In praise of Iain Duncan Smith's Welfare Reforms

There would still be a need to cut the benefits bill - you can't just go on handing out more and more money to people a la Gordon Brown.

Yes, it means that there would be no need to hound people out of their homes if HMRC did the job properly.
I find it a bit worrying today that Cameron has now decided to go all religious, and say that people like him have the moral high ground, yet at the same time ignore what the bishops and archbishops are saying about food banks and homelessness.

Gosh, yes, that makes benefit fraud hardly worth bothering about, doesn't it?

https://fullfact.org/economy/tax_evasion_avoidance_uncollected_swiss_agreement-31424

This puts benefit fraud into perspective. Ignore whether Labour are right or wrong, just look at the amounts uncollected.

Apologies to anyone reading this. I misspelt Gandhi. How could I?
Aka, the Daily Worker does not exist. It's been the Morning Star for as long as I've been aware of it.

Aka I am not pretending they are in a minority because of all the people in receipt of benefit those receiving money as a result of making false claims ARE in the minority!

"I know he was talking about a different situation but I utterly condemn those who take from the system with no intention of ever trying to get work, and don't pretend they don't exist or are in a minority."

I think this deserves a sarcastic response, Aka.
Where did you get the information from that they are not in a minority?
Most of my information, as you have probably realised by now, comes from The Guardian, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, www.fullfacts.org, Open Democracy, www.politics.co.uk, www.weownit.org.uk, and the parliament website. One thing I do not do is make sweeping statements that I cannot justify.
Somehow I do not think Ghandi would be on your side.

..but where do you get your figures from Aka.Whether you agree with Jen or not, she does her homework.

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Hollydaze, £265 per year of my green taxes goes on producing more green energy. That's because I pay Ecotricity who build wind turbines and research into environmental improvements in energy production, including energy efficiency.
Whichever news you watched, they were doing the usual of only looking at the big six energy companies.

Of course those who try to cheat the system by not looking for work are in the minority, Aka. Where do you get figures from to prove it's the majority? The Daily Mail?
Those who take from the system are the rich, not the poor.

Yes, must add the greedy at the other end of the financial spectrum.

Agree 100%

We would not be in this complete and utter mess if it were not for Gordon's mismanagement of the economy, added to by greedy bankers and anyone else in quangos etc jumping on to the greed gravy train, the totally inefficient EU - oh, and I almost forgot:

that warmongerer Blair spending our money and now making himself very rich as a 'peace envoy'. What irony (or very well-planned).

Now we have to get out of this mess somehow.
I am happy to support those in need, but not those who want what I could never have afforded myself.

I paid into the 'account' all my working life and still do now being taxed on my pension. I'm happy for this to go to support those in need. But to paraphrase Gandhi 'There's enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

I know he was talking about a different situation but I utterly condemn those who take from the system with no intention of ever trying to get work, and don't pretend they don't exist or are in a minority.

"Cradle to grave" was the aim, wasn't it? I agree, Holly!

On the news last night, it was revealed that not one single penny raised in green taxes has been spent on energy efficiency - where has that gone?

On the Isle of Man, the Government has introduced a 'toilet tax' whereby the Government has added £50 per year to the rates bill - given that benefits have been cut drastically (along with restrictions on who can apply) coupled with an overall fall in incomes, I don't know how the Government thinks people will be able to afford to pay this extra tax.

I thought that the whole point of taxation was, in part, to be there as a safety net when people needed it. I resent this attitude that it's a handout - the majority of people pay into the 'account' all their working lives.

There is not a well somewhere in Whitehall where the government sends down a bucket and brings up fairy gold. All benefits have to be paid for out of taxation. YOUR MONEY taken from you and redistributed. How much of your income remains yours after INCOME TAX, VAT, FUEL DUTY, TAX ON YOUR SAVINGS, NEED I GO? Child benefit is money taken from you with money lost in administration and a smaller sum paid back to mothers, who could have had the all the money from father without the oncost; as it was until some female do gooder MP thought she knew better. Democracy might be the best system we can come with, but it has one big fault built in. Those who seek to be elected have to make promises to sweeten up the voters to get their vote in order be elected. Having achieved that they find themselves caught up in bureaucracy and the party machine where essentially they remain helpless unless they nod and bow in the right places and climb the political greasy pole and even then their powers are limited because if they upset the voters they are out of a cushy job. So they do the double speak and smile a lot and hang on to the job

Another programme on tonight on Channel4 this time about Tower Hamlets. Families being given two weeks to get out of their homes because the landlord has decided to put the rent up.
There was a 30 year old teaching assistant who had been on the list for social housing for 12 years. She lives with her mother and teenage brother. The flat she was shown was really nice, but she could not afford the social rent of £155 per week.
A mother of three children was evicted, her children's furniture and bikes taken into storage, and she went to the housing office to tell them about her eviction. She was then told she was lucky as they would be able to house her family in temporary accommodation. This turned out to be a 3 bedroomed flat very similar to the one she had been evicted from, but in better condition. Also, because she had been evicted, the housing department had to pay her full rent, which was more than the rent they were allowed to pay for the place that she was evicted from. I do not think she could understand the logic, either, but she was very grateful.
The lone man had to move to Northampton. He was shown going round agents looking for a flat/bedsit to rent. Some agents had signs in the window saying no DSS. The agents that didn't told him to his face that the landlords on their books would not take DSS.
One of the workers in the housing office said that in two years time the area would be completely different to what it is now.
It is becoming so depressing in this country now. Up here the news has been all about foodbanks and the fact that we now have the biggest foodbank in the country in Newcastle.

I blame Gordon Brown!

"Light touch" regulation (Labour's fault to some degree but the Tories were constantly pushing for even less regulation) allowed bankers to bankroll all sorts of dubious products and then to package them up and sell them on to other financial institutions. When the whole house of cards finally collapsed, instead of having to pay back the vast amounts of money they had made on the back of these disreputable practices, more money was handed to them to "stabilise" the financial system.

We have since heard about all sorts of illegal practices that bankers used to line their own pockets.

There was a recommendation that large banks be split between those working on "traditional" lines and those involved in "high risk/venture capital" business. All the right noises were made at the time of the recommendation but nothing has been done and I wonder how long it will be before they're up to their old tricks again.

But, as usual, "it's the poor what gets the blame."

Their own, sorry.

Hope this will not end up as a row.

Everyone is entitled to express their opinion; if someone disagrees with it fair enough, they have the right to express your own.

The Pathfinder clearance projects perpetrated by Labour under the auspices of John Prescott and forced tbrough by Yvette Cooper made me sick to the stomach. But of course, these were mainly people who had bought their houses and turned them into their little palaces. People who had probably strived and worked. So these people don't matter, they can look out for themselves.

Adriane I am entitled to my opinion as are you. Don't start playing the racist card with me.

With such trenchant, all encompassing, and usually personalized views now being demonstrated, this is hardly a discussion; it has become more a flag waving session.

Good to hear that you have sympathy with "genuine" claimants, ninny. These would be UK citizens, of course? (Will you object to migration from Scotland if the referendum is successful? Would be logical!)