MP wants 'benefit card what can only be spent on food and clothes'

Dare I ask how many can hold their hands up and say truthfully they have either donated to a charity, bought a Big Issue, given a couple of quid to someone who appears to be destitute or would give part of their wage on a regular basis to help the needy?  Remember,, answer truthfully.

if i see a big issue seller i give him a pound or 2 and tell him to keep the paper ,also i save all my change exept for pound or 2 pound coins and at the end of the year put it in a deserving charity box !

read an article this morning in those free metro papers you get handed at stations ,it claimed a ukip m.p. or constituent said that  any pregnant woman who are diagnosed and the child they are carrying is disabled then the child should be aborted .havent got the paper, but anyone have any news on this anaglogs can you dig it out .

we dont have vagrants beggars tramps or homeless here, not allowed, unofficial of course, the police arrest them and if they are manx, bail hostal or prison, non manx, put on a ferry back to where they came from, no social security either, unless youve paid stamps for the previous 5 years, local or not.

Good on you Foyle. I am the same with the Big Issue vendors. The reason I asked this question was because there are many on here who call people rotten because they may have a few quid. What I have I work hard for. I have a few direct debits paying a monthly amount to Save the Children, WSPA, and Barnardos. I have NO problem at all with anyone receiving the help they need when they hit on hard times. I, like plenty on here I presume had free school dinners. It helped my mum who was widowed young. She worked her socks off to bring my brothers and myself up. The welfare state was a damn sight LESS benevolent in those days believe me! Somewhere along the line though there HAS to be change. There ARE far too many families who treat their idleness as a job! They exist, therefore they should be kept. It IS time to make absolutely certain that any help given, goes on necessary items such as food and clothes. I am sure the question re heating and other energy bills will also be taken into account. Too many use it for "their little luxuries". Generally anything OTHER than food and clothes! One woman on benefits was asked why her and her "partner "needed two cars. She replied with a four letter outburst! This type needs to be weeded out. Anyone who can argue her case needs to leave the country!

Any room for me Manxy????

I would gladly throttle that person Foyle. No room even in this predominantly sick society for such a monster.

i agree with you on those points  roy about the lazy and feckless types who must be weeded out ,what also gets up my nose is politicians creaming off expenses and god knows what else and having a do as i say ,not as i do attitude .after all who pays the politicians ...the taxpayers !

Its great to have Ethnic people on the thread...........If they arrived in the 60s (& we could have the craic with them.................without being raceist) & have worked hard to establish themselves........they must be "gutted" at the new wave.....................

Exactly Foyle!! The amount of time we all spend on here typing our thoughts and feelings regarding such situations would be better spent bombarding our MPs on this subject. They DO need to get real, and they should certainly be far more answerable than they are at present. Public servants and mouthpieces for the masses.

Whether you are an upstanding "I have worked for everything I,ve got or I,ve worked hard all my days"remember there are hundreds of thousands who for whatever reason can,t/didn,t/should,ve what then are we to do let them starve see them in penury let them suffer,you have short memories most of these are the offspring of those brave souls who gave their lives in war so that they should have better lives,by all means all the able bodied should contribute/work,at what exactly?? have we lost all our compassion all our humility if we have then we are well and truly on the downward slope.Jesus Christ recognised the problem and by throwing the "MONEY CHANGERS" out of the temple,he was killed?? successive rulers elected or otherwise have tried the same with the same outcome,until the people or those truly elected take control of the flow of money we will be arguing about this until it all goes up in flames.

you can call people on benefits all you like but the root of the troubles of the majority of  benefit claiments lies in the number of multi national firms paying well below the living wage,
if the answer to this is to make benefits so unattractive,where with upto 5 million people looking for work are we going

This is our last chance & a breath of fresh air seeing posters aware.............

a bloke on skys jrff randalls xmas dinner is advocating some sort of national service for skills for young people and if you dont go you dont get benefits,more unpaid work
i work in a fabrication shop within the new ssi plant with 30 highly skilled boilermakers some with 45 years experience and theres not one apprentice employed in that shop,the few apprentices working on the site are from training centres outside the works who are working unpaid just to get some experience very laudable but while they work for nothing ssi will sit back and not start apprentices of their own,
this coalition is creating an army of unpaid workers at all levels

