tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post5872723563780509282..comments2023-11-25T01:12:34.326+00:00Comments on Benefit Scrounging Scum: To The Disabled People Of Great Britain - TranscriptBenefitScroungingScumhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08939136229593231935noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-83433916486504630262010-10-25T20:57:34.561+01:002010-10-25T20:57:34.561+01:00"a safety net for people between jobs"
..."a safety net for people between jobs"<br /><br />Where does that leave people with conditions for which there is no cure? Do we have a worth if we are not between jobs?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-37513778035687992472010-10-25T20:43:33.413+01:002010-10-25T20:43:33.413+01:00Obviously, my intention is not to impugn BG, who&#...Obviously, my intention is not to impugn BG, who's laudable efforts to get a job featured recently on my Own blog.<br /><br />I have always been clear that the Disabled should be treated MORE generously, at the expense of "the disabled".<br /><br />I Ire is not directed at benefits claimants, but the system whose perversities and complexities make Benefits a full time job rather than a safety net for people between jobs. The bureaucracy is the villain, the recipients more often the victim.Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-17952228352847994302010-10-25T13:48:02.328+01:002010-10-25T13:48:02.328+01:00As well as disabled people often having paid or st...As well as disabled people often having paid or still paying NI and tax, they often have close family members who are paying. There is not a firm line where you are on one side or on the other.CHatterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10069462987996160169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-33605245218274725432010-10-25T09:29:11.821+01:002010-10-25T09:29:11.821+01:00I left this comment on Jackart's blog as a res...I left this comment on Jackart's blog as a response to his post. <br /><br />"You've been reading my blog long enough to know I've expressed my gratitude for the benefits I receive on many occasions ;)<br /><br />I think we DO all have to take our fair share in this. I'm broadly supportive of the *idea* of Universal Credits, whilst worried about the details of how it would work it seems the fairest option to me. My biggest concern there is the amount of money that's going to be spent moving people from Incapacity Benefit/ Income Support to Employment and Support Allowance, only for those people all to be moved onto UC a few years later. Why not just go ahead with UC? Perhaps because it'll cost money and will only be universal in the sense that benefits payments will be rolled into one rather than lots of different benefits. UC will hopefully make it easier for people to move into work, but the harsher cuts announced will apply for years before UC comes in, if it ever does.<br /><br />10% cut in Housing Benefit is a huge chunk of income to poor people, many of whom are legitimately claiming HB while they work. It would hurt, it would cause major problems in specific areas but it wouldn't seem wildly unfair like the new proposals are.<br />The change from RPI to CPI will hit hard as the loss of income of a few pounds a week is huge to people living on £65 p/wk. It will bite harder as years pass and benefits reduce proportionately. But, it isn't wildly, disproportionately unfair.<br /><br />Moving on to DLA, there's lots of ways that money could be saved without harming people's lives. A reduction of say £5 a week of mobility allowance would have been hard to absorb, and caused individual problems but it would have been more fair. Using the GP's to do the assessments would be more fair AND more cost effective.<br /><br />There are lots of ways we could all have shared the burden. Asking those in receipt of benefits who are capable of work to contribute an equivalent of 1 day's work a week in the voluntary sector would seem fair. Encouraging those who can't go out to work to contribute to voluntary projects for a few hours<br />a week from home would seem fair.<br /><br />A final point, probably as incoherent as the rest as I'm knackered ;) is that the video you linked to is far from being specifically about benefits. It's about disabled people having a represented voice in the media and politics that comes from disabled people not a charity or state organisation. Targeting out of work benefits so that people can't have their entire livelihood from them is one thing, but applying that to disabled people is not as many are not capable of doing any work. Out of the 10 million disabled people in Britain, nearly a million are children. Many are pensioners who've paid tax and NI all their lives. Most are not in receipt of out of work or even disability benefits as they don't qualify, many are in work paying tax just like everyone else. It's just that disabled people tend not to be all that visible as disabled people. It's not all wheelchairs and white sticks, those numbers include people with heart conditions or cancer, or diabetes or any myriad of conditions which are not neccessarily visible or preventing them from working.<br /><br />That's very rambly for which I apologise but I wanted to make it clear that I do think disabled people have to accept some cuts like we all do, but that there are better ways of going about it. The main theme I'm finding in the stories that people are now sending me is that they've paid national insurance and tax, for all their working lives until becoming disabled.<br /><br />A very tired, rambly BG Xx"BenefitScroungingScumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08939136229593231935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-17901174820874590212010-10-25T09:28:42.616+01:002010-10-25T09:28:42.616+01:00NB: I am pleased to see that the comments have not...NB: I am pleased to see that the comments have not descended into a slanging match. <br />For those who are new here, Jackart has been reading my blog for years. He is representative of many tax payers who feel overburdened and unfairly treated - just like we do. Jackart has always been polite and engaged in debate. He has changed his views about certain issues as a result of reading this blog as I have understood and developed my views from reading his. <br />We must engage with the people Jackart is representing so that we can all work together towards a fairer system which protects the most vulnerable. <br />Keep up the polite debate, it's wonderful to see! BG XxBenefitScroungingScumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08939136229593231935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-32096843232560888472010-10-25T09:07:53.553+01:002010-10-25T09:07:53.553+01:00Ok, that's very slightly more reasonable. Plea...Ok, that's very slightly more reasonable. Please then would you spread the word that people in receipt of DLA and the mobility supplement are not the same as those few who abuse the Incapacity benefit. The point is that this is a complex issue and should not be responded to with knee-jerk anti-scrounger rhetoric. We all know that in any system there will be abuse, although personally I think it is less than people think. The abuse however cannot come from the system - I'm talking here about the government abusing by neglect vulnerable people.<br />thank you for responding with a more reasoned tone.Henrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-53711312785541879762010-10-25T08:34:05.659+01:002010-10-25T08:34:05.659+01:00We can afford to be generous to the disabled, but ...We can afford to be generous to the disabled, but not to the "disabled". If one in six are registered disabled, then either we prioritise amongst these or accept lower benefits for all. It's the hundreds of thousands off work with a "bad back" who are breaking the system.Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-88989218850454746382010-10-24T21:06:29.793+01:002010-10-24T21:06:29.793+01:00Jackart
