UK Timeline : The Big Benefits Row Live

No, I was rebutting one of Gary's incorrect assertions.

Sorry, I should have been more specific - where G stated "with her representing the Conservative Party"

[Gary L]

Come on H, everyone can see she's a true Conservative.
you've only got to listen to her.

[Jimmy-J]

Bonus Street.

Times are already good on Bonus Street and now they're getting better. The residents who have more money that they could ever possibly know what to do with, are having to learn to get by... on even more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZN-MYaQavo

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Hugh

No, I was rebutting one of Gary's incorrect assertions.

Sorry, I should have been more specific - where G stated "with her representing the Conservative Party"

Gary wasn't incorrect in his assertion

she said that she had expected to do well on the apprentice but would love to become a conservative MP

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...artbroken.html

I doubt she'll ever fulfil that ambition now, as unpalatable as her self publicising views are at least she has them, politicians don't, their bland inoffensive little wallflowers

[Jimmy-J]

Finally got to watch it...

20 million people on benefits. Britain's total benefit bill is £166-billion, £1.2-billion of that a year is down to fraud, less than 1% of the total benefits bill.

Payments to pensioners make up more than half the social security spend.

£16 billion of benefits left unclaimed.

----

Found this to be a good read.

Inciting hatred against the poor and hungry – a new British bigotry

That food bank users are blamed for their own impoverishment is to imply that they have more choices, power and agency than the banks that created the 2007/8 financial crash and the political establishment that bailed them out with our money.

That the Red Cross has to distribute food parcels in this country for the first time since 1948 shows a sickness at the core of one of the world’s richest nations - anger about that sickness should not be directed against the people who are obliged to endure its symptoms, but against the government which has overseen such a shameful development.

We must not allow this perversion of the truth and the crass scapegoating of the poorest in British society to remain unchallenged.

Let us not judge people by the colour of their skin, their religious beliefs, their gender or by their relative poverty.

Britain's Public Enemy #1

It is not a war against debt at all – it is a war against the poor.

Anyone in poverty is a target – the working poor, the unemployed poor, poor people with disabilities, poor immigrants, sick people with little money and old people with no money. Every day the war on debt implicitly blames, stigmatises and punishes those without the money or power to defend themselves.

[TheDaddy]

I dispute this 1% figure, what's the criteria for benefit fraud?

[deadite66]

A teenage girl getting pregnant to get a council house/flat isn't classed as fraud but perhaps it should be.
proving it would be the tricky part.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by Paul M

I have no idea who Katie Hopkins is, but it sounds like I havent missed much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Hopkins

[Jimmy-J]

The 1% is the governments own figure, maybe it's much more, or much less?

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by Jimmy-J

Inciting hatred against the poor and hungry – a new British bigotry

Note the absolute black and white certainties of the bigot – all people on benefits are spongers in the same way that a bigot labels all young black men as muggers or all Muslims as terrorists. Same **** different target, but for some reason its ok right now to throw hatred at poor people.

We are hypocrites, and Bigots.
we are strange bunch of humans. we don't know our arse from our elbow sometimes.

whilst we're defending what's fashionable at the time to defend. we're quite happy to hate and attack another section of society.

some of us need to be led. we're all lost sheep.

all this is going to turn around soon.
it's gone past the stage of saving money. with Daves help it has turned into pure hatred.
Society is officially at War with each other. and Dave was the one who authorised it under his watch.

Anyway. back to looking after ginger people.
(unless that ginger person is on benefits)

[Stephen]

I tried to watch it but had to switch off. Tht Katie Hopkins is a nasty piece of work and just kept wanting to punch her in the face.

Not a clue on reality at all.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by Gary L

Note the absolute black and white certainties of the bigot – all people on benefits are spongers in the same way that a bigot labels all young black men as muggers or all Muslims as terrorists. Same **** different target, but for some reason its ok right now to throw hatred at poor people.

We are hypocrites, and Bigots.
we are strange bunch of humans. we don't know our arse from our elbow sometimes.

whilst we're defending what's fashionable at the time to defend. we're quite happy to hate and attack another section of society.

some of us need to be led. we're all lost sheep.

all this is going to turn around soon.
it's gone past the stage of saving money. with Daves help it has turned into pure hatred.

That is a harsh spin on it. But I have to agree to some truth in it.

I don't actually know where all the anger surrounding claimants is now aimed at. It seems to have become a blur. I think it's a case of 'I'm alright Jack, I pay taxes and I don't want it to go on people who sponge and have a cushy life and end up having more than me'. But ended up somehow tarring everyone on benefits with the same brush.

I could argue that anyone claiming child benefit is hypocritical if they are against people who claim other benefits. If they have a 'right' to them, who should argue?

I don't think it's going to get any better, I have a horrible feeling it's just going to get a whole lot worse than it is now.

[Gary L]

Originally Posted by peanut

I could argue that anyone claiming child benefit is hypocritical if they are against people who claim other benefits. If they have a 'right' to them, who should argue?

I know someone who works.
they get:
Tax Credit Benefit
Child Benefit
and Housing Benefit of around £550 pm

I know someone that doesn't work, and they get a total of around £70 benefit.

I don't think it's going to get any better, I have a horrible feeling it's just going to get a whole lot worse than it is now.

It probably is.
it's probably going to get a lot worse in the way of retaliation. and it's effect on the other half of society.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by Gary L

I know someone who works.
they get:
Tax Credit Benefit
Child Benefit
and Housing Benefit of around £550 pm

I know someone that doesn't work, and they get a total of around £70 benefit.
.

And I bet they moan at the people who ain't in work, calling them spongers and dossers etc.

Because it's all now a mess (that program didn't help any cause), the ignorance surround benefits is astounding.

I can not work (just by saying that I'm sure some would disagree and say that I could do something as I'm at a PC typing so therefore could be put to some use and get off benefits). But anyway, I can not work, my wife works as carers allowance and other benefits just won't be enough to live on, and that the fear of losing certain benefits could mean we can lose everything in the process.

So people think because I don't work that my wife and I are claiming everything under the sun. Well all I claim for is ESA (support group) and DLA and that's it. We pay full rent, C Tax, dental, everything basically. We do not qualify for anything else because my wife works and gets just above minimum wage.

Or my brother who has worked all his life, he's been made redundant, his wife works, on just above min wage, he was put on JSA, even after going for everything he's not been able to gain employment so now after 6 months he get NOTHING. So he has a mortgage etc with just one low wage coming in. So where's the help there? It's all wrong.

So those that oppose welfare are taking their anger out on the wrong people in my opinion. But causing more damage in the process.

I can assure you that my benefits help, they give us a chance to live. But even if I won the lottery, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

[Jimmy-J]

Employers should pay a decent living wage, then employees wouldn't have to claim benefits to top up their wage. Most people who work are living hand to mouth, working all the hours they can just to survive. I reckon the majority of people who work and who want to work, only want to be treated and paid well enough to be able to have the luxury of some savings in the bank, a holiday once a year, maybe a car and a chance to own their own home, and start a family etc... But the way things are now, there's little chance of that.