I think also we forget the genetics in the argument,there is a helluva lot of these poor people born into poverty not only material poverty but mental/spiritual poverty they in the most are cast down,you do not look for a future Derby winner from the gene pool of parents who contested Brighton/Bath class 6 races,why do you think the so called upper class marry into their own class this way it perpetuates the blood line,we have to have a better way of addressing the problem,I honestly think that we have to raise people out of their abject material/moral/mental state of poverty,we have to show them respect we have to give them hope and aspirations,continually hounding and denigrating them is counter productive,there has to be an alternative inmo.

BARNEY.......your of my ilk.............the prob the parents
The prob....people have been paid to breed

Sound idea in principle - however, as has been mentioned previously, where there is a will there is a way ie. to friends in work - "I'll buy your groceries - you buy my booze and ****" !

Its not so much genetics imo...although thats a point Barney
Its about the environment a child is brought up in...successful people know what it took, to get to the top
their children are brought up to be the same...thats why they send them to private schools, then on to university..
and encourage them to get into the top professions..its expected
its akin to sending a horse to a good trainer rather than a bad trainer

Children in the lowest social classes dont have this advantage
even academic learning would not be highly rated
bring this child up in an upper middle/upper class environment they would be far more successful

basicaly all the top jobs, are kept in the family so to speak
not as easy thing to break imo

I will jump in here (without reading the previous posts) and say Charities... a joke...

In my day a Charity was run by well meaning people with time on their hands...

Nowadays they are a career path for the otherwise unemployable "University Graduates" that years ago would have been lucky to have been employed as Domestic Help....

Who says that mass immigration has not helped a section of British Society....

Great stuff, always works a treat, get the plebs fighting amongst themselves over scraps and they don't even notice the important stuff...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9756046/Mark-Carney-to-be-paid-three-times-as-much-as-Sir-Mervyn-King.html

I thought Tories were changing the rules so nobody could get housing benefit worth more than 26k. Here's some foreign geezer getting 250k a year in rent.

read an article about   working people and how most or many are approx 3 months from finding themselves on the road to ruin a series of events starting with them losing their jobs and cant pay the mortgage ,cant afford to run the car i, it gets repossesed , after a few months of missed mortgage payments and living of of meagre savings the house is reposessed the couple split up from the pressure and it is all down hill ,in reality most  ordinary people if those situations occoured would be about 3 -6 months before they faced the same , a sobering scenario it could happen to anyone !

some people regard alcohol and gambling as the two essentials of life

not food and clothes..they are the luxuries

Housing Benefit what should that be...

Nothing..

There are (were) plenty of jobs available for the masses and if they do not want them then let them support themselves....

As for some half-wit "Tucho" comparing some-one taking on the most important job in the British Economy with scroungers,immigrants and the work shy then that must say something ...

homefortea would you like to estimate how many jobs there are currently available that would support you buying or even renting a house,by the way you are a muppet of the highest order

homefortea would you like to estimate how many jobs there are currently available that would support you buying or even renting a house,by the way you are a muppet of the highest order

That would be two then !!

true foyle
'there but for the grace of god go I'

I find the OP condescending
give people enought for the basics food, clothes, heating, tv licence etc
but what they spend it on is their choice

the only exception should where children are involved
they must be fed and clothed first

Three million immigrants into the Country in the last ten years are surely not all claiming..

most come here to get work
problem is we only have a limited number of jobs

what gets me is that these politicians are saying that they are looking after the taxpayers ,well the taxpayers are looking after them ,dont bite the hand that feeds you !

Yes it is almost all down to parental input or lack of but how do you solve 100s of yrs of poverty of body/soul/mind,kids are sent to be educated in subjects totally unsuited to them and are damned when they do not "acheive" so already coming from in many cases dysfunctional homes these poor kids see nothing positive in their lives they have no confidence in themselves and it goes on and on yet we expect them to be solid citizens,I wonder how some of those who are so ready to condemn if they began their lives under such circumstances,we all have a duty to help or come up with solutions for those less fortunate,I am by the way from a solid working class Glasgow background,many in my greater family have went on to be for the want of a better word succesful,my parents gave us a very strong sense of our faith and our moral duty,it has stood us all in good stead,there has to be another way.

