To wonder how so many of you can know some lifelong dole scrounger when the official figures are so low?

[ValarMorghulis]

I am forever seeing ignorant rants posts on here from people who are appalled that Bob down the road has never worked a day in his life, that their relative is a career claimant or that Sue next door is knocking out child afyer child with different men and not one of them funding their children.

yet the statistics state, and there is no reason to believe them to be false, that the numbers of long term claimants ( 5 years or more) is actually 0.3%

This raises two questions for me.
Firstly, why are we all so convinced that half the world is a lazy feckless scrounger satisfied to sit back and have us taxpayers pay their way. It clearly isn't the case at all.
And secondly, if the numbers are so small how come they all manage to live within close proximity to a Mumsnetter?

Time for the Turing test. I had great result with GabbyLoggon.

There are many possible reasons for unusual typed language.

ValarMorghulis yes let's.

I think like another poster said it depends on your economic background and also your location.

Valar, it ill behoves someone to comment on the literacy of another while posting with so many missing capital letters and incorrect apostrophes.

garlicfrother 'There are many possible reasons for unusual typed language' YY...and a 50 inch widescreen i-phone isn't one of them

Gawd. A literate sockpuppet.

This is beyond mistyping & bad spelling.

Hintof bream - you are correct. Sadly posting from my phone means capitals and decent punctuation just seems too much trouble. I wasn't intending to offend Mayploe. Merely trying to show that poor financial situation doesn't have to mean poor academic result.

Yes I do think that for most people your own personal history is a major part of your standpoint. The vast majority of those who feel so strongly about "scroungers" have anecdotal evidence.

I think that if you see people seemingly better off or with a similar lifestyle to you whilst you work hard and they do nothing but claim benefits, it is understandable that you would feel aggrieved.

But it is important to try and look past that emotional response to see the wider picture.

If I am typing as VM and vice versa then this thread, Maypole, about books we have actually read and have differing opinions on makes your theory, well, bollocks.

The fact that you think that we are the same poster despite this, sums up your inability to understand and evaluate situations more than anything else you have said on this thread. As I have said. You are a very limited person.

PoL bugging out and heading home...

Just a quick aside, if Tony Blair has paid £300k tax in this year...well that is a lot more than most of us.

I know at least one person who has claimed IS/HB as a single person and received cash in hand childminding.

Maybe we all know the same person?

Perhaps some doth protest too much

goodasgold - as a financial sum yes i suppose it probably is more than most pay. But as a percentage of his annual earnings, which is how everyone elses tax bill is calculated, it is far far FAR less.

To be a childminder she would need to be registered. IF she did some occasional watching of her friends children then that is between her and the other mother.

The only people I know who have been on benefits long-term are disabled. They are still very worried about being left to starve when cuts come in. I don't know anyone who chooses not to work, and indeed I don't and am currently on IS. I wish the 'undeserving poor' rhetoric would actually turn on itself and realise that in fact people deserve jobs, so it's the fault of employers for not giving them rather than unemployed people for not having them. The people I feel are most undeserving are the type who come on here, despite being practically illiterate, and brag about having jobs and partners- well, I have several good degrees, due to the fact that I actually made an effort at school even though my mother was on benefits some of the time, so I think I deserve your job and your partner more than you do (except I bet your partners aren't really as great as you seem to think, and you'll end up on income support when they fuck off with a 21 year old). You're more than welcome to have my £60 a week and shitty council house in return, since you're so jealous.

Agreed.

there was a post, i think from WorriedBetty giving figures for the total jobs currently available and that they fall far short of the number of currently unemployed.

so even if all of those capable of returning to work tried their very hardest, their simply aren't enough jobs to go round.