The state benefits system mega-thread.

Gary, you are jealous of Iain Duncan Smith's money and possessions. Why else are you talking about them? They have nothing to do with how our benefits system is run.

[Will21st]

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

no because he is rich and wants to make the country a better place he should work for free

Ah,finally we get to the core... I suggest you read back what you wrote,the envy is literally dripping from the words you wrote.

Originally Posted by Chris

So the answer is yes, you're jealous of his money.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I don't know.

He didn't marry into high political office though. That was as a result of hard work and a lot of determination, especially so in IDS's case, seeing as he was unceremoniously dumped as party leader. Many senior politicians have simply given up and taken cushy jobs at charities and pressure groups with less provocation.

He's taking the underclass' second favourite drug,benefits,away from them,that's some serious withdrawal symptoms showing.I reckon in a couple of years they'll be over it.

Originally Posted by Gary L

If he married into money then he didn't technically 'work' for it did he.
an MP doesn't count as work really. it's just one of them work positions where everything is paid for by the taxpayer. so whatever money you do 'earn' you can keep saving it all up

Really? So his money did the work for him to get him where he is now?

Originally Posted by Gary L

Found this on his website.

still jelly Bro.

Originally Posted by Chris

Gary, you are jealous of Iain Duncan Smith's money and possessions. Why else are you talking about them? They have nothing to do with how our benefits system is run.

No way,if IDS hadn't done so well for himself then people on benefits wouldn't have to starve....

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Will21st

Yes,he's a high-ranking Member of Government and has worked hard to get there.... your point being?

Really, worked hard, it wasn't as a result of who he went to school with then, well done him, he's not the norm in this government it seems.

---------- Post added at 15:56 ---------- Previous post was at 15:53 ----------

Originally Posted by Will21st

Really? Considering frequent 18 hour days,the enormous responsibility and prodigious workload I'd actually say the pay is pathetic. Someone that high up in the private sector wouldn't get up in the morning for £1600 a week...

What makes you think the private sector would want them?

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Really, worked hard, it wasn't as a result of who he went to school with then, well done him, he's not the norm in this government it seems.

A Roman Catholic comprehensive in Solihull, apparently.

If you're concerned about the schooling of our senior politicians, blame the idiots that scrapped the Grammar schools. They were a powerful engine of social mobility but because not everyone could go to them, they were burned on the altar of fairness and equality, the same thinly-veiled religion of envy and jealously that says people who have done well for themselves - or who have parents who did - are somehow worthy of hatred and derision, simply for daring to have a bigger bank balance than the rest of us.

[Will21st]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Really, worked hard, it wasn't as a result of who he went to school with then, well done him, he's not the norm in this government it seems.[COLOR="Silver"]

Funny that,I went to a private school in Germany with some of my fellow pupils coming from extremely wealthy and/or very influential families.... and I still had to work hard to get to where I am today.
Fact is you have to work hard no matter what your background to be successful...
Background and privilege may give you a head-start but if you're rubbish at what you do than that won't help you.I see this in the Film Industry all the time.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

What makes you think the private sector would want them?

THAT is another point altogether....

[muppetman11]

He's a stand up guy getting people off benefits is his speciality , he managed in 2001 to secure his unemployed wife a £15,000 salary off of the taxpayer acting as his diary secretary , if that doesn't show his commitment to the cause I don't know what will.

Originally Posted by muppetman11

He's a stand up guy getting people off benefits is his speciality , he managed in 2001 to secure his unemployed wife a £15,000 salary off of the taxpayer acting as his diary secretary , if that doesn't show his commitment to the cause.

Of course, no self-employed person in the private sector has ever spread his business income around members of his family in order to make best use of allowances and tax rules.

Many MPs did many ridiculous things that were uncovered during the expenses scandal but I happen to think employing spouses to run their offices was not one of them. YMMV naturally.

[Will21st]

Originally Posted by Chris

snipthey were burned on the altar of fairness and equality, the same thinly-veiled religion of envy and jealously that says people who have done well for themselves - or who have parents who did - are somehow worthy of hatred and derision, simply for daring to have a bigger bank balance than the rest of us.

Thinking about it,being more intelligent than others is also an unfair advantage,I hope one day we'll find a way to get everyone an even head-start of say an IQ of 100.

Being totally honest i couldn't give a fig who has what or where they did or didn't go to school i just want a welfare system that does what it is meant to and is not a politicians football anytime they want to abuse it for their own ends. Are too many on disability yes there are at the time of the last election there were about a million people claiming disability benefits that should not have been but were because for labour it was easier to encourage them to go on disability and not show up on the unemployment figures then to actually do anything real and long lasting to create proper jobs.

All political parties in power have misused the benefit system for their own ends over the decades and while this lot talk about sorting it all out they are not really, they are still leaving the system wide open for political abuse the next time any of them need to use it so whose right or wrong. This time we have the triumphant chant of creating a million jobs just gets a bit sketchy on what sort of jobs full time or part time majority of them being part time not paying a living wage and not lowering the welfare dependence that much as they earn so little they still need benefits to top them up maybe less then they were getting maybe more the system is such a mess it's hard to tell.

