OK, so how would YOU change the welfare system?

[MathsMadMummy]

just wondering following on from various threads lately. sorry it's probably been done before.

I guess it's more a question of how you'd change the culture really, where people feel it's their entitlement to never work etc.

I have no idea what the answer is, please tell me your bright ideas

yes, you are, and you also must be available for interviews when they find them for you.

Valium your first post just reminded me of some of the smiths lyrics!

"From the ice-age to the dole-age
There is but one concern
I have just discovered :

Some girls are bigger than others
Some girls are bigger than others
Some girl's mothers are bigger than
Other girl's mothers"

Like I said on the other thread though which was in agreement with something appletrees had posted, it is the lack aspirations amongst some people that is worrying, rather than their actual situation.

I'd spend more effort in encourqaging vulnerable people to claim all the benefits they are entitled to - particularly Disability Living Allowance, which is underclaimed.

I'd allow a certain percentage of very ill people on long term incapacity benefit to effectively retire with no further need to look for work (as for some, there is little point making their health worse by hassling them to find wor, when there isn't enough work for everyone).

I'd ensure appropriate intervention in the early days of sick leave/employment support allowance claims, to ensure that no-one ever gets out on the scrap heap again.

I'd extend Future Jobs ~Fund and most importantly Community Task Force (work for your dole) so that no new claimants get to sit around doing nothing - everyone would be expected to do something

x-post with violet. i agree with your last post.

this whole idea that you're entitled to get children with whomever you wish because you don't have to pay for hte children you created in a previous relationship has to stop.

aside from being expensive, it's not good for society in general.

oh and there would be equal onus on resident parents and non-resident parents to provide financially for their children. No single parents would be allowed to rest on their laurels while their working ex partner supported them solely financially.

I think the fact that there are hardly any apprenticeships around is the actualy REAL problem with regards to job prospects and furture earning potential. But then you even have to take into account that alot of manufacturing is now undertaken abroad in developing countries

I agree that benefits should be a safety net rather than a lifestyle choice.

I think benefits should stop after 2 years if you haven't made a decent effort to get a job. I also think it should be capped so if you claim with (for example) 2 children it would only increase if you have one more baby (- not 2 or 3 or 4).

Cap on housing benefit so we don't get repeats of the Kensington £2000 PCM rent paid by the council for a £2Mil mansion

I don't think you should be able to claim if you haven't ever worked, although I don't know how workable this would be - maybe a system like the Americans use where people are given stamps to exchange for food/clothes/rent rather than cash.

I also think that the long term sick/disabled should be put on a different system so they aren't expected to meet the same criteria.

On a side note my BiL did National Service in Greece and loved it but other than keep him busy for 2 years it didn't really do much to his employability!!

"Scrap young girls getting flats as soon as they have children. Mother and baby units until said girls have the qualifications and jobs to support themselves and their offspring"

what about the young boys who are the children's fathers?

Colditz:
Government funded nurseries such as Surestart or childcare vouchers? Aren't all toddlers entitled to free nursery place after a certain age?

textpest what would you propose to do with all the homeless people that your proprosals would create?

So benefit claimants get to sweep the streets
so what happens to the bloke who gets paid to do that..does he lose his job? ..my local council has just announced a 1000 job cuts over the next 4 years I'm sure they would love the free labour

We could stop paying benefitts to immigrants who have never workd in this country.

We live in a small country with overcrowding and not enough jobs to go around. Yet we still encourage people to settle here with no way of supporting themselves and pay them JSA and put them up in rent free houses.

I know there are many immigrants who do work for a living and if they are contributing to our society then they are welcome but we have enough 'born and bred' scroungers without adding to it with immigration.

OK here is my penny's worth

Income support should be turned into a benefit for women who are not entitled to maternity allowance or SMP. All three should last for a year then it turns into JSA which only lasts 6 months.

Tough but the jobs are there - people just need to accept that no job is beneath them. As a point i was made unemployed at 21 after three months of looking for work that fit my supposed good education and experience i took a job cleaning. Pity other people don't have that kind of self respect.

Finally no benefits should when added together should pay 5% less than min wage

Mrs pear runs off and hides

Isn't it just work easier if the council runs its own nurseries? I live in an area where the school has a nursery attached and it makes it so much easier to get a nursery place withoput having to 'top up'. I doubt it would help people to work though as they only offer 2 1/2 hour sessions!

