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marmar

(76,985 posts)
Sat Sep 22, 2012, 08:15 PM Sep 2012

Wealthy Welfare: UK to freeze benefits as inflation bites





Published on Sep 22, 2012 by RussiaToday

Britain's poorest are likely to get another hit from the Treasury chief, who's trying to rein in spending.
Millionaire George Osborne wants to freeze welfare payments for 2 years. RT's Polly Boiko has the story.


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Wealthy Welfare: UK to freeze benefits as inflation bites (Original Post) marmar Sep 2012 OP
The UK is trying its best to be just like the US, Smilo Sep 2012 #1
Post removed Post removed Sep 2012 #2
Nonsense LeftishBrit Sep 2012 #6
accurate and inaccurate at the same time tinamac Sep 2012 #3
It sounds like the Welfare Queen myth we heard in the US back in Raygun's days. fasttense Sep 2012 #4
This is NOT a forum for Thatcherites, so you don't sound as though you belong here! LeftishBrit Sep 2012 #5

Response to marmar (Original post)

LeftishBrit

(41,192 posts)
6. Nonsense
Sun Sep 23, 2012, 10:26 AM
Sep 2012

Last edited Mon Sep 24, 2012, 09:31 AM - Edit history (1)

You are quoting the talking points of our most EVIL right-wingers.

In a decent society, one can NEVER! help the needy too much (unless the 'needy' are defined as the banks and other wealthy financial organizations)!!! It is of course perfectly true that a much better way of helping them would generally be to provide them with a job than to give them benefits - but the problem is that the jobs are being CUT! Right-wingers complain that people aren't taking jobs but then they cut the public sector so drastically that lots of people are losing or have lost their jobs. They complain that too many people are on sickness benefits instead of working - then close down the sheltered workshops that accommodate people with serious illness or disability.

This governmemnt and parts of the media are encouraging people to blame and punish the poorest, weakest and most vulnerable. Kick people when they're down! - that was never supposed to be a good British value.

In the 60s and 70s we had good welfare benefits for those who needed them, but not very many people were on welfare - because there were jobs! If you want to reduce the numbers of people on benefits, then demand that jobs be created and not cut!



 

tinamac

(1 post)
3. accurate and inaccurate at the same time
Sun Sep 23, 2012, 05:19 AM
Sep 2012

The child poverty figures are possibly correct. But what does that mean?

There are relatively poor children in the UK, but in reality they are more likely to be from families who have working parents on low pay than from families just on welfare. The UK highly taxes everyone, then gives back some money to people on low pay who have children.

Family, friends and relatives of mine on welfare (who do not work) and who have children love these stories. It makes them feel justified that they make no attempt to work or better themselves via work. Because it is easier for them to "better" themselves via benefits. Their working counterparts on low wages have less disposable income and a harder time because they obviously have more outgoings e.g. travel costs to work etc.

The problem is, there are so many people on welfare and sick welfare (not all of them are sick, you can claim sick for having headaches that make you "unable" to work).

To put it into context, my working relative with several children struggles to make ends meet, has poor accommodation, works very long hours and sees her children less than she would like. While her cousin, with a similar amount of children, who does not work, has computers for each child, has fashion clothing, spends all her time with her children and can regularly holiday and gamble.

You might not think it a bad thing that the state is looking after the one on welfare but her eldest child has just left school with all the enthusiasm of a normal sixteen year old, only to come to the impass that many do - Should she work, and mess up her mothers welfare payments ? Or, should she claim benefits and keep the status quo? Well, the decision arrived at, was to claim welfare not suprisingly - another life consigned to workessnes.

There are no children starving, or even hungry in the uk unless they have neglectful parents and that is not defined by their parents income. We have a massive obesity problem to attest to this not to mention free lunches (and in some places breakfast and tea) in schools, so the workshy don't even have to get out of bed to feed their children

 

fasttense

(17,301 posts)
4. It sounds like the Welfare Queen myth we heard in the US back in Raygun's days.
Sun Sep 23, 2012, 08:30 AM
Sep 2012

I'm not saying what you say is not true but it is funny how these stories about how good people have it on welfare come up whenever the rich are tired of paying their taxes.

So tell me what percentage of taxes do the filthy rich in your country pay? And is your country going to raise it or lower it to meet these austerity measures? Seems the UK is always willing to send off their soldiers to support any war the US gins up but they are cutting what the poor have to live on.

When Raygun cut the filthy rich's taxes, he also increased the middle class's taxes. And now the filthy rich pay less in taxes than what the average guy pays. These stories about Welfare queens are coming out now because the filthy rich are looking for a tax cut, yet again.

And guess what? Whenever any reporter went looking for these mythical Welfare Queens, they couldn't find any.

LeftishBrit

(41,192 posts)
5. This is NOT a forum for Thatcherites, so you don't sound as though you belong here!
Sun Sep 23, 2012, 10:13 AM
Sep 2012

"You can claim sick for having headaches that make you 'unable' to work" - No, under any normal circumstances you cannot!!! In fact the tests for invalidity benefit have become so savage, that people dying of cancer have been denied benefits!

It is true that there are many people on low wages who are treated abominably by the system, but that is NOT because the money is all being given to unemployed people - that's a classic 'divide and rule' tactic by the right, to make poor and exploited people of slightly different groups resent and fight against each other, rather than those who are really exploiting them. It is because the industrial base of this country was destroyed, making us particularly dependent on the financial sector and vulnerable to the crisis that came; the unions were rendered increasingly toothless by Thatcher, enabling low pay; and the current government is obsessed with cutting everything, greatly increasing the damage to the economy.

Far more money has gone in 'welfare' to the banks, not to mention various wars, than on helping the poorest.

I don't know about your relatives but most unemployed people are not so because they 'make no attempt to work or better themselves'; they are unemployed because there are hardly any jobs going! Any idea how many applications there are for every job? That is also of course why people accept low wages - they take the only job that's going at the time.

Anyone who refers to unemployed people, especially in this economy, as 'the workshy' is a disgusting vile right-winger as far as I'm concerned!

And I am not unemployed or on benefits - I just want to go back to living in a country that is based on decency and compassion, not on mean-spiritedness and kicking people when they're down, and blaming all problems on the poorest and least powerful!

I hope your daughter finds a job. I have never come across a youngster who avoided taking a job, just because it might 'mess up their mother's welfare payments', so I suspect that your daughter just hasn't found the right job, or perhaps any job, yet.

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