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BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Silas Date: 10 Apr 11 - 10:06 AM Hoist by your own petard - Daily Mail - most people who actually think for themselves would not would not even wipe their arse with the daily mail. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Silas Date: 10 Apr 11 - 10:38 AM So..........quantity = quality in your opinion? nuf said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email) Date: 10 Apr 11 - 11:42 AM Circulation figures speak for themselves. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Will Fly Date: 10 Apr 11 - 12:03 PM Circulation figures speak for themselves. But what do they say? I'm loathe to get into this thread again because stuff such as this is rarely productive but... I happen to know quite a bit about Paul Dacre and his Merry Men. His purpose, and the purpose of the group that owns Mail, is to make money. Money is to be made by selling news - but money is also to be made by giving people what they want to hear. Dacre and his crew play to the populist imagination by the process of demonising certain parts of society and these are, more often than not, the classes of society which can't fight back through the Mail's pages, haven't got the cash to sue them in court or present their view of society. What the Mail is peddling - and other newspapers do it - is not unbiased, factual stuff. All news in most papers, and particularly rags like the mail is skewed to the political viewpoint of the publications owners - and what owners want is sales. A way to start the process is the common practice of demonising your opposition by giving nicknames or sobriquets which denigrate and demean. So, as the US military called the Vietnamese opposition "Viet Cong" - a coined phrase which they invented purely for the purpose - or, more disgustingly "Gooks". So, the Daily Mail carries out the same tactics, skewing data, putting a spin on the news which is alarmist, populist, etc. - all in the name of selling papers and making money by playing to the fears of the people in the street. Let's not call them unemployed people struggling to find work and having to subsist on benefit - no, let's call them scum instead. Makes better headlines and sells more papers. Screw the facts, screw the evidence, screw the statistics, screw everything - just print what sells. Paul Dacre, Robert Maxwell, Conrad Black - let's try demonising them for a change. The Romans called it panes et circae - bread and circuses. It's as old as the hills. Journalism it ain't! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Dave the Gnome Date: 10 Apr 11 - 02:52 PM I was down in the Job Centre the other day, looking for er...jobs (ha, fat chance down here in TerribleTorquay) as the one I had is now no longer... Followed by I'm a Carer. I'm one of the many hundreds of thousands of people who get trapped into a low wage...for caring. Is the position of carer the one that is no longer? Or is the postion of carer one that is done in addition to the one that is no longer? If it is the latter how much time does the carer position take compared to the one that is no longer and are the rates paid pro-rata or exclusive to each other? I have every sympathy for both carers and those who have lost their jobs but I am not sure where to best place my sympathies here? DeG (alias Confused of Manchester) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Joe Offer Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:20 PM Mr. Black, if you wish to participate in discussions here, please address other participants with respect. Your name-calling posts were deleted. -Joe Offer, Moderator- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email) Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:28 PM Just mine ? Is it permissible for others to do so, or do you practice exceptions ?
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richard Bridge Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:48 PM Backwoodsman - if, as this government preaches, they have to balance the books, then if all benefits are taken up they have to raise tax to balance the books. If benefits are not taken up then there is more money to give tax breaks to the filthy rich. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 10 Apr 11 - 05:02 PM FeG: "I have every sympathy for both carers and those who have lost their jobs but I am not sure where to best place my sympathies here?" Place your sympathies with those who are Carers AND who also have to work too, because they cannot survive on Carer's Allowance alone. They are allowed to earn a certain amount and not one single penny more, thus making a job even more hard to find, as so many jobs want flexible hours. Please refer to the Carer's Association site for any further confusions you may have. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,BobL Date: 10 Apr 11 - 05:12 PM "That creating jobs, any jobs, properly paid, takes precedence over shareholder dividends" No dividends = no investment = no company = no jobs. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Dave the Gnome Date: 10 Apr 11 - 05:20 PM No, I understand now. As well as receiving a small ammount of government funding for providing a care service, which presumably can be anything from a couple of hours a week to a full time thing we are also entitled to take time off from caring to do other work. Seems quite reasonable to me. I am just a little surpised that the powers that be have not decided that if someone is available for work they cannot also be available for providing care and are not therefore entitled to any allowance. I suppose it will come... DeG |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 10 Apr 11 - 05:27 PM To be a Carer, you have to be 'available' for 35 hours a week. You are also 'allowed' to work for around 16 hours a week, providing it's pretty much minimum wage. This means that most Carers work a 51 hour week, for a fraction of the amount most other folks earn. Most Carers would prefer to remain at home caring for the people they care for, but if many of them did, they'd starve to death, lose their homes and generally end up needing to be cared for themselves.... The Carers Association is trying to get the allowance brought into line with other benefits as at present Carers are hugely discriminated against. They save the country hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, probably MILLIONS actually, if not BILLIONS, whilst having to exist on the poverty line themselves.