Three million immigrants into the Country in the last ten years are surely not all claiming..

there the ones on the census what about million or 2 or 3 that are here illegally

The last person in Glasgow not claiming benefits Barney21 was delivering Iron Bru with a Horse and Cart..


Independence...Bring It On...

Glad to hear Barney..
it is not impossible for children of working class to do well..it is just so much harder

I am not upper/upper middle class either, but I know how they work. They are like a giant production line turning out copies
of themselves. Even the less intelligent ones do well. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, airline pilots, officers in armed forces..
the list goes no. They virtually all come from this background

How you break this cycle is nearly impossible, without taking away parental choice...so I dont know.

But I am glad you made it Barney...I did not, but would not blame my upbringing, all down to me I am afraid

homefortea

You are having a laugh ebul..

The reason why the children of the Working Class cannot do so well is because mass immigration (New Labour orientated) has meant that so much of their teachers time is taken up with looking after people whos first language is not English...

no I am right homefortea

still opinions,opinions

Immigration started in the 1950s under a Conservative government I believe
to ease a temporary labour shortage
it has been out of contol ever since imo

If you talking of East Europeans...well EU rules aint it

the government /establishment are and have been working on a system that will do away with cash ,every transaction be it buting a newspaper or purchasing a high end car ,every person in the u.k will have one of these cards ,its  similar to the current oyster type system wher you swipe the card through a system and it deducts or adds to your account its in its infancy stage but is being trialed  in some british and american army bases, it will probably put a brake on drug dealers ,money launderers, fraudsters  ect,as every transaction will have to go through these cards and cash will be defunct .and anyone who is hoarding large sums of cash  for whatever reason will have to bring it out into the open . its not that far away from being perfected ! then the fun starts !

Somewhere down the line we have to stop the profligate pregnancies of young girls who really thro no fault of their own have children just for the sake of,they have no inkling of what bringing a child up entails,for starters as I said previously why educate young people in academic subjects when most just do not have the abilities required,better is it not to educate them in health/hygiene/good husbandry/social skills and encourage and reward them when they acquire the sufficient level of skill in these fields,I would have faith schools where there is or should be a strong moral ethic,we ignore our spiritual side at our peril this is the third side of the triangle of life which goes unnoticed and each side supports the other 2,the secularists will in my opinion ruin the fibre of this country,they have no rock or foundation encouraging an environment of "anything goes" one example being "gay marriage" who the eff came up with that one,we are losing the battle,get back to basics of strong family and a strong moral commitment to marriage,any or every society needs a strong foundation,we are so close to ours crumbling.

Let them eat cake

Has to baked first taximan.

Typical MP grandstanding - as if jobless buying cigarettes and alcohol is why the country's struggling. Clueless.

this second round of proposed cuts coming in early next year is when it is going to hit a lot of people,working or unemployed unless you are wealthy then they are going to affect most of society ,but on a brighter note dave cameron says we are all in this together !so all round to daves house when things get tough !

cigs and booze = massive earners for the govt.
It's a case of kick down, how about the tory c00nt goes after the tax avoiding companies on everyones street corners.
No, let's hush that and accept their contributions to business zones (all concentrated within london of course0

I agree Barney about moral values

I did put up a long reply but appears to have been censored

We need to go back to 1950s values, a better world imo

so nothing stopping you buying lets say fifty quids worth of jelly babies...this will never work

what about people who get tax credits to topup their low wages,is that counted as benefit as well,stupid idea

Great idea but unworkable,Skinto,Adge and Barry Dennis will be offering 1/8 the odds ew to a pair of Levis.

The government are pulling our pants down saying the are tackling the debt.

Our benefits system is too big to be able to lower he debt it is only going to get worse.

No government has been able to fix it and none will.

It is clearly perceived by now that this current government doesn't know its "Jobs vacancy hole" from its elbow.

This government is dog sh it.

