Private companies checking benefit claimants

[Hammy02]

David Cameron is going to work with Experion to check that benefit claimants are not spending money that they should not have. I think it's a great idea. Why should taxpayers pay for someone who doesn't work to have Sky TV, a car or a huge TV? If they can afford these, either the benefits they are receiving are too high or they have another source of income. Surely benefits are to keep people out of poverty and that is all?

Actually (actually), my username simply came about from my having been in the Army.

Funnily enough.

Or not.

No, not really, your tone is quite military and your write as though you are slaying the opinions of those around you. It is quite apt in fact.

This appears to ignore the issue that you can receive quite large sums of money in the form of child/spousal maintenance without it having any effect on your benefits whatsoever.

wubbly - not to mention the young people/migrant workers being paid even less than that because they are off the radar and therefore vulnerable to exploitation.

I can remember being 16 and being paid about £1 an hour less than my coworkers because I wasn't old enough for minimum wage. I was doing exactly the same job, but because they could pay less, they did. No one cares for the workers, after all.

Livingbytheriver - is it so very wrong that I take that last comment as a compliment??

I think it probably is .

IMO wanttofly the current government is trying to reduce the big brother society by taking away cctv cameras and not enabling terrorist laws to be exploited by local councils like the labour government happily did (or allowed to happen). Experian (and other credit companies) already has access to the data about your finances and the HMRC has all right to look into your personal financial affairs in the manner explained well by someone else on page 4 of this thread (I think) where a previous DWP employee said Experian would only run data base checks to find discrepancies between income and outgoings. The HMRC does these types of check anyway, but in a less efficient and more expensive fashion currently. Like that poster said, it pins down the 2% of claimants who have been less than honest with their claims. I am also sceptical to infringements on liberties but I don't see this particular thing as an infringement since no new information is accessed - and since only about 2% who have reason to explain themselves will be asked to do so.

I know we can't all be managing directors and high flyers, but there's nothing to be gained by a life on benefits. The welfare system was brought in after the war as a safety net, a temporary measure to help people until they got back on their feet. I'm all for that, we have to help the vulnerabe. I'm just not sure when the changeover happened. when did the benefit system go from being a temporary help to being a lifestyle choice, why are 1000's of people better off on benefits than if they were working, why has basic ecomonics gone so wrong?....

And if that wasn't bad enough, they wanted the public to grass up anyone we knew who was screwing the system...lol

We had to police the system they created.

It was a fact based comment, take it how you will.

If it is all slay and no open mindedness surely that gets dull after a time though...

Livingbytheriver - couldn't agree more. It's important to keep an open mind and challenge one's own thinking from time to tim.

But who is Tim?

Ah BA is on here agin

BA if you don't want to take my opinions into account then don;t but this thread doesn't exist for your own personal gratification so hit hide thread ot change the record.

Thanks.

And luckily I also have the ability to make choices in whose opinions I read: I choose people who read and take account of those with a huge swathe of lie experiecnes regardless of whetehr the opinioon meets mine, as as such those who just refuse tor ead POVs do not meet that.

From time to time is a start. Doing it on a daily basis is when the full benefit is felt.

Before LAbour and indeed for part of Labour tehre was a benefit called Family Credit (and no, I didn;t claim it, sigh, even though yes I did have kids in that time frame)

So TC's aren't all that new

However other benefits havce been discontinued since the TC system took off- Income Support now does not have a children's component, and I learend yesterrday that student finance for ap[rents no longer ahs a childrens element, but assumes receipt of CTC.

And I imagine somewhere there is a theory (possibly rightly) about costing less to delvier via one avenue. but it's worth noting that as this has risen so other payments ahve disappeared.

Now, in a purely selfish way I wish the IS system was still intact so that working famillies had a stigma-less benefit, but that would use unfair stereotypes of many people on IS and JSA who would lvoe to be self supporting woudln't it? That self same streotyping that I loathe in fact.

But yes, a potted history of TC's.

As I understand it there are two and a half million unemployed. ANd 400,000 jobs vacant at any given time.
Cameron and Nick are chasing headlines on benefits; which all governemnts do these day.