As for the so called bedroom tax hitting a lot of people that wanted to and couldn't do a thing to avoid it because wanting to downsize doesn't matter when the housing is not there to downsize too which was the case for a lot of people. It's all just another load of hot air sounds good looks good even on paper but get down to the detail and it's as useless as all before it. Anyone speaks against what this government is doing and they quickly get labelled "socialist", "freeloader", "anti tory" it really is a joke there are serious points about this so called benefit reform that need to be examined and debated by all groups in society and no debate is allowed because one side is right and the other side is wrong.

Such a moronic approach to the whole thing it clearly avoids both entrenched sides that both sides have some right and some wrong and the smart thing to do would be to meet in the middle but no were into a good old slanging match it's all or nothing folks and most of the talking is being done by people that are not even affected by any of it. For the record i am a claimant would dearly love not to be but i have a medical condition that has royally screwed me i have been a Tory voter all my life but the conservatism i was bought up to believe in isn't what this government are doing. I fully agree the system needs reform and needs tightening up, i also think it is only fair at times of economic hardship that claimants don't get more then those who work have no problem with any of that.

Never in my life have i ever been referred to as a socialist only on this forum have i been called that all because i don't think this reform is going to do sod all to sort the problem out. It is political pandering to society backed with distortion of facts and ridiculous rhetoric which we heard more of today from osbourne with his "workers are right" rubbish. People that are unemployed don't stop being workers they are simply workers without work usually through no fault of their own hopefully for a short time and his speech today was so divisive it was unbelievable.

For the very small section that does believe in benefit for life when they are capable of work i fully endorse them being hit and hit as hard as we can to make them work but they are a minority and that needs to be remembered and we don't need a sledgehammer to crack this nut we need people with their eye on the problem and not the next headline or poll.

Originally Posted by Stuart

Bear in mind that even where there *are* jobs, a lot of people haven't taken them.

Hence all the foreign workers i come across doing jobs in warehousing and food processing ,all of which are working legitimately for multi nationals and definitely not for less than the minimum wage,in many cases above .If some of our unemployed weren't so fussy about the work they do then we wouldn't have so many foreign workers taking jobs away from them .

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by martyh

Hence all the foreign workers i come across doing jobs in warehousing and food processing ,all of which are working legitimately for multi nationals and definitely not for less than the minimum wage,in many cases above .If some of our unemployed weren't so fussy about the work they do then we wouldn't have so many foreign workers taking jobs away from them .

I must admit that does irritate me, when I'd finished at college I started work in a warehouse cleaning up. didn't give a crap as it was a job. k think it's easier to get another job if you're already doing one. I dint think I should've been fussy.

Originally Posted by dilligaf1701

I must admit that does irritate me, when I'd finished at college I started work in a warehouse cleaning up. didn't give a crap as it was a job. k think it's easier to get another job if you're already doing one. I dint think I should've been fussy.

I had the same discussion with my oldest son last week .He finishes college this year with good results(2 degrees) but is too fussy about the work he will take .I have suggested taking any work to get on the working ladder because as you say it is much easier to get work if you are already working ,i have certainly found that to be the case

---------- Post added at 17:40 ---------- Previous post was at 17:34 ----------

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...a-gambler.html

OH Dear ,seems mister "i live on £53 a week" is an out and out......well i won't say it on a public forum

A father who dared Iain Duncan Smith to live up to his claim that he could survive on £53 a week has been revealed as a gambler and a self-confessed 'ducker and diver'.

However, it has been revealed that Mr Bennett has accounts on poker websites and used some of his inheritance to gamble in December, the Daily Mail reported.

On his Twitter account, Mr Bennett's profile says 'Poker player, self-employed ducker and diver', although he changed this yesterday to 'Market trader', and adds that his hobbies are 'football, poker and beer'.

In February, he tweeted to two gambling tipsters saying: "Rough day today lads, gonna have to find your magic potion again soon." The previous month, he tweeted he had won an accumulator bet at odds of 28/1.

When he was confronted about his betting, Mr Bennett replied: "I won more money than I lost."

Great. If he has that sort of disposable income, despite having to claim housing benefit, then he won't have any objections to paying towards the cost of his spare rooms.

That discredits him it does not alter the fact IDS spoke crap

And I am not envious of IDS I am quite happy how I am now I have my ESA sorted out with how things have worked out for me I am not actually better off Just as I have said before standing by my convictions and I do not care how someone tries to discredit me here I will continue to

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

That discredits him it does not alter the fact IDS spoke crap

And I am not envious of IDS I am quite happy how I am now I have my ESA sorted out with how things have worked out for me I am not actually better off Just as I have said before standing by my convictions and I do not care how someone tries to discredit me here I will continue to

Personal experience may offer insight, however lack of personal experience does not disqualify someone from coming to a considered point of view. If you were less minded to think people who don't share your experiences have less to contribute then you might be less prone to assuming that's what other people are doing to you.