Can I just say aswell, there are a whole host of women who just do not qualify for anything because their partners earn above a certain amount, which simplistically might suggest that ALL men should and must work to support the children they father? The csa is just a joke. They seem to screw the men that do pay and completely ignore the ones who don't.

hairytriangle - Love the name btw

I totally agree with you regarding DLA being under claimed. I have a serious health condition and have been encouraged and supported by my health care team to claim for it but after 4 claims being refused - I know when I am beat! But on the other hand I have a 'friend' with a bad back? [sceptical] that gets DLA, said bad back doesn't stop her from bending over with her dyson every day top to bottom of her 3 bedroom council house, which might I add is like a show home.

A little me?!

'Government funded nurseries such as Surestart or childcare vouchers? Aren't all toddlers entitled to free nursery place after a certain age? '

12 hours/week, from 9.30-noon or 1.30-3.

Want to tell me where are all these jobs willing to employ someone for this amount of time?

And if not, then again, who will look after teh child whilst the parent is working?

Um, mrspear, again, what about childcare?!

There are no apprenticeships now ..no industry to speak of.When I left school there were apprenticeships and factory job galore. That to me seems to be the problem

hairytriangle - the young boys should be resposible for their children I agree. HOWEVER, it is the single mother who qualifies for all the benefits - including being zoomed up the social housing waiting list. If she applies as homeless she has priority need and is entitled to have the local council provide her with accommodation. Same doesn't apply to the young boy who doesn't have the child living with him.

Abolish tax credits and raise the personal allowance for income tax to take lower paid out of tax. Silly to give with one hand and take away with the other. Doing it by way of paying less tax also restores the link between your own efforts and your standard of living, rather than that depending on a state benefit.

Reduce all benefits apart from short term contribution based JSA (I think it is fair to protect those who are willing to contribute and temporarily fall on hard times) and genuine incapacity benefit (wouldn't punish those who can't contribute)to subsistence level.

Also I would limit incapacity benefit to those who are actually disabled. Far too many claimants who are just lazy and claim to be ill giving people who are actually disabled a bad name.

Get rid of contribution based benefits and make them all either means-tested or universal.

Excellent post, DivineInspiration.

expatinscotland I am talking about childcare for parents who are on IS etc, surely '12 hours/week, from 9.30-noon or 1.30-3.' is better than sitting on their backsides doing nothing?

veyron it's a horrible form to fill in

"hairytriangle - the young boys should be resposible for their children I agree. HOWEVER, it is the single mother who qualifies for all the benefits - "

But I bet you a fair proportion of the boys also claim benefit....

Right - my way of solving the 'benefit culture' issue below, however, none will be taken up by government as all will cost more in the short term...

1/ IS for 1 year only. The state will pay for a 'maternity leave' after that, you're expected to look for work. In order to make this possible, nursery provision is needed.

Vouchers would be provided for nursery placements on a sliding scale, from 100% of the fee if you're earning minimum wage to just a token amound (say 10% of fees) up to £24k (the average wage being currently £25k). Councils will have responsibility of ensuring there are enough places available at nurseries in their areas, providing state run nurseries if required.

2/ Making long term unemployed more attractive to employers - if a company hires someone who's been unemployed for more than 12 months, the company doesn't have to pay the employer national insurance contribution for 6 months. OK, so you might get unethical employers hiring someone for 6 months then getting rid of them, but at least the person who's been employed now has something on their CV and is back in the habit of working. 6 months is a good length of time to prove yourself to an employer as well who might otherwise see you as a risk

3/ Make signing off/on easier and flexible to allow for temp work. Perhaps an online system where you can log in a 'sign off' for one day - loosing 1/5 of your JSA. This way, you can do upto 4 days work and still get something from benefits and not have to go through the paperwork and the delay of signing back on. If you need to sign off for a full week, a fortnight etc it needs to be easy to do with no fear of loosing out.

There's a lot of flexible work that people are reluctant to take as the hassle of signing off/back on makes it seem worthless. This will help unemployed people build up a CV, prove themselves when permanent roles become available.

4/ not sure how this would work - but some sort of support network for young people moving out of their home area for work. The idea that you can just move to where there is work assumes you are completely independant and able emotionally to cope away from your support network. I first left home at 18 to go to uni, but I moved into halls, there was a whole structure of people giving me maps round the town, helping me register for a GP & dentist, there was someone in each hall who was in charge of welfare of the students and an instant community to help you settle. There needs to be something like that for younger people wanting to move where work is rather than just a 'get on your bike' attitude.

5/ (this one shouldn't cost too much) different levels of JSA - higher for the first 6 months, then dropping dramatically. Put a deadline on looking for work.

That bit was supposed to be crossed out ooops!