent appear to explain to me properly i ended up with less money and unable to live properly. I am still paying back chrises loans i never wanted to take out in the first place 6 months on!
So yeah it needs to be re-reviewed BUT its just a diversion to destract people from the fact that the reason (now) over 2 and a half million people are claiming jobseekers isnt because ‘they dont want to work’ (tho no argument ther are those FEW that dont) but because ther ISN’T 2 and a half million jobs out ther going free!
Fine they want to get more people of off sickness benefits but… TOO WHERE!?
And about the Conservatives idea of ‘people have to take a job or ther bennifits are stopped for 3 years’ rubbish even if ther wher anoth jobs, I do not want to be stuck working minimum wage in a deppressing job working for some wannabe’ hitler feeling more and more deppressed and NEVER being able to save up any money at all for a future that seems entirley bleek and eternaly dark, whats my third alternative go out and hunt for my food? build my house out of wood from trees?? Ohhh wait, i dont the basic human right to do that without it costing me more money than i could EVER possibly earn… anymore ideas please?
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I work part time,i have 4 children and am widowed,i am £18.oo per week better off,the reason the benefit system is wrong is, if you are not disabled or ill,you should work,even if like me you are only £18.oo per week better off,we all have to contribute to the country in some way,and that doesnt mean living on benefits and doing nothing with your life.
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i have been out of work for a year
i have worked everyday of my life,did overtime and hardley took a sick day ever
i have 2 kids
i have sent so many cv’s out i have lost count i have posted them on job site aswell and gone for 26 jons in the last 3 months just in my town alone
the problem i have is that i can only go for jobs that are part time or term time as i need to be home for my kids and the only jobs i can get are low payed and would not cover child care even if i went full time i would not be able to make ends meet as i dont have the skills
i have not come to this conclustion myself i was told this by a jobcenter member of staff when i had an interview
i declaired i may get a job and was told if i was offered it and took it i would be worse off by £70 per month
how is that sort of system right
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it’s the so called “British worker” who is too sodding idel to get off their fat arses, turn off bloody Jeremy kyle and do an honest days work rather than have me, a tax payer, support their, smoking, drinking and fast food lifestyle.
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Anyone who genuinely can’t work should receive benefits but there are two issues here.
The last Tory government, which presided over 3 million unemployed, invented the wheeze of putting people on disability benefit and taking them off the unemployed register to make the figures look good before the election. This was continued by the Labour government. Thousands of people claimed disability who weren’t really disabled.
In addition, you had the young slappers who had kids like shelling peas to get a flat and benefits. This is now being stopped by putting them into mother and baby units which is not so appealing now.
The idle scroungers who live on benefits as a lifestyle have always been with us. The key is to ensure employers pay decent living wages not poverty wages and make the unemployed take a job when available.
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I agree with Roy “whatwas the need of closing down REMPLOY employer of disabled people”. Ifthese factories were still running lots of people would have had jobs. I underwent 3 major spinal surgeries and lost my job after second surgery.I am under chronic Pain Management clinic.I apply to lots of jobs. When I disclose my medical history I don’t get any answer. I tried to test my ability by lying to one employer and i was approached by phone.Unfortunately, I have to diclose my limitations.Where do I stand.Should stay on benefit or not.
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Yes its to easy to sit at home and claim for everything, if people on the social can drink, smoke and run cars as well as spend a large part of the day in the bookies then you are taking the piss, and should have your money cut, and be paid only in vouchers, which you can only exchange for food, not gift vouchers and go get beer/fags etc like the asylum seekers seem to get away with, are you looking MP’s you really need to get a grip and sort this out, you cant keep expecting to rob hard working folk to pay for 2nd and 3rd generation scroungers!
And i also agree about the child benefit , 2 claims maximum, and yes it would affect me, but i’ve been in work since the day i left school and from what i see in my job, i’d like to know how they afford flat screen tele’s the latest phone’s, ipod’s, WHO IS THE DAFT BUGGERS HERE, YES ITS US JOE MUGGINS THE TAXPAYERS
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I work hard, 40 hours a week,
I earn £26,000 per year.
I pay £5000 a year tax
I pay £2400 a year national insurance
I pay £2000 a year pension
I pay £6000 a year rent
Im left with just under £10,000 per year to pay for car, tax, insurance, to get to work, food and clothing and what little entertainment I have.
Its a disgrace we are paid too low a wage in this country and have to pay too much tax
im better off on the dole with the rest of the scroungers, I mean im paying for them and there flat screen tv’s
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There are no jobs out there so when the conservatives stop paying people benefits they had better build a few more prisons because normal people who want to work will have to turn to crime to feed their families.
They must Control immigration and stop paying benefits to immigrants and make them pay tax. Currently if you are an immigrant you can work for 9 months tax free then go home for 3 months and return and start again. If they work here they should pay tax here and we should not have to pay benefits to their families overseas.
Its time to look after our own people for a change
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