But the same goes for all of you. You're all showing your worst today, and it's disgusting. Quit the name-calling and carry on a civilized discussion, or your posts will be deleted with no explanation or hesitation - and I'll shut down any thread that becomes contentious. I've had it. -Joe Offer, Forum Moderator- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 10 Apr 11 - 07:42 PM ""I would like to ask him and others to consider what is the agenda of the news organisation from which they derive "facts." For me the Daily Mail is not a reliable source. I feel it stretches statistics and prints outright lies in order to sell papers. It stirs mud and raises antagonism especially against the liberal left, by any means. The DM tends to appeal to basest part of human nature."" I would agree with that statement Tam. In fact there is only one change I would make. For "Daily Mail" I would substitute "Newspapers in general", since I can't think of any whose editorial policy will allow truth to get in the way of circulation. Some are worse than others, none are trustworthy, which is why I haven't bought a newspaper in forty years. There was a quote by a celebrity some years back who said "I've never met a nice South African". I have never met an honest newspaper reporter, and if such do exist their editors soon nullify their integrity in their hunger for sales. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Bonzo3legs Date: 10 Apr 11 - 09:45 PM In Argentina I believe that benefits simply don't exists, so thousands of Indians from the north have come to Buenos Aires, make their own goods and sell them in Calle Florida for 15 hours a day - they just get on with it!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email) Date: 11 Apr 11 - 04:35 AM Lizzie, I sincerely hope things improve concerning recognition of carers. I repeat, you do a great job and have my respect. Looks like I have stumbled upon a ring of masons on this site. No worries, I will still say it as I see it, delete my comments to your hearts content Joe. Says more about the inner ring here that it does about freedom of speech. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Bonzo3legs Date: 11 Apr 11 - 07:45 AM don't exists!!! It must be the jet lag and huge bife chorizo I had yesterday! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Patsy Date: 11 Apr 11 - 08:28 AM Sadly though there are some people who do not claim because they are too proud to go (even though they they are entitled), never been to one in their lives and then suddenly they find themselves in a position where they have no choice. Some people work hard in their job not taking much sick leave if any and then find their job is redundant it must be so soul destroying to then be face to face with a steely-eyed Jobscentre assistant that hasn't got a clue how the person is feeling inside, I think they know why they put security there, not because of fraudsters more to do with angry frustrated people more like. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 11 Apr 11 - 10:10 AM Thank you very much, Richie. Patsy, not all folks who work in Job Centres are hard on the folks who end up there. Some of them are actually very sweet and very helpful. The 'heavies' on the door aren't too welcoming, I have to admit, and sometimes, as in all places, you get the Jobsworths and the resentful ones, but in the main, they're folks just like you and I, worried about their own jobs, depressed at their pay cuts and pay freezes, worrying about paying their own bills...and...worrying about the flood of angry, bewildered and desperate people that will shortly be coming through their doors... If anyone is ever rude to anyone here who has to claim any benefit via a Job Centre, then take their name, make a complaint. Also, everyone is entitled to be seen privately, all you have to do is ask, then wait for a room to become available. This is not always advertised, so you have to ask. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Rafflesbear Date: 11 Apr 11 - 11:44 AM Where I went you weren't allowed in the Job Centre to look at the jobs advertised unless you were registered and that had to be done by telephone interview. As I said above, I never made it to being registered so I was not allowed in the Job Centre to look for a job. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 11 Apr 11 - 01:03 PM No, that's not true, raffles. Anyone is free to go in to look at the jobs in any Job Centres. I've never ever been stopped. It doesn't even have to be your home town. You can also access the same website via your own computer by googling Job Centre Plus. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Rafflesbear Date: 11 Apr 11 - 01:36 PM that's not how it was put to me. There were two people on the door taking your details before they would let you in. no registration, no entry. Tried to sign on at another less intimidating but was told I was out of my area |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: SPB-Cooperator Date: 11 Apr 11 - 01:53 PM Going back to my personal experience of being on benefits back in 1980, the interview with the then DHSS staff was the most sole-destroying experience possible. I had to get a ticket, and wait ages to see one of two receptionist who had total contempt for everyone there as if everyone was out to steal their money - and that was just to get an appointment with a claimant adviser. If I had the maturity and confidence then that I have now, then maybe I would have imparted a few home truths about their lack of respect. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Rafflesbear Date: 11 Apr 11 - 02:34 PM The telephone interview was taking so long that the interviewer said he had to leave and he could either ring me the following day to continue or pass me on to someone else to finish it. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: MikeL2 Date: 11 Apr 11 - 03:12 PM hi <" No, that's not true, raffles. Anyone is free to go in to look at the jobs in any Job Centres."> I agree with Lizzie but then maybe I live in an area where things are less intimidating. When I took early retirement I was told by an ex-colleague that I could sign on for unemployment benefit as a right. I went to the Job Centre to do so and was surprised at the ambience and attitudes of the staff there. I was given advice on what my choices were etc and I was treated civilly and discreetly. I had no number nor did I have to sit or stand in any line to get service. During this period I became ill and again at the Job Centre I was given advice on how to claim for Incapacity Benefit and also they made an appointment for me to talk it over with the Citizens's Advice Bureau. Some time later I was asked to attend a medical to ascertain whether I was fit to go back to work. The medical board which consisted of two non doctors found that I was fit to work. I went to see my doctor who wrote to the Board and gave them details of my condition and the result was immediately reversed. Maybe I was unusual in the treatment I received or just lucky but either way my experiences were completely different from some of the harrowing descriptions posted on this thread. Cheers MikeL2 |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Patsy Date: 12 Apr 11 - 04:58 AM You are right Lizzie the Jobcentre advisors are in a vulnerable position as the face on view first met by the public and you cannot always predict what is going to happen, that is true. I haven't been in one for a few years now so things may have changed for all I know and it might depend on the area the centre is in. This one was opposite three pubs which didn't help. It did get moved eventually. The last time I accompanied my son they had just brought in a self-use computerised system to find listed job details of which could be printed-off which I thought was a good idea and also still the 'old' way of advertising job advert details written on referenced cards in the different job sections. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Bonzo3legs Date: 12 Apr 11 - 03:49 PM My last visit to the Purley Labour Exchange 9 years ago was to "sign off" after just over 2 weeks - much to the annoyance of the lady clerk I spoke to. This was because I had found work from a mail shot I did of around 500 letters - but then I just got on with it, unlike the scroungers who think they are owed a job!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 12 Apr 11 - 04:16 PM Could I suggest everyone simply ignores the fatuous remark above. Thanks. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Bonzo3legs Date: 12 Apr 11 - 07:11 PM Thinuous if you're not fat!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 21 Apr 11 - 03:52 PM This morning I heard David Cameron blowing his top about folks who are drug addicts, alcoholics or obese getting incapacity benefit. He went on to say how hard working people would be sickened and angry to hear this..how wrong it was, etc... What I *didn't* hear him say was WHY people have become thus in the first place, and how his Big Society is going to wrap itself lovingly around those far less fortunate, desperately unhappy and unwell, in order to get them back into society, to a far happier way of life, even finding them jobs if possible in this utterly jobless climate. I stood there for a moment just thinking what a totally heartless bastard he's become. Has he no thought of others...and yet...this man had a severely disabled child himself. Did he not stop to think that people become drug addicted, alcoholic, or obese, because of many dire emotional problems? Or does he simply lose more humanity each and every day. Does he expect folks to stop being heroin addicts immediately they lose their benefit? Does he think they'll all get jobs straight away? I wonder if he claimed benefit for his own severely disabled son whilst he was alive? It made me shake my head in sadness at what is happening in my country. Yes, those who work the system are in the wrong, but to be so insensitive, so dividing, is also very wrong.. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email) Date: 21 Apr 11 - 05:25 PM Yes Lizzie I saw that interview. I think you will agree, the money given to those addicted to drugs and alcohol would be much better spent on treatment programmes. If someone is overweight and this prevents them from working, send them to see a dietician. These conditions need help, treatment and support, not a pay cheque. It was Labour that actually introduced the benefits review. I would like to see the Social Security budget increased to help those with disabilities. I agree with his comments this morning. All parties agree, that Social Security benefits has become one of the biggest issues on the doorstep due to abuse. Here is an interesting story in today's Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1379150/Ethiopian-family-12-just-landed-Britain-handed-1-460-week-live-vast-London-home.html |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Lizzie Cornish 1 Date: 22 Apr 11 - 03:40 AM The thing is, Richie, I agree with you very much about treatment programmes, but...until people are on them, either well on their way to getting better, or at least more able to cope with their lives, how are they going to exist? I never give money to folks begging on the streets for instance, because the likelihood is it will just disappear in drink or drugs, making them worse off in the long run, so I buy them some food, some for their dogs, or I buy the Big Issue, helping them to run their own small business which gives them their pride back. What worries me is this is going to be a mass 'cull' of very needy people. I'm lucky, I don't drink, I don't use drugs, I have different ways of coping with the stresses in my life, as many of us do. Yup, like the chocolate now and then, but not to excess. Food is filled with additives these days, chocked full of 'em. They know how the brain functions, the different taste sensations, so in go the chemicals to make the food melt fast, taste overpoweringly wonderful, leave the stomach wanting more, very rapidly...etc..etc..etc..It's horrendous what they do, and it's *part* of the reason why so many folks are now not just a little overweight, but VASTLY so. Add to that a huge dollop of depression, stress, 'happy hours' of cheap booze and an entire drinking culture now firmly embedded into the brainwashed victims of a corrupt Alcohol Industry, who get kids addicted early on with their 'harmless' alcopops...and well, you can see why it's all happening. So many people are stressed out, actually hating the way they're living their lives, but unable to jump of this conveyer belt of Corporate Evil which has enveloped so many of them since birth. Women are told, encouraged, almost emotionally blackmailed to go out to work as well as raising a family, so they turn to cheap, fast food, to feed their children because they're often knackered at the end of a busy day, then they come home and start all over again with their family..and it's more often than not the woman who is left to deal with that side of things. We have allowed a 'life' to be created which is actually no life at all, and so many are imploding because of it. Society is broken, people can't cope, and so the drink, the drugs and the food help to ease the burden in a climate of no sympathy, work work work, earn earn earn, spend spend spend... In Torbay I live amongst two different societies, VERY different societies. There is the wealthy one, the ones who cruise the bay in their open-topped sports cars, simulating a Monaco-like existence, expensive clothes, jewels dripping off. They shop in Hoopers, the posh department store, or the out-of-town shopping centre where Marks & Spencers has escaped to, or they go into Exeter or Totnes for most other things. They live in big expensive houses with magnificent views over Torbay, and in their world, everything is wonderful, beautiful place to live, lovely views.... Then there is the other side of the Bay.... This is where Social Workers abound, amongst families who have imploded...teenage mums who so often didn't want the children in the first place, but who could see no other way out, or felt it was simply what you do to get to the next step in life. There are many drug centres in town, many drug addicts, either on-going, or recovering. They look so ill, so utterly worn down and worn out. I have no idea what help they're given in these centres, unless it's purely to get off the drugs and little else. I'd hope they're also being helped back into some kind of life, but I have a terrible feeling they're not. Torbay Health Authority is millions of pounds in debt. It has a huge social problem, huge. There are many residential homes for those with learning difficulties, more than I have ever seen in other places....and so many lost souls who use the buses, smelling of drink, tattoed all over, hair thinning, faces filled with piercings. It really is shocking. You rarely see the wealthy shopping in town...other than to dash into Hoopers and out again. Nearly all the decent shops have gone, pulled out to the shopping centre, or back 'home' to Exeter. Go into the shopping centre area though, and it's like a different world. Middle England abounds, folks are happy, well dressed, well fed, pretty content with their lot basically. David Cameron needs to live the lives of the drug addicts for several years. He needs to know the feeling of no hope, the anxiety that brought them to that stage in the first place...He needs to understand how it is to live from week to week on benefits, with no hope of your life ever getting better...and why folks then pick up another bottle, take another swig, have another 'fix', stuff another cake into their mouths.... I am not saying that ALL people are genuine cases, and I get as incensed as anyone else about folks who abuse the system, laugh all the way to the bank, or come over here then set up their own businesses in how to abuse the system. It drives me nuts, and yes, it HAS to be stopped.. But somehow, we also need to ensure that we remain the compassionate country we once were. More than that, we need to face up to why so many people now see their lives through the end of a bottle, a needle, or a cake. I was lucky, I lived in A Time Of Hope, where I knew I could get a job whenever I wanted. I knew that one day, I'd probably get married, be able to afford a house, have children... That has now all gone for so very many people, and I think the number of people unable to cope with all of this will actually hugely increase over the next few years. It is so easy to criticise when you have never had to worry about money in your entire life, when you have been nurtured, protected and supported at every turn. David Cameron is already at the point in his life where no matter what happens, he will be well off, comfortable, for the rest of his days. He has a safety net, in which he knows any fall with be immensely cushioned...and he will survive. For so many, they are trapped in this Greatest Show on Earth, the one where The Ringmasters rule the Circus with their whips and shouting voices. They rule over all their performers who now live their lives walking the highest of tightropes, every muscle and nerve teetering to the extreme...all they have to keep them upright is their balancing pole...That is about to be snatched away from so many, and they have no safety net, just a long fall, downdowndeeperanddown, into the very depths of the Circus Pit, where their own phantoms lie waiting to greet them. My blood is growing ever colder at what I see happening in my own country. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email) Date: 22 Apr 11 - 05:12 AM Excellent post Lizzie. We must offer treatment to those in need of help, and they should receive a decent living allowance while undergoing treatment for their addiction. The truth is, thousands of people have been on incapacity benefit for more than a decade for alcohol, drug addiction and obesity. Something should have been done for them during that time besides handing them cash. Officials figures show that 135,000 people have been off work for a decade with depression, 1,360 because they have diarrhoea and 6,740 because they have severe stress. More than 76,000 of them have not been examined for a decade. It's not fair on anyone for this situation to continue. Far from being the safety net it should be, the benefits system has trapped thousands of people in a cycle of addiction and welfare dependency with no prospect of getting back to work. We need to put an end to this. It is wrong to allow people to be left on benefits and forgotten about. That's why they have already started reassessing everyone on incapacity benefit and will support people with addictions to help them back into work. The fact is, we are borrowing 400 million a day to survive, effectively we are bust. We pay 60 billion a year in interest on our sovereign debt more than our defence budget. A lot of them claiming are also working cash in hand, A friend of mine runs a construction company and countless people ask him for work and they tell him they want cash in hand as they are claiming benefits. Just image if he did employ them and they had an accident. There is abuse, we all know it. Let's hope the assessments are fair and money is spent on treatment. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 22 Apr 11 - 05:51 AM If it were possible to help those people who have been on long-term benefits to become well again and fit for work, no-one seems to be able to explain WHERE the jobs would come from. In this region (East Anglia) jobs are very hard to come by, especially unskilled ones. The unemployed should also be helped with courses and re-training so they can look for jobs with vacancies. They should also be given support by mentors and health workers while they readjust to a working life. And prospective employers should be offered incentives to take them on, otherwise they probably won't be interested in someone who's been off work for a long time with problems. And I totally agree that folk with alcohol, drug-addiction etc are NOT TO BLAME for their predicament. I met many young men while Prison Visiting who had addictions, and their lives as children and youngsters would make ones hair stand on end; abuse, neglect, violence, the lot. Also, the Human Genome Project has unearthed several genes for addiction. If one is born with these, one will be predisposed to becoming an addict, either to food, alcohol, gambling or drugs. I say, 'There but for the grace of God...' |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Bluesman Date: 07 Dec 11 - 12:53 PM Excellent news to report regarding benefits. Support for government on the rise. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2070912/Britain-turns-conservative-values-recession-bites.html |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richard Bridge Date: 07 Dec 11 - 12:57 PM Frankly, it is a source of shame for the country and the result of the propaganda of bigotry. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Bluesman Date: 07 Dec 11 - 03:01 PM In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Bluesman Date: 09 Mar 12 - 10:30 AM Many still ask why this government has to reform the UK benefits system. This story is a great example why. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/benefits-cheat-faked-death-jailed-222517966.html |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richard Bridge Date: 09 Mar 12 - 12:15 PM Looks like a very good example of no reform being needed - he was not enitled to what he claimed, he committed fraud, and he got caught. Your point, exactly? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Bluesman Date: 09 Mar 12 - 12:53 PM PROSECUTIONS for benefit fraud in the UK are on the increase. In the 2009/10 financial year, my local Council prosecuted 148 people for benefit fraud. The following year 2010-11, this had risen to 357. I contacted my local MP Mark Reckless he assured me they will recover the full monies swindled in this case. I contacted my friend Councillor Ted Baker, he told me: "We will not tolerate benefit fraud. It's a misconception that benefit fraudsters do not affect anyone else as they are stealing money that could otherwise be paid to those genuinely in need, or help to pay for services to our residents. "Anyone contemplating claiming benefits to which they are not entitled should be aware that our investigators have enhanced powers, access to much more information to detect fraud and that we will not hesitate to bring these cases to the courts." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: VirginiaTam Date: 09 Mar 12 - 02:42 PM I have only just 2 months ago (after 6+ years suffering) applied for DLA (still waiting on decision). It took the death knell of my GP suggesting I might want to look into medical retirement from my job and the nearly being made redundant at Christmas to get me to finally apply for DLA, Bluebadge, etc. I guess I've spent over £500.00 paying for taxis to and from work and hospital appointments when I was too ill to walk over the last 2 years. As a now self-admitting disabled person I have joined forums and networking groups inside and out of work, where I hear horror stories of people being tipped out of their wheel chairs, called scum and scroungers and told to get up and walk. Some physically attacked. Some blocked, prevented from accessing public transport, entrance into buildings. I get angry stares when I take my walker/transit chair on the bus and have to request the dedicated wheel chair space when fit people are sitting there. Evidently I must be a scrounger in their eyes. I had to take documents for verification into the local Job Centre when applying for Access to Work Fares to Work because the bus stops are too far from the 2 different offices at which I work. The media that focuses on one cheat makes life harder for all the genuinely vulnerable and disabled. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: theleveller Date: 10 Mar 12 - 05:50 AM "PROSECUTIONS for benefit fraud in the UK are on the increase." Yes and it's hardly surprising, given that this immoral and uncaring government is taking away the vital support that so many of the most vulnerable people in our society need to exist. Indeed, it could be argued that, when the rich are encouraged and applauded for using every method of making themselves richer, and the gap between rich and poor is increasing exponentially, people are morally justified in taking what they need and the state is wrong to prevent them Here's what one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Oscar Wilde, who was a libertarian socialist/anarchist, has to say on the matter in his excellent essay 'The Soul of Man under Socialism': "We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontent, disobedient and rebellious. They are quite right to be so……Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from a rich man's table? …..to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. Man should not be ready to show that he can live like a badly-fed animal. He should decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the rates, which is considered a form of stealing. As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg. No: a poor man who is ungrateful, unthrifty, discontented, and rebellious, is probably a real personality, and has much in him." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Steve Shaw Date: 10 Mar 12 - 09:10 AM "We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontent, disobedient and rebellious. They are quite right to be so……Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from a rich man's table? …..to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. Man should not be ready to show that he can live like a badly-fed animal. He should decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the rates, which is considered a form of stealing." Someone should have told that to Mother Teresa, surely the most overrated person who ever lived. Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them. Yeah, right. Don't even think of fighting it, though. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 10 Mar 12 - 11:21 AM Let's not forget the bankers - some of whom have had their bonuses SAVAGELY cut!! Oh, the injustice of it!! If we're not careful they'll stamp their feet and move somewhere else. Let's start being nice to them - they're working hard to lose our money! But then there's bankers whose bonuses have increased ... so I suppose it all balances out in the end ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST Date: 10 Mar 12 - 12:47 PM It is called rewarding the staff Shimrod, if we don't allow it think of the mess the country would be in. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: SPB-Cooperator Date: 11 Mar 12 - 08:21 AM No, its called rewarding the executives for the hard work the workers do to line the pockets of the shareholders. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richard Bridge Date: 11 Mar 12 - 08:41 AM What Birdy said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Bluesman Date: 11 Mar 12 - 10:12 AM Gordon Brown inflicted more damage on the British economy and on its public finances than any banker could ever do. Socialists only see what they want to see. Their ignorance is matched only by their stupidity. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Patsy Date: 12 Mar 12 - 09:17 AM There are people who have never claimed benefits in their life or aware of what benefits they might be entitled to. Funny how slow off the mark they all are to inform some people that they could be owed money. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: GUEST,Bluesman Date: 12 Mar 12 - 09:35 AM And there are some people very switched on. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/3381173/Returning-Polish-workers-encouraged-to-keep-claiming-British-benefits.html |
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Subject: RE: BS: Benefits (uk) & The Age of Suspicion From: Richard Bridge Date: 12 Mar 12 - 10:07 AM Ah, a seamless move from hyperventilation about people claiming benefits to which they were not entitled (and getting caught and punished) to hyperventilating about the fact that people are entitled to claim benefits and - shock horror - claim what they are entitled to. Maybe a course in logic might help. |