A public schoolboys governments chasing the unemployed. Big Headlines. Small results.

If dave and nick are the answer, it was a v very silly question.

SanctiMoanyArse - eh?

OK so just done a school run whilst thinking about this (Yes I know its the summer LOL- SN club meets at a local school)

I am wondering if BA recognises she is currently missing the opinions of:

Anyone with a severe disability (or at least the vasy majority)- physical and also non physical impairments such as HFA, and any terminal or life limiting disease?

Anyone who ahs given up a job to care for someone such as an aging famioly member?*

Anyone recently redundant?

Anyone who ahs recenlt escaped a violent parrtner and been moved to a different area?

Mature students actoively building a future?

Plus many I can't immediately think of.

Does BA not think these people have very different political agendas to ewach other, and very important contributions to make?

I know the definition of net contrributor you are using but I trust you are aware that even that has difficulties- I am a net contributor on the whole becuase as a carer I save the state an enormous amount of hard cash! That's reality.

I don't think I would want to live a loife devoid of the opinions of so many people, and in which I was so cynical as to assume negative principles behiond every person's posts to the extent that they would change their moral guidelines for a fiver from the state.

Oh and am fairly sure BA is a female, have a fair guess she's not a newbie either and that I know who she is but obviously, just an educated guess from too much time on these threads over too many years.

Oh and what I meant before BA was this:

If you don't want to read peoples opinions fine, but blanket posting of a personal policy on every related thread is not only rude but hugely limits your access to life experiences that are exceptionally valid. Personally, I cherish those experiences and in all truth, cannot see the point of using a board such as MN if you only want a narrow range of views.

There are topic and political persuasion specific boards for that kind of thing.

I wouldn't go on every thread with a blanket statement saying I do not wish to hear the opinions of Tories, in fact I try and elarn if not agree with the posts, and I would advoocate that to be a good posting ethic.

If the eh was about my typing tehre a thread I link to from ages ago apologising for my typing caused by eyesight issues but in truth, I an't be arsed to lcoate it and I have a small child asleep in my arms.

Who is she.....?

come on...spill..

Yeah coz I am that stupid DP 9and I said a guess not a know LOL)

I never outed you pre name change block and I won't do it again

Besides I am probably wrong LOL

(I'm a bloke)

And I will resort now to a thread hide becuase my hea d is hurting (though will be back later no doubt)

But for the OP my view is this:

no issues for me with the proosed checks, from what the credit check chap on Jerremy Vile was saying anyway then its stuff like lots of costrl;y vcredit, multiple addresses, resident partners and not whether you buy own brand or harrods socks.

But ples ebe aware when making threads that benefits claimant coverrs a huge spectrum from deliberately unemployed feckless addict through to angelic middle aged person giving it all up to move in with aging aprents, or disabled person.

(See ? said I could be wrong)

mIOND i CAN THEREFORE THINK OF THE IDEAL PARTNER FOR RYU ON HERE- SADLY. sEPARATED AT BIRTH.

Shit sorry about caps- toddler arm on keyBOARD!

SanctiMoanyArse - you make a good point about the need to listen to other people's points of view.

I think, on reflection, what I was driving at was the rather obvious point that "turkeys don't vote for christmas" - i.e. I don't think benefit recipients's views are especially helpful in framing the debate about how much to cut/how little etc.

It's understandable that they they hold the views they do - I'm not knocking them for it - I just think one can skip over their contributions on this sort of discussion.

I've been outed more times than a xxx xxxx, so I don't care anymore...

If you tell me I promise I wont tell anyone..

just tell me reallyquicklylikethis...

Of course you cannot skip over people views on this kind of subject when it is about them and whether you like it or not, that includes the disabled. There are consortiums in place in many counties with references to the facilities they provide for their disabled members and their carers and they ask the people it affects because then you provide the best support network for those who need and are going to use it. Of course it doesn't always work in theory but it is better to ask those people rather than someone in an office who has never experienced caring or disability what he/she thinks is needed, they will not know.

But we are talking about those who need to use the welfare system, whom it was set up for, not people who choose it as a lifestyle (who would choose it though I have no idea and it hardly provides any kind of lifestyle)