Off Topic Politics Thread

My wife and I await the budget, particularly the ESA and PIP reductions, with trepidation.
It's bad enough living with a terminal illness (my wife), but knowing that she is unlikely to live long enough to see a penny of the state pension, (that she has contributed to through NI payments over 40+ years), reducing her ESA and PIP, and with it her living standards, is just rubbing salt into the wounds.

 

I'm sure that the thoughts of all of us are with you, and I'm not trying to make a cheap political point. Put simply, vulnerable people shouldn't be subjected to this kind of anxiety.

 

Perhaps they should reduce benefits to those who claim, but have a huge TV, Sky, the latest iphone, game consoles for their multitudinous children, buy mainly take-aways and smoke/drink to excess .........

As a pensioner (who still can't take his pension - long story) I don't think I could afford Sky and I certainly cannot afford a take-away more than once in a while as a special treat ..............

It's a minefield and I agree that the really needy must be protected, but there are skellums out there who take advantage of the system (my ex used to work for the DHSS - as then was - and she said even then there were loads of people milking the system ......)

 

You do realise how low benefit cheating etc is right? The Government just make it sound bad to turn people against people on benefits.

 

A politician is someone who seeks political power so that (s)he can look after the vested interests of his or her mates.

 

I know it's low - but I also know it goes on. And (sorry to bang a drum) I also know that children brought up to parents on benefits appear to have little incentive to go out and actually work their way up. That's an issue - we are in a downward spiral of "I deserve it because the government are all crooks (whichever party is in) and the "rich" (meaning anyone actually working to better themselves) should be soaked".
I don't know what happened to pride in doing well and lifting yourself up through work and graft. Too many of them (from all walks of life) appear to want something from nothing, when they've actually got a better deal (in some cases) than I did when I first started working.
I had a row with my girlfriend's daughter the other day. This is a young lady who has just finished university and started her first job. Her mother is self-employed and works like stink to try and make ends meet. The daughter comes in from work and is "too tired" to do anything, so sits looking at her phone all evening whilst her mother is finishing work, then has the gall to tell me that she should get paid more (she's on a lot more than the minimum wage) and people like me should pay more taxes to enable her to do it. I despair ...........

 

No-one who says they want to be a politician should be allowed to be one and no-one should be allowed to enter parliament without working in both the public and private sector for a minimum of 10 years in total. That way they might actually know what goes on and how the "real" people live ................

 

Oh Badger. That sucks. Thinking of you.

 

I would say hope you don't get screwed over but we all know it is going to happen. I will say, hope you don't get screwed over as much as people think is going to happen. Thinking of you as well.

 

Problem is the people that pass on claiming benefits to their children and so on are given no help. Yes I know some are just lazy and can't be bothered. But then some are so poorly educated they have no chance of getting work. It would help if the job centre could get these people to do course etc. But then 99% of the time they have a qouter to reach. Everything about benefits is geared to give the people as little as possible. Instead of trying to help them learn and get a job.

For many it isn't about pride. It's because they have been stepped on and seen as scum so many times they are down or even depressed.

The Job Centre does not treat people as people at all. Every one is classed as scum whether you are actively trying or not. When I was on it for 2 months I kept getting asked if I was actually trying as I didn't look like a person that tries.

 

Douglas Adams, as usual, puts it far better than I could...

"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made a politician** should on no account be allowed to do the job."

He's pretty good is Mr Adams. Why the hell did he do something extremely inconvenient like pop his clogs!?!
**original is President

 

No one ever asks middle-class people if they've spent their money wisely, though.

Like here in the US, you get a tax-break for owning your house, and tax incentives to save for college etc. I'll wager that the percentage of middle class people who have premium cable, large screen TV's, nice clothes, plus taking fancy vacations, having nice furniture, etc. is much higher than that of poor people. And yet they are still borrowing/taking government money to finance their houses and send their kids to college. No one calls that a scam.

 

I had a period of unemployment recently, and when I went to (reluctantly) sign on at the Job Centre, I said to the guy behind the desk that I really didn't want to be doing this. He replied that almost no one did. It's quite a degrading experience trying to claim what you are entitled to, even after decades of paying taxes, and whilst I'm sure there is a handful of people who'd rather claim than work, I'm betting they're outnumbered by the thousands who'd rather walk barefoot over broken glass than have to jump through the hoops the govt holds up for claimants.

 

A very cynical view, and exactly what the right wing press want you to believe. In directing public anger to politicians - who are public servants after all - attention is diverted from the greedy 1% who are really ripping us all off.

 

I volunteer at the local Foodbank. I hear the stories of those who have been sanctioned; most would make people's hair curl! My "favourite" recently was a bloke who's walked 8 miles to the wrong office for an assessment because the letter wrongly told him to go there. Because he didn't go to the "right office" (less than a mile from his home) he was sanctioned for 4 weeks. For those who don't know the system, it means he has no benefit at all for 4 weeks and lives off handouts from charities and mates.

I meet ne'er do wells and "scroungers" but they are rare. Most are people painted into a corner by an uncaring system. The daft thing is, Joe and Josephine Bloggs out there are actually very generous. When we do food collections at Tesco (well done Tesco!) we are overwhelmed by the kindness of people. They'll give baskets of food and still drop £10 in the cash box. Something not quite right with our communications somewhere. I'm sure if they were asked to pay extra taxes so that we would not need Foodbanks they'd be in agreement.

 

I do not deny that there are scumbags on the dole, but so what? There are scumbags in every walk of life, and plenty of them avoid far more in taxes that are lost to benefit fraud.

As for the latest hare-brained plan "save £50 a month and, if you don't touch it for two years, we'll give you half again"... The idea that anyone in such straitened circumstances could afford to set aside £50 a month, every month for two years is farcical. Investing in local Credit Unions would be a far more effective means to foster a saving culture and would strike a major blow at the loan-sharks and other parasites that feed off other's misery.

 

I got sanctioned for a week (when I was on JSA for a month) because I didn't want to apply for a tele sales job that had been put in the wrong job category...

 

Every single school in the country to leave local government's control.

 

I was on JSA for a month after uni, I had more qualifications than the guy who was in charge of getting me a job. He forced me to apply for a job at a onestop in Portsmouth (40 minutes travel one-way for me), minimum wage, among other things. He was right about one thing though, even minimum wage jobs pay far more than JSA does a week.

He hated the fact I preferred applying for decent graduate jobs rather than minimum wage jobs. Luckily only on it for a month.

 

Quite possibly one of the worst things yet to emerge from the steaming pile of rotting dog turds that make up Her Majesty's Government.