Is this likely to happen? Benefit related.

[littlemisssarcastic]

And where would it end?? Is this just the start of a slippery slope ?

Gordy I get no benefits.

it's not free money - people have to do things to claim it

so are poor people not allowed Christmas in your world Ghost - they may buy cheap booze and even cakes - the very thought

Ah I see, clearly the voice of authority then having insider knowledge of all those scroungers which make up such a huge percentage of all benefit claimants. Please carry on persecuting the poor

Having to use a card which is only accepted by large stores will make poor people poorer.

There are many, many examples where you can get a better deal with cash then on the high street.

Second hand clothes and furniture, for example. Food from a market stall. Bargains from the small ads. Internet & printing from internet cafes.

Using these cards will benefit big business, make poor people poorer and do nothing to change the behaviour of the (tiny minority) of feckless individuals who will simply find a way round it.

Anyone who is in favour of this is either trying to make more profit for the supermarkets, or hasn't thought it through properly.

It makes no sense at all.

The income replacement benefit for people unable to work because of illness/disability Incapacity Benefit/ESA - and that is being lumped in with JSA and all the other out-of-work benefits.

It's included in the £26K household cap, for example.

(DLA is not intended to be income. It's towards the cost of personal care or mobility assistance.)

you are on minimum wage but don't qualify for child benefit - okay then!

As a carer I would be affected by this as I have to get an income support top up, carers allowance isn't considered a lot to live on.

I'd be considerably worse off. I currently make my money stretch by food shopping in markets and shopping around for utilities and insurances. All of which require direct debit billing. A welfare card couldn't be used in markets and you'd have to go prepay on the utilities which would cost more.

I use the surplus to meet the kids' needs that the DLA won't stretch to. Sometimes I might have a bottle of wine. Being as I'm on call 24/7 in a caring capacity I think I earn it !

Ghostship, because the disabled get lumped in with the 'work shy' and the 'scrounges' etc. We are bing told by Esther fucking McVey that around 60% of us will lose our DLA because of "medical advances" or we "should have over come our impairment"!

If we lose our DLA we will be on these benefits if we are lucky, so it will affect us. We will still have our disabilities, we still won't be able to work. We will be on these schemes if they come in. It is a real fear for us! Can you really, really not see that? Imagine how Threesocks feels as the mother of a disabled child!

^it's not free money - people have to do things to claim it

so are poor people not allowed Christmas in your world Ghost - they may buy cheap booze and even cakes - the very thought^

Like what, fill a few forms in? Pretend they've applied for jobs like a lot do?

I didn't say that. This isn't about rich v poor. This is about people who do nothing with their lives but claim benefits because they're being enabled to get pissed and do whatever the hell they like with it.

It's all very well to laugh. But there are people who just have not got a clue about money. I know someone who is always hard up can't put petrol in the car and so on cant pay bills and yet spends loads of money having her hair done buying tat from the jewellery channel and so on. She isn't on benefits by the way. This really annoys me.

you are on minimum wage but don't qualify for child benefit - okay then

I've already said I don't have a child.

I also live in a poor area where a disproportionate amt of people spend money on booze/fags/gambling/games consoles etc and kids go to school hungry, so can see how the THEORY appeals

but can still see how in practice it would be detrimental to families, people need to feel that they can behave like a normal member of society, it's when they don't that drugs and drink etc take over.

There are lots of things other than food and heat that you need to get yourself out of a rut! perhaps joining a gym helps with someone's health and well being and gets them on track to get back to work, yes the gym is a luxury to MOST people, but to some people it is the start of a way out of poor health and mental health and the start of getting back some independance

MPs can claim £160pw for food.

JSA is £71pw.

Hurrah! We're safe under this ConDemCunt government!

No - I know you may believe that people get given it easily but in the real world they don't - trust me - I work with homeless young people who live off food bank parcels

likewise having hair done, might be a luxury for 9/10 people, but might mean a lot to someone dealing with depression or confidence for an interview etc etc

StNickHasHisXmasTeakozyOn

THANK YOU!!! You have just reassured me that there are people on here with some sense!!!

It's definitely not easy. My bf is disabled. It takes her weeks to fill in the forms due to her disability. She has a social worker that comes around once a week to do the writing for her but she can only manage so much so they have to do it a bit at a time.
She is in a wheelchair, can only stay awake for short intervals, has virtually no hand control. She gets weaker by the day and her organs are failing.

They put her in the work support group. She's appealing but the stress is affecting her health.

Yeah, it seems so much easier than a 9-5 doesn't it?!

Someone asked earlier whether any of us 'on the fencers' had had to claim benefits.

No, I haven't... But I was a child bought up by a mother on the then equivalent of job seekers. She smoked and because of her (psychological) illness, frittered money away on all sorts of rubbish exposing us to a degree of financial hardship we may not have endured had she been limited on what she could spend her benefits on.

I still think, on the whole, this is an ill thought out (on many fronts) idea, but I can kind of understand the intention.

oh but MP's EARN their £160 Waitrose food shop from the public purse - the idle undeserving poor should be made to shovel shit for a loaf of bread - it's probably their fault we are in recession and unemployment is high

Ghostship you are making sweeping generalisations about people on benefits. My parents didn't get 'free money'. They worked and paid taxes for almost 80 years between them before circumstances meant they had to go onto benefits. They earnt that money many times over.

I go on benefits every winter, have done for years as I work in a place where tourism is the main employment.
There Are No Jobs.
And I'll have my wine and my rollies.
How utterly sad that it has come to this, that those who are lucky enough to have a job feel that they then have the right to tell those without that luck, how to spend their money
I cannot believe this thread.
There by the grace of redundancy, divorce and ill health go you.
A general fuck off to everybody in favour of this disgusting idea.
And MN, that's not a personal attack, it's a general attack ,

My instinct says no to this: it's too great an infringement on personal freedom.

However, my head says - Benefits are not earned: they are precisely what they say: benefits. Therefore, why shouldn't they come in the form of food vouchers, heating vouchers etc, to get people the necessities of life?

The reality is that a lot of benefit claimants DO spend their money on drink at the expense of healthy food for their children.

Why on earth should people on benefits be held up to public scrutiny when YOU aren't???

Because they are living on public money, it is fair enough that the public want their taxes to be spent wisely. I couldn't care less what people do with their wages, because I don't contribute to them.

Like I said earlier, if I supported a policy like this, it would only be after seeing the policy's definition of 'troubled families' and agreeing with it.

Thats how it's done here in California, and other states too I believe, it's card, it looks like a cash card, you press EBT on the machine at the checkout and use your PIN, you can't tell it's being used unless you work there it looks like you are using a cash card, only food cost is deducted from the card and the teller tells you the amount of cash you owe (for non food items like Beer, cigs, even shampoo) You can use these cards anywhere that uses a card swipe machine at the check out so pretty much anywhere.
They also give a set amount of cash per month to be used on other things like shampoo loo rolls, hair cuts, beer, cigs. You can draw cash out for those, but once it's gone you are out of luck.
If you have infants, they get coupons for milk (and other things) with the parents name on they check ID at the check out, and so the little ones under 5 get milk fresh vegs etc.
It's one way of cutting costs.
My friends Dh lost his job, they are family of 2 adults, and three children, they get about $800 a month on the food card