Unemployment and Benefits

[born2run]

I find Katie Hopkins strangely attractive.... I have developed a crush on her!   

I like the idea of having a crush on her.....steam roller should do the trick  ££$

[born2run]

I have never bought a copy of the Mirror in my life! Glad to see even you see them as benefit scum, they are of no use to society in any way! 

Absolutely agree 100% no use to our society at all

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3126106/Prince-William-used-official-helicopter-80-mile-trip-event-marking-Magna-Carta-anniversary-cost-8-000.html

[DaveR]

The Mirror criticising benefit scroungers.
The Mail criticising the royals...

What's the world coming to? 

[Hugo]

Being confined to one room in Glan Clwyd Hospital last week there was little I could do other than watch TV.    One evening while changing channels I saw a programme on benefits.
It depicted an unemployed Romanian couple living in the UK with 11 children and 11 Grandchildren.  They had a house and £24K a year in benefits  (plus NHS)  and only moved here because the UK benefits were 6 times what they would have received in Roumania.
Yet they were doing nothing illegal, it's just the stupid system in the EU that allows it to happen.
I only watched the programme for a short time as my blood pressure that morning had been high and thought that it was prudent not to watch any more of the programme.

[Merddin Emrys]

We saw that too, what a stupid system to allow that to happen! 

[Ian]

Here's an interesting experiment. Use the slider on the page link (below) to find out how accurate or otherwise your own ideas are compared with the reality in terms of overall welfare spending.


http://visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/

I was out by a significant margin for most and only close on one.

[Hugo]

I was way out on most of my guesses too but the figure of 2% for Unemployment Benefits is misleading and has been manipulated by the Government, as those on Unemployment benefits have simply been moved to another class of benefit.
It's just a ploy to make people think that there are less people out of work than  actually are.

 

[SteveH]

Here's an interesting experiment. Use the slider on the page link (below) to find out how accurate or otherwise your own ideas are compared with the reality in terms of overall welfare spending.
http://visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/
I was out by a significant margin for most and only close on one.

I was way out too..........

"Welfare covers a number of benefits, and many people don’t realise that the largest amount is actually spent on state pensions at £83 billion (33% of total welfare spending). "

I get seriously "miffed" time and time again, when pensions are described as "benefits" and "welfare" and are included in figures such as this example,......the majority of people getting pensions today, made a contract with the government to pay into their scheme, and did so for up to 50 years,  no wonder the young, point at pensioners and say "why them" and not us.

[born2run]

Here's an interesting experiment. Use the slider on the page link (below) to find out how accurate or otherwise your own ideas are compared with the reality in terms of overall welfare spending.
http://visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/
I was out by a significant margin for most and only close on one.

I was way out too..........

"Welfare covers a number of benefits, and many people don’t realise that the largest amount is actually spent on state pensions at £83 billion (33% of total welfare spending). "

I get seriously "miffed" time and time again, when pensions are described as "benefits" and "welfare" and are included in figures such as this example,......the majority of people getting pensions today, made a contract with the government to pay into their scheme, and did so for up to 50 years,  no wonder the young, point at pensioners and say "why them" and not us.

If there wasn't such a self imposed stigma on the word 'benefit' it wouldn't bother you or anyone else in the slightest.

Pension IS a benefit. It rightly benefits the people who are in receipt of it. How they have cameabout getting this 'benefit' is irrelevant.
The word has been used for Welfare receipts for the last 50 odd years it is only in the last 5 or so years the media has poisoned the word and now Pensioners are angry about being called benefit claimants.

[DaveR]

B2R, do you agree with Harriet Harman that the proposed cuts in Tax Credits are fair?

[born2run]

Absolutely not. That change affects working people, namely the working poor who have to have these benefits added on to their income to be able to manage. Not content with punishing the out of work this Government now wants to punish those unfortunate enough to be low paid workers.

[snowcap]

I worked all my life paying for these" benefits" that you call them btr, you can call them what you like as long as my hard earned payment goes in every month. all it is is a return( be it little) on my investmen and i,m  still paying tax on it

[DaveR]

I don't regard Pensions as a Benefit. Pensions are only paid to people who have paid their NI contributions over many years and who certainly deserve a reward for their hard work.

There's a world of difference between someone of 65 claiming a relatively meagre pension after paying NI Contributions & Tax for 45+ years and somebody else who has never contributed a penny in NI or Tax, expecting the state to fund their lifestyle.

[Bosun]

DaveR, how I categorically agree with you!

I do not yet receive a State Pension, or 'benefits', but I do receive the Private Pensions that I (highly) paid for, for 40 years from taxed income, that I am now taxed on, those taxes, which I have paid twice, going to fund 'benefits'. When I do receive a State Pension, it will, as Dave R says, have been paid for by my NI contributions.

Lets please separate Pensions from 'benefits', at least for this discussion. 

By the way B2R, how's the juggling shop doing?

[Ian]

Pension IS a benefit.

The government's own Benefits site doesn't include pensions.

https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits/entitlement

but the OED is curiously ambiguous: "a payment made by the state or an insurance scheme to someone entitled to receive it"