The very same meaning

I just wonder that when the great ciruses became unpopular and fell by the wayside, how many clowns
found a new career in Goverment.I personally Know of one John Major but after the last election
we may need but another recount...

Your Government are doing a good job considering what they were left to sort out,if the only dipstick Fife ever produced had not sold all your gold,Dickinsons real Deal could have bailed you out.........at scrap value.

Will tax rebates for the super rich also still be paid in cash or in cruise ship vouchers?

Dont get personal Bf.

I wasnt

lol

Perhaps Paul Danials the magician should be the next prime minister as
Mr camerons atempts at cutting the problems in half on stage
are leaving far too much blood on the instruments...

Hung Parliments sometimes manage to get in power on a yellow card, but they always leave on a red card,
its an inevitabilty in the rules of playing the game.

Are we suprised at the increase of fowl play in the spin market as we such the half oranges?

Benefits could be limited to buying bare essentials as Iain Duncan Smith warns of dangers of giving claimants cash

Work and Pensions Secretary is examining how a 'welfare card' to limit how handouts are spent could work in practice

Government launches website to find work for jobless while they sleep

Labour vows to oppose 1% cap on benefits rises



By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor

PUBLISHED 20 December 2012


Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith said he was looking at how a 'welfare card' would work in practice

Benefits claimants would be banned from using state handouts to buy beer and alcohol under plans being actively considered by the government.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith today admitted he was ‘looking at this process’ to see how a welfare card, which can only be used to buy certain items, would work in practice.

It comes as ministers published legislation to cap rises in benefits at one per cent for each of the next three years, setting the scene for a battle with the Labour party which has argued for bigger rises through to 2015.

The cap is expected to eventually save £3.7billion, but Labour says it is an attack on hard working families.

But Mr Duncan Smith signalled his determination to get tough with people who receive benefits as he unveiled a new jobs website which would force the workless to explain why they were refusing employment.

And he backed the idea of benefits being added to a pre-pay card which can only be used for certain purchases.

He said: ‘I’ve been looking at this process to figure out whether it’s feasible, how would it work, how does it match with legal obligations, so we’ve already been examining this.

‘I genuinely think there are some areas where we might want to think about.’

He added that one cause of concern was drug addicts using benefits to feed a habit.

‘You know, somebody who has a history of real drug addiction, giving people cash sometimes can actually lead to further problems,’ he told BBC Radio 4.

It follows a move in the Commons by a backbench Tory MP to change the law to introduce a welfare card.

Alec Shelbrooke said he wanted to stop state money being used for non-essential, desirable and often damaging (NEDDs) products like alcohol, cigarettes, paid-for TV channels and gambling.

Today the government launched a new website - Universal Jobmatch – aimed at quickly matching the unemployed to vacancies.

Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘Your CV will do the work for you, even when you are sleeping, and notify you that a suitable job has become available.’

He said jobseekers would no longer have to use touch-screens in jobcentres, or wait for a print-out of jobs which had probably already been taken up.

‘If you choose not to take a job that matches you, then the adviser will look at your reasons, and if the adviser thinks “actually, these are pretty specious reasons”, he may call you in and say “I think you really need to be applying for these jobs”.’

Mr Duncan Smith is prepared for a political battle with Labour over the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill, which was published today.

Chancellor George Osborne claimed in the Commons the one per cent cap was to ensure fairness for those who go to work while their neighbours have their curtains drawn.

But Liam Byrne, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, said: ‘The Strivers’ Tax Bill is a naked attack on hard working families to pay the price for this government’s economic failure.

‘I want to bring down the welfare bill. But they way we do that is with jobs. Labour will not support a Bill that does nothing to create a single new job yet punishes those who work.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251179/Benefits-limited-buying-bare...
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Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘Your CV will do the work for you, even when you are sleeping,

What a great job the media have done on you all. Whilst the rich get richer and the poor fall further behind the smoke screen of getting you all to turn on your own class has worked a treat.

I am quite happy for my CV to go out and work for me as well           

An absolutely poposperous idea. It demonstrates the arrogance of the Torys.

wonder if you will be able to put benefit cards in FOBT's ?

