Some good points here. I came to the same conclusions when I lived for 13 years or so in a very rough bit of Liverpool, when I moved in there were a clutch of teenage mothers who wandered round with their kids all day. By the time I moved out those same kids were wandering round with their kids all day. That made me think that this isn't working, and it is time to try something else. Without being an expert,it seems to me that of the various experiments that have been tried over the years, the US "workfare" appears to offer the best results. The UK cannot go on pouring away £100 bn per year i9n order to maintain and underclass that remains locked in cycle of poverty and ignorance.
On privatising the Job Centres. I do wonder why they are there at at all. They appear to be so locked into the Diversity & Eqaulity agenda as to be almost useless (the "you can't advertise for a hard worker as that discriminateas against the bone idle etc, etc" school of thought)and many employers no longer bother with them, preferring to go through the press and the private sector job brokers. (you will however see boards full of 5 a day co-ordinators, non smoking ambassadors, and all the other public sector non-jobs that we pay for these days)
Steve
Those kids - and kids of kids - are voters. Although they are paid not to work they are also, effectively, paid to vote for those who hose them with our money. Furthermore, as an extension to the benefits provided by an ever-generous government, if they can't be bothered to vote, someone will be found to vote on their behalf.
Voting should be denied to the able-bodied on long term welfare; fair enough if you physically cant contribute to the economy, you can at least voice your opinion to how your country is run (or at least be part of the tyranny of the majority), fair enough if you've had a bad run of luck, lost your job and haven't found another yet but are looking; your the reason why welfare exists in the first place, however, not so fair if you are a full-time net receiver of benefits and then expect your contribution only to be keeping those who spoon feed you in power and a dozen babies to continue the cycle.
As harsh as the roman and spartan system of governance were they did respect the meritocracy in far greater ways than our present powers do - we've got to change from the mediocracy we have to what made Britain great in the first place
I don't know about the Roman system of governance being the solution.
"... iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses. ..."
A disappointing contribution from the Adam Smith Institute.
http://tinyurl.com/272nbc
Ok – I always fight the desire to comment, but this time I have to give in…
Including DLA in the benefits piechart is a nonsense and betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the benefit. It is designed to provide income to cover additional costs incurred due to disability and is the most difficult benefit to get, involving lengthy applications, intrusive medical examinations and ever narrowing interpretations of the regulations (and before you say it – yes there are a tiny minority of people who shouldn’t get it who do – there are fraudsters within every system, both social and economical. The amount taken out of the system by fraudsters, IMHO, is dwarfed by the amount left in the system by those incorrectly refused benefit and those to scared by the anti-entitlement culture to claim in the first place). Also, many people claim DLA – as they have significant care and mobility needs – and go to work as well, so there is no basis for assuming that all DLA claimants are not workers..
Huge amounts of HB&CTB is claimed by people who are in work, but on such low wages that the state recognises that it is not possible for them to survive without support. Should we let these people and their families become homeless because of the failure to maintain sensible amounts of housing stock, leading to exorbitant rents? Again receipt of HB&CTB in no way indicates that someone is not a worker.
I assume that the ‘other benefits’ 25% includes Attendance Allowance (see DLA as above, just add the fact that it is for over-60’s only) and things like Carers Allowance (I thought that we had accepted as a country that the army of carers save the state a fortune by providing 24/7 care in exchange for £48 subsistence from the state) – all of this will chip away at the accuracy of the 19% figure.
The workfare system of the States is already in place and has been for nearly a decade, and all it leads to is vulnerable people denied a subsistence living. The idea that private companies will suddenly be able to magic up loads of jobs to fill with wastrel work-shy scallies rather than just bullying often vulnerable and undereducated people out of the benefit system, amuses me, scares me and makes me wonder what planet you are on.
And finally – when was the last time you or any of your readers tried to claim a benefit? The idea that it is easy to fraudulently claim is a myth (or easy to claim at all), and betrays a complete lack of understanding. IMO, most claimants are desperate to get out of the benefits system because it is degrading and demeaning and does not provide the life of luxury you seem to think it does (and you’d be better off haranguing the Govt about the real billions lost in waste and incompetence, rather than constantly bemoaning total figures paid, with the attendant underlying theme of the ‘undeserving poor’).
Commenting by HaloScan
