Lincslass
Let’s wait and see shall we. Absolutely wanting the end of this Government will not make it happen. Wishful thinking abounds , if it happens it happens, what will happen if it happens and the red team get in, the welfare state will get even bigger than it did under Blair.
The "red team" are not so red in tooth and claw under Starmer. The man is no fool and I doubt he would go on a welfare spending spree.
The Welfare State needs a shake-up... but not just among its recipients. The whole way it is administered with all its tax-credits, universal credits and extra payments (or not) for this, that and the other - which must cost a fortune in admin.
What would help is if people were paid a wage on which they could actually sustain themselves without having to be topped up by the State. It might encourage those "scroungers" who are - according to much of the media - too lazy to get a job (does anyone know the number of benefit recipients who are IN work as opposed to those who aren't?).
Higher wages mean higher prices but, two things... some of the multinationals could absorb some of the costs themselves. And, should an employer build his business based on an the assumption of an eternal supply of cheap labour?
Those on benefits - working or not - are also consumers who are going to be hit with skyrocketing fuel hikes... they will not be putting much back into the economy.
I worked in Norway for 12 years, and when I left the UK my wage for a fairly menial hum-drum office job in 1995 was between £8-£9 per hour (when better paid jobs were offering £10-£12). The national minimum wage is now £8.91... 26 years later.