How many on here  would  lose RUK 

I plan to offer a service. You buy my groceries and I'll buy you're cigs and booze (for a small commission)!

I think that will be a very competitive market roggrain.
Of course it could be a cunning ploy by the government to increase the number of small businesses.

I think a better measure would be to suspend the governments wages if
they are doing poorly at the tasks at hand and perhaps
its the thought of losing the next election that drives
the spin engines into old school poor bashing performances
in the hope of gaining votes from also dysfunctional members
of the public that blame all problems on the next one down the social ladder.

I think this country urgently needs some real leadership and much more thoughtful new practices.

If the Tories cant change misaligned concepts and outlooks on British society
one doubt's it has any real chance of changing the fortunes of the British economy
bar saving money via dismantling important services.

The tories and so called Labour are interested in only one thing:Doing the will of big business.

it wont happen but he,x how they,d like it to happen,

because of the tech involved they,ll say only camerons friends the big supermarkets can process the cards, thus the demise of the corner shop
they,ll be 1 or 2 equiped cash outs so the people on benefits will be stigmatised
cameron and gideons friends in the city will land multi million pound contract to make and service the cards,

so those who contributed most to the crash will gain the most and those who contibuted least will be stigmatised, you couldnt make it up

did the coalition bleat on about the horrendus cost of id cards

One step closer to what David Icke has been saying for years, Cashless society, more control, then comes the micro chipped population

How many of the public school educated have ever done anything remotely resembling hard work,they can,t all be super clever "the country needs them types" so how come they ALL have cushy jobs,they are in the media"control the masses" law/civil service/the citeh/government and that,s just the Tories how can you expect these people to have 1 iota about the other 99% of us,how many of them have/had kids in Iraq/Afghanistan yet these are the youngsters who are kaying their LIVES ON THE LINE only to return to be told that you and your family will have their benefits cut their opportunity of a better life cut and this for Queen and Country what a f---ing hoot that is,we have only ourelves to blame we take it all the time,there has to be a better way a better system and maybe if the Duncan_-Smiths of this life had actually WORKED for a living they would have a different perspective on life,this also applies to ALL those so called LABOUR men/women,I remember a 6 part programme called Bellini,s Britain in which the presenter in the final episode asked on the steps of some Oxford hall how many of those who graduated were going into manufacturing well to a man/woman they looked at him as if he were a Martian and burst out laughing yes not one of them,we have the lowest % of graduates in the developed world that take up positions in manufacturing,so I,m all for sorting out the shysters but they don,t all live on council estates.

unfortunately that all started in 1066 Barney
after the battle of Hastings
Normans - top, Saxons - bottom

ebulGery at least circa that time the leaders led aka "Arold" it would be interesting to know the % of our elected "honourable" members had close relatives in the war zones,at least Prince Arry was in Afghanistan or was it Shepperton Studios? how many have ever WORKED in manufacturing something very close to their hearts not many I,ll warrant,yet they lecture/hector on this subject but you cannot ask the pertinent questions of them as the media are all in the "club",see Becca Dodgy,s mate er or something get,s 12ml pay off for f---ing up where the fcuk did she turn up from,up here in Scotland we have "Labour" shouting down any alternatives and this after a lifetime in control and doing eff all,shouting from the rooftops about Eck fibbing after not 1 word from them about the WMDs killing hundreds of thousands and squandering billions of pounds they are probably the worst of the lot and that,s saying something,have you ever noticed how many of these public school presenters/celebs get to traipse 1/2 way round the world spouting this and that about anything and everything that,s allready been spouted about 9/10 times,nice WORK if you can get it.

would agree with all of that Barney

It is a competitive world, we have to acknowledge that. But if our country/society wants to do well
we do need to all be pulling in roughly the same direction.This does not happen enough imo

It is hard to take something away from people, or even countries, that they have become accustomed to.
When this country was at his most successful it was on the backs of the poor. They lived and worked in appalling
conditions. The better off did well and in their hearts will never give that up.

The countries in which most people cooperate and work together, will do best in the long run
It is the advantage of some 'altruism' in nature. It benefits the pack/species.

Also we have very poor moral values....right or wrong do not exist anymore.

