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AIBU?

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Original poster

OK, so how would YOU change the welfare system?

635 replies

MathsMadMummy · 04/08/2010 10:23

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

OP posts:
usualsuspect · 04/08/2010 15:19

I didn't think it would be long before the tory voting..semi detached living ..boden wearing ..daily Mail reading ...I don't pay my taxes brigade appeared

ArseyMum · 04/08/2010 15:20

"Poor people have less entitlement to be involved in decisions about how society is run"

Sadly this is true because they are less likely to vote than better off (and the young).

chosenone · 04/08/2010 15:21

Incapacity Benefit for drug addicts and alcoholics (and the extra money alcoholics get to fund their addiction) does nothing at all to help these people. The get everything paid for, no incentive to change and no real professional help to rehabilitate unless they commit crimes!! Ridiculous. My brother has been out of work for nearly two years as he is an addict. His social circle of addicts are skilled at manipulating the system and know if they spend the benefits on drugs the local church will give them emergency food parcels

Some of my brothers friends are only in their early twenties and have never worked, they fell into a drug culture and became addicts who can therefore claim IB!! They think they'll be able to do this endlessly, forever? These people need help/support to get them functioning as part of a workforce somehow!!

StarlightMcKenzie · 04/08/2010 15:21

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LolaKnickers · 04/08/2010 15:23

What's sad about it arsey? Why shouldI be sad if they can't be bothered to get off their backside even to vote?

and usualsuspect, please do not allege that I live in a semi. I assure you my house is detached. And I went to university, so can manage the Telegraph not the Daily Mail.

StarlightMcKenzie · 04/08/2010 15:24

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StarlightMcKenzie · 04/08/2010 15:25

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LolaKnickers · 04/08/2010 15:25

Well, starlight, because anyone over 18 can vote if they register to do so. So if they fail to do this, what other reason is it than "can't be bothered"?

LolaKnickers · 04/08/2010 15:26

Hmm, missed the sarcasm there starlight did you?

chosenone · 04/08/2010 15:26

BTW it is true that many of the drug addled waste of skin addicts afforementioned, would not be particularly employable, even in the most basic manual jobs as time keeping isn't something they're good at! But surely stuffing envelopes, stapling paper work, shovelling snow, cleaning up graffit etc could somehow be done by these drop outs!!

StarlightMcKenzie · 04/08/2010 15:26

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usualsuspect · 04/08/2010 15:27

Oh go clean your 4 x 4 Lola or ride your horse

LolaKnickers · 04/08/2010 15:28

I did come up with a reason. It was that they can't be bothered. You said this wasn't the case, so I presume you can say why else it would be.

GeekOfTheWeek · 04/08/2010 15:31

I just love how these threads always end up taking the piss out of the middle classes

usualsuspect · 04/08/2010 15:38

Ok to take the piss out of the working classes tho

StarlightMcKenzie · 04/08/2010 15:39

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usualsuspect · 04/08/2010 15:40

I was just stereotyping back ...if you would like to read lolas earlier posts

Glitterknickaz · 04/08/2010 15:51

I would divert all the millions of pounds of David Cameron's personal bank account into the services that have been cut for my disabled kids. Because of these cuts they have been referred to the voluntary sector which has been overwhelmed, so they won't get access to these services for 12 months plus, if at all.

Then I would put DC on payments equivalent to IS and Carers Allowance and make him try to live on it before making any more policies that treat us like feckless idiots.

SanctiMoanyArse · 04/08/2010 16:09

Just a straight forward degree Lola?

which paper does that entitlke me to I wonder (andswer: whichever is free online; and before people say ooh but you pay brraodband the business DH runs that means we get TCs and not JSA (a huge thing for me psychologically) is internet based sales)

(And no i don't think postgrad studeis makes me superior, just bashing away at a few more stereotypes)

Not only do I vote BTW, I have been asked to stand by two different parties but am a member of a completely different one.

And- and - I don't have a Plasma TV (or want one)

StarlightMcKenzie · 04/08/2010 16:12

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SanctiMoanyArse · 04/08/2010 16:15

'But surely stuffing envelopes, stapling paper work, shovelling snow, cleaning up graffit etc could somehow be done by these drop outs!! '

those jobs are already being done by people trying to earn their keep. Should we throw them by teh wayside so the druggies can have the jobs then?

It's not ideas of jobs that help, it's job vacancies and where I am (and no I am not moving- too complicated wrt to disability schooling I am afraid, we did before though in order to up our prospects, should pay off in 2 years as well) there aren't any. As someone with a postgrad I can't get basic admin work, shop work, and I tried TA work as well but they only take qualified TA's and graduates can't get funding for that (and the course won't take self funded people). I'd love to eb a TA and as my postgrad is in ASD would be pretty good as an LSA I think.

In fact I can't even get voluntary work (in addition to reading at school) as theya re over subscribed locally too with recently redundant people and being a carer and needing time for appointments makes them go elsewhere. Joke, huh?

moondog · 04/08/2010 16:17

Bleeding made a great point a while bakc about a lack of jobs for people who don't want office jobs. Manufacturing work, stuff like that, which is work that many men in particular were proud to do.

There don't seem to be many real jobs left anymore, and I include many of the jobs in my sector-the public one.

SanctiMoanyArse · 04/08/2010 16:18

LOL Starlight - just top 5%?

(and before someone says but look at your typos may I refer them to my apology thread

What really does work anyway?

i've been invovled with a mentoring scheme that goes out to kids who ahve Uni and academic potential in teh valleys and mentors them to up tehir grades to what theya re capable of: it worked. I;d like to see that extended to all kids who are at risk of under achieving but instead, the funding was completely taken away.

Sadly, political parties know that 10-15 years is their lot and there's no point looking really long term as it benefits the opposition.

moondog · 04/08/2010 16:19

Glitter, that's a spectacularly ill judged post. Why should people have their own money taken off them to serve others?

LolaKnickers · 04/08/2010 16:19

i said i went to university sancti - didn't say I only had a degree. you imagined that part, presumably only to inform us all that you have a pgc and aan ma, though presumably from some ex-poly or other. starlight - no, my reason works for me. nobody is stopped from voting, excepting prisoners and mentally incapable. so why would someone fail to vote, other than not being bothered. here's a thought - because the outcome doesn't matter to them, it only really matters to those of us who would be expected to pay more or less tax depending on the outcome.