I am a tax payer - have been for years. M...Jackart<br />I am a tax payer - have been for years. My daughter was a tax payer before her accident. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we can afford to behave decently to the disabled (and to children and the poor and unlucky). To equate the loss of mobility to you and me tightening our belts in a depression is insulting and unimaginative. All my life I saved and worked hard and I am happy to pay so that we support those who can't. I'm sorry to say Jackart that you need to widen your experience of life - I just hope you don't have to learn the hard way as my daughter did.<br />As to the 'meme' about Vodafone (and yes I do know what a meme is), it has been well reported that they were excused a huge tax bill, you don't have to spend any time on leftwing blogs to know that.Henrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-54632948809576922662010-10-24T20:36:56.528+01:002010-10-24T20:36:56.528+01:00Where does this pathetic meme about Vodafone's...Where does this pathetic meme about Vodafone's tax bill come from? I'm seeing it all over the lefty blogosphere.<br /><br />And that's a feeble argument. There is no more money that can be raised from tax. I'm fully taxed out. Sure tax evasion would be less with a flatter, lower, less complicated system, just as welfare would be less crippling with fewer, more generous benefits. But that's not the argument here. Where are the cuts going to be in the welfare budget? It's nearly half of GME, so there can't be cuts without cuts to welfare. So, if not you, who?Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-16876984737221661122010-10-24T20:28:45.286+01:002010-10-24T20:28:45.286+01:00Try Vodafone's written off tax bill.
Try all ...Try Vodafone's written off tax bill.<br /><br />Try all the rest of the unpaid tax that HMRC isn't collecting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-38160244632045950062010-10-24T20:17:14.851+01:002010-10-24T20:17:14.851+01:00I detest passive aggression. I'm not kicking a...I detest passive aggression. I'm not kicking anyone. I'm just pointing out that there is no money: the less-than-half of the population who's paying the bills can't be squeezed any more, and the Government borrows 1 pound in 4 that it spends, something has to give. As benefits are between a third and a half of Gov't spending... what is going to give? There have to be cuts, and every cut is going to lead to a parade of the bleeding stumps. What would you cut in its stead?Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-59380135311408564452010-10-24T19:59:51.633+01:002010-10-24T19:59:51.633+01:00When you kick someone when they're down, they ...When you kick someone when they're down, they don't always feel inclined to thank you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-91776756914156415322010-10-24T19:51:36.571+01:002010-10-24T19:51:36.571+01:00"if you're earning enough to be taking a ..."if you're earning enough to be taking a tax-rise and you're not on any benefits, you're not relying on benefits to enable you to get out of bed or have a meal or communicate with the world around you..."<br /><br />No. I'm paying for you to be able to do these things. A "Thank you" would be nice.Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-39637970614527280822010-10-24T19:44:29.299+01:002010-10-24T19:44:29.299+01:00No, Jackart, we're not in this together, becau...No, Jackart, we're not in this together, because if you're earning enough to be taking a tax-rise and you're not on any benefits, you're not relying on benefits to enable you to get out of bed or have a meal or communicate with the world around you. <br /><br />It may surprise you to know that many people on benefits are in work and that many people on benefits that are not in work have previously been in work.<br /><br />You're not the one facing the prospect of being incarcerated in a residential home with no way of getting out to see your family or friends. You're not the one who is using their benefits to pay for the electric wheelchair or high-prescription glasses or therapy that the NHS won't pay for. <br /><br />You're not the one suffering because social services have been cut so they no longer have help with shopping and cleaning.<br /><br />You're not the one that's fought like fury just to live as an ordinary human being in the community and is having all that taken away.<br /><br />So no, we're not all in this together.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-88847501145052947072010-10-24T19:25:38.730+01:002010-10-24T19:25:38.730+01:00I have written a post from the point of view of th...I have written a post from the point of view of those PAYING for the system. Please don't think I'm being harsh, but we all have to make sacrifices. THERE IS NO MONEY LEFT, except from the money that the state can wring from me, and people like me.<br /><br />And we're at breaking point.<br /><br />Are 1 in 6 really disabled?<br /><br />Is it really "TERRIFYING". Or is it scary in the way getting away from the apron strings is scary to a child?<br /><br />I'm going to get abuse heaped on me for asking that rhetorical question, but you've written elequently about the demotivational aspects of the welfare to work process. You as a benefit recipient are just not rewarded for doing the right thing. Well, now the out of work benefits will be cut and in work benefits (in part in the form of a higher allowance) is raised.<br /><br />You can't expect to go through the cuts without pain. We tax-payers have endured pain for the last decade. No-one shouts for us.<br /><br />Labour's inasane profligacy has fucked everyone. Everyone has to endure some pain as we try to fix it.<br /><br />I'm taking tax-rises. You're getting a benefit cut. We're in this together.<br /><br />http://tinyurl.com/32xz9m3Jackarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04477130724830922566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34940564.post-27229743721671413062010-10-24T12:09:14.859+01:002010-10-24T12:09:14.859+01:00Thank You! These are the words I want to say, but ...Thank You! These are the words I want to say, but my illness has robbed me of the energy to do so.<br /><br />I truely hope some of the politicians mentioned will get to read this. We are so hurt by what they do but sadly cannot stand up to defend ourselves.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com