I would like to a return to the values of the 1950s.
i.e. People get married(to a member of the opposite sex!) have children, the husband goes out to work to support them,
the wife stays at home and looks after children.
We need not be too rigid on this this, woman have to work part time to help support their families, some women
choose a career over families, etc.
But it is a tried and tested method which has worked for centuries, we should not discard it lightly.

Your right ebulGERY but I wouldn,t expect people to give up what they EARNED geuinely but a majority of these people do not really contribute to the whole of society,just look at the Duke of Westminster all or most of his wealth was inherited all that prime land given to his forebears we the country should own it pay him a wage to run it,ffs during the American war of Independance the king granted 550.000 acres of prime land in New Hampshire to one of his favourites,meanwhile the troops are laying down their lives,you couldn,t make it up.

Yes, now some folk are beginning to take the long term view and see the big picture.
However, even the anti-conservatives have made some glaring errors on the thread.

Immigration did NOT start in the Fifties, thouhgh that is when larger numbers of West Indians shipped in.
I regret to say that my own lot and, i think, yours, Barney, were amongst the first mass migrants back in the Eighteen Sixties. In fact, I'm sick pointing this out to people who nowadays are very shallow and very lazy when it comers to research.

Though few will bother, check out this by googling " history of Wolverhampton in the 1860s".
Unless they've taken it down, it tells how the Bishop of Wolverhampton called for action to stop the invasion by the " dirty Irish poor."

Now, closer to home for Barney, we should realise that Glasgow was just a wee fkn meadow before immigration. Some sweaties like to blame  the Tims for every fkn ill, but, the truth is that there was plenty of immigration from the Highlands of Scotland when the bstrds cleared the folk out.

Yet further back, we see that the Scots ( not even a majority in their own land) came in from Ireland, while, also, there are at least four other nationalities represented in the current population make -up of the place.

--

Moving on to the slagging off of the upper echelons of the ruling class, which is obviously justified in many ways, we should note that not all the Hooray Henries are total silly bollocks. There have been a few very hard and able men among them.
In fact, that Ranulph Fiennes guy would probably have been almost as good as our very own Fifing rambo, gleann toby mush, who, by his own account was the hardest and cleverest and richest man ever to patrol the Falls Road.

Talking about Belfast, we quickly see where the " blame the immigrant for everthing" case, either falls down or clinches the argument.
By this i refer to the current unrest from the british underclass who now find themselves almost deserted by their own rulers.
Not a bit of wonder they're out on the streets doing damage, when they must feel totally betrayed and let down by their fellow citizens who actually reside over in Great Britain.

It has often been said that an irishman becomes more Irish the further he goes from Ireland, and I guess there's a grain of truth in this.
Could the same be true for these Scotch and Englishmen, who've lived in Ireland for years and years? Judging by the flag-waving, I think it probably could.

Just like with birds, migration is a natural, on-going thing. It has to be, but, this doesn't mean it will be conflict free.
No bggr likes to see his land overrun by bstrds.

Spot on sean having been born in Glasgow I well know the hatred directed at those of us with Irish/catholic blood,it is as prevalent now as ever it was,it is a hatred born of ignorance/fear/lack of confidence and most of all parental input/lack of,to witness it to be involved with it is so mind numbing,to hate for the sake of hate is really hard to comprehend and deal with,to get back to the subject didn,t we ALL migrate from Africa,I don,t suppose that 3/4s of the world that came under the umbrella that was the "British Empire" were enamoured at the invasion of their homeland by white settlers,bit of pay back maybe.

Britain spending more on benefits than Scandinavians with 7 out of 10 children living in a home receiving handouts

Around 2.1 million children live in a home where no adult is working

Less-well off have become enslaved to state benefits, study says


By Tim Shipman
22:10 GMT, 21 December 2012

Britain pays out more on welfare than high spending social democratic nations in Scandinavia, according to a think-tank.

Nearly seven out of ten children now live in a home that receives at least one cash handout other than child benefit, says the hard-hitting study by the Institute for Economic Affairs.

And some 17 per cent of children – around 2.1 million – live in a home where no adult is working ‘easily the highest rate in Europe’.


The think-tank’s report, Redefining the Poverty Debate, spells out how a generation of the less well-off have become enslaved to state benefits that have done little to cure the problem of poverty.

It says: ‘Social expenditure in the UK stands at one of the highest levels in the world.

‘In terms of overall social spending, the UK has overtaken traditionally social democratic nations such as the Netherlands, Norway and Finland.

‘In terms of family benefits (spending on items such as child tax credit, child benefit, childcare subsidies) the UK has overtaken all of the Nordic countries.’

Figures published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development last year show that Britain spends 3.6 per cent of national income on benefits for families.


That compares with 3.4 per cent in Sweden, 3.3 per cent in Denmark, 2.9 per cent in Norway and 2.8 per cent in the Netherlands.

Kristian Niemietz of the IEA writes: ‘The conventional textbook distinction between a high-spending Nordic model and a lowspending Anglo-Saxon model has become completely obsolete.

‘The state has become a major income provider for well over half the population.’

For households in the bottom 20 per cent of the income scale ‘the government is the main breadwinner, with cash benefits representing by far the most important income source’.

Mr Niemietz added: ‘What is more remarkable is that, in the second quintile, cash transfers also contribute almost as much to total income as market earnings.


Even households in the middle quintile receive a quarter of their income directly from the state.’

The report also calls for radical reforms to welfare spending to end penalties in the system that makes families ‘financially better off’ to split up.

The report found that a couple with two children both working 16 hours a week would receive £11,545 in tax credits and child benefit, while a single parent with one child working would receive £8,160, meaning the same couple could earn more than £16,000 if they separated.

The report warns that even the government’s new universal credit system will do little to iron out the problems.

It argues that the average family could be £745 better off if ministers backed more planning reforms to reduce house prices, reformed the Common Agricultural Policy to slash food costs, reduced sin taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, removed subsidies for green energy and deregulated childcare services.

Calling for a radical rethink of how to tackle poverty, the report found that sin taxes eat up 10 per cent of the disposable income of the poorest families.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251875/Britain-spending-benefits-Sc...
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Barney- if you want to go back far enough- 2012 research tells us that  modern man came out of Africa- and x-bred with Neanderthals -non-Africans

pure blood  Africans are the only pure **** sapiens modern man)

the rest of us are mongrels- and the shorter/stockier heavy set bodies-  and ginger hair - are traits indicative of higher % of Neanderthal genes

As for hatred of the Scots- surely its all good banter these days - we english are the same with the Welsh and the French and the Germans etc - and they to us

fecks sake

wont even let me write h  o mo sapiens

whats wrong with this place?

p.s. bring on the new card system asap

I have always thought 'sin taxes' grossly unfair

Very sobering...and on top of that we have an ageing population to support

We live in in a deeply divided society, different demographics have widely different outlook on things

Unchecked immigtation has deeply damaged our society. But our politicians do nothing,
but tell us we have to accept multiculturism..nobody ever asked us...
but we are all to blame in this..we voted the politicians in...so I assume people like immigration

Feminism another greatly divisive influence..lets divide society into two groups and have them fighting another
men were made to feel guilty just to be men, especially white middle age ones, the best we had actually......very very damaging

Also the young have their own complete culture, no respect for the old anymore
I could go on....

We have brought the current situation on ourselves..in, my imo, when we took a wrong turn in the 1980s
It was decided society would be based purely on personal greed and selfishness
No more 'Im backing Britain' slogans...that we had in the 1970s....sad

Personal freedoms nd obligations to society are always a delicate balance

But we have stopped pulling together at all as a nation imo
you see its Britain against the world, united we stand, divided we fall ...

above view is open to discussion of course

tories sold all council houses for peanuts ,just think how much they would be worth today? more then the gold vaule.sorry about my grammer went to school under a torie gov.

dont give a doo-dah we are all going to hell in a hand cart

Yes, things will undoubtedly get worse before we see any improvement, but, hey, it's not too bad.

The UK is still one of the best places in the world in which to live. There's f all can be done about the weather.

My own place has the same problem, but that's not as bad as the high cost of living and the fact that for more than 1000 years we've been ruled by gangsters.

Barney, on that Glasgow thing, we should remember that it is human and animal nature to fkn hate any bggr else who comes on " our patch". Have ye still got those "teams" there?

The bigotry is on our side too; I well remember lads born and bred in Scotland marching up and down with our flag and deriding the jocks. How fkn stupid!

Peaceful co-existence would be a good global aim, but, as gamblers, like the song says, the best we can hope for is to die in ourr sleep!

Fk the cards and fk all the governments! They're all bstrds.

I reckon it is time to stop having threads like this on Betfair! We all have enough bloody DEPRESSING news to deal with every day without having it on a betting exchange. ANAGLOGS!!!! CUT IT OUT!! SMAD PLACE FOR THE LONG WALK! ANY OTHER OPINIONS?????????

i'm not going to argue with the likes of EVILROYSLADE

stupid idea, how can you spend them on e-bay. lots of people try to save money on household goods through the internet. If this stupid idea goes through them on benefits will be paying top whack in the high street stores for household goods and clothes. and what about toys for xmas for their kids (sorry your xmas is stopped)

Let,s bring this rivetting subject to a cloae with the immortal words "you,ll die if you do and you,ll die if you don,t". good luck all.

gl barney

To you to ebulGERY good luck/health to all this Christmas think of those less fortunate and it will shine a light for you,"let the people sing"

Government to snoop on computer use of jobless to check they are looking for work

New website will monitor whether unemployed search for three jobs a week

Benefits will be cut for those who do not do enough to look for work

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith says website will match vacancies to jobless 'while they sleep'
Labour opposes 1% cap on rises in benefits



By Daniel Martin http://www.dailymail.co.uk
21 December 2012


The jobless are to be tracked online to see if they are looking for work.

A new website launched by ministers will remotely monitor whether benefits claimants are making enough effort to find employment.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith warned that jobseekers could see their benefits slashed if they fail to look for three jobs a week on the ‘revolutionary’ new government website.

He unveiled the new site, Universal Jobmatch, which will enable jobseekers to input their details into a computer system and then receive suitable vacancies.

The system will trawl vacancies while the jobless are asleep in a bid to get them into work, Mr Duncan Smith said.

They will also receive advice on what skills they needed to improve their chances of finding work.

He warned that those who do not make an effort and use the service could see their benefits cut.

‘If you choose not to take a job that matches you, then the adviser will look at your reasons, and if the adviser thinks “actually, these are pretty specious reasons”, he may call you in and say “I think you really need to be applying for these jobs”,’ he said.

The system will be fully launched in the New Year following a trial period, with 370,000 companies already using it to advertise jobs. Online recruitment firm Monster will manage the site, which will be compulsory for jobseekers to use at the start of next year.

Mr Duncan Smith said the system was ‘brilliant’, adding: ‘It will be accessible in internet cafes, libraries and on personal computers.

‘It is a real revolution in the way we match future employers with would-be employees. Your CV will do the work for you, even when you are sleeping, and notify you that a suitable job has become available.’

Meanwhile, Mr Duncan Smith is prepared for a political battle with Labour over the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill, published yesterday.

The bill limits the year-on-year increase of benefits to 1 per cent – around the same level as the increase in wages for working people.

Chancellor George Osborne claimed in the Commons the cap was to ensure fairness for those who go to work while their neighbours have their curtains drawn.

But Liam Byrne, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, said many benefits claimants in work would also be hit.

‘The Strivers’ Tax Bill is a naked attack on hard working families to pay the price for this government’s economic failure,’ he said.

‘I want to bring down the welfare bill. But the way we do that is with jobs. Labour will not support a bill that does nothing to create a single new job yet punishes those who work.’

Mr Duncan Smith has also backed a new payment card for benefit claimants with drink and drug addictions – to prevent them from wasting taxpayers’ money fuelling their habits.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said his department was studying the possibility of introducing a ‘welfare card’ for claimants with drug and alcohol addiction problems.

The plan, under which claimants would receive the card rather than cash and would only be able to buy certain essential items, is being pushed by Tory backbencher Alec Shelbrooke.