'The purpose of Welfare is to help people into work

[AnnieMaybe]

This is what David Cameron just said at the end of the BBC benefit programme

Does he not know what welfare is? Has he forgotten the ethos of where it has evolved from

Welfare should be there to support people who can't work, either because they are too old, too ill, too disabled or as a temporary thing for people in between jobs.

It is not there to support people to have children when they can't even provide the bare minimum for those children themselves.

It's certainly not there to fund someone's lifestyle choice (or it shouldn't be) to have 9 children, or to volunteer instead of taking paid employment or to turn down a house with new flooring but a sitting/diner because it is not good enough or to choose to never work at all because cleaning is beneath them.

I think the people who moan about "they" not creating "real" jobs need to realise that there is no "they", only "we". Would you be willing to employ someone on the terms that you associate with a "real" job?

we all know the Ruth typing on a mobile device is a buggar

Annie its terrible I often tell people how much I Luke something too....damn my cousins names haha

Welfare should provide a safety net of minimum standard if living and tax breaks and top up payments such as working tax credits used to ensure that those in work have a better standard of living than those who don't. Can't work is not the same as can't be arsed to work.

Not a great fan of Cameron, but that seems a reasonable statement, unless you assume that welfare is an alternative to work.

I'd rather we just stopped taxing people as much or at all rather than the ridiculous system of paying tax and then getting it back in tax credits. At the moment we just seem to have layer upon layer of bureacracy with each layer trying to solve the problems caused by the previous one.

Is there a beacon or a klaxon or something that alerts the smug and clueless to another opportunity for a bit of benefit bashing?

I received income support when I had my son, as soon as he went to school last year I took every single bit of help from the job centre to get back to work, there IS lots available.

It actually is now starting to infuriate me that people I know, with children in my son's year (a lot are couples) can't even be bothered to try. Yes, it's hard and there isn't too much about. Yes, sometimes you'll have to accept something that isn't your dream job.

Welfare is there for when you can't work (disabled, sick, caring for a young child or ill family). It's not a way of life! So yes, welfare is there to help the able to work back into work. If I and many others can do it. Most that are able to work should and can.

If he's serious then he could start by outlawing zero hours contracts (still smarting after a recent brush with these) & adjust the benefits system so that it permits people to seek out and do meaningful voluntary assignments (eg not workfare shelf stacking and the like for chartered accountants). He could also use the £3 K he currently gives tesco's and the like directly to job seekers so that they can fund industry recognised retraining opportunities where applicable after redundancy/career breaks bring up kids etc.

He could reinstate the reemploy mission, and start tackling the root causes as to why so many full time workers now need HB or tax credits to eat (in my mind noone who has more than a 5 year work history & works full time should need welfare to survive!).

Or he could just shtfu! Between the evil minions IDS and Gove, I'm truly beginning to despair for the future of this country. As for Cameron, I have trouble understanding how we ended up with a leader who is so intellectually challenged.

The majority of welfare / benefits spending is on pensions, and payments to people who work but get paid so poorly that they qualify for help. Other payments support those with disabilities which make working impossible.

This is a fundamental part of Tory policy - distract the chattering classes by pointing out the small fraction of benefit payments to the unemployed, convince them that someone has beer / a plasma TV / a goat that 'hardworking families' have paid for, and while everyone looks the other way at unemployed people living it up on caviar and champagne DaveScam can sell off the NHS and schools to his cronies and angle for a return to victorian poor laws and workhouses.

"..and he's absolutely right, as long as people are able to work"

So... He's not absolutely right then?

He, like a lot of you, has gotten JSA confused with the entire welfare system. Which is fine for the general public but considering he is, y'know, the Prime Minister and everything, you would have thought that the distinction there would be within his grasp.

Medi Cameron wants to tar all welfare payments with the same brush. He has been on a mission to stigmatise all welfare since before he was elected. It is strategy.

He also wants to (means to) lump the entire welfare state together (including pensions) when he talks about the overall cost. The bigger the figure he can quote the more easily he can whip up braying public support for swinging cuts.

It is entirely deliberate. He doesn't want to grasp distinctions or speak about vulnerable groups.

With all the changes they seem to be making, it seems like the sole purpose of the 'welfare' system now is to punish people for their choices/circumstances instead of helping them.

If you're a working class single mother with few qualifications, and no job your future is extremely bleak.

The man with 7kids. Worked. Payed taxes like the rest of you who 'bust a gut' to support these people. Incidentally at the end of the show where they said he moved back so he was nearer to his work after a council review. This was only as a result of the local MPs and Councillor involved. All it showed was the benefit changes affecting someone that it should never have applied to. Incidentally where is the line drawn what with the FT workers with 6 kids heavily reliant on ctc and wtc and the single mum with 1. Both heavily subsidised by the taxpayers.

*Paid.

Surely "welfare" was only meant to help people back to work.

The child tax credit should be stopped, such a pointless layer of opacity in the tax system.

Well National Insurance is the biggest Ponzi scheme going. The government's line is because they are changing everything with UC. The perception is, and presumably the figures show it, that too many people spend their lives on benefits rather than contributing to society. We have an ageing population so it is critical to collect more in taxes and NI.

I agree that the term welfare suggests it is payments to help the neediest in society who cannot work, etc but given the state of the public finances the emphasis is on getting people off the dole and into jobs, etc.

Yes, it's a shame that no one has had the foresight to gradually wean the public off the pyramid financing of retirements.

'too many people spend their lives on benefits rather than contributing to society.'

In what way are people on benefits not contributing to society?

My neighbour is on benefits currently, and volunteers at the local school doing free maintenance. He helps elderly neighbours with small handyman jobs. He offers his van for other neighbours to get rid of their rubbish. He offers emotional support to his working daughter who's partner recently passed away and helped her and her partner's family figure out the paperwork. He helps old ladies cross the road ffs. He goes drinking with 2 friends every Friday night, one who is going through scary medical tests. He is actively NOT looking for work right this moment though he intends to in the near future. His work and contributions to society are too important to him to get a job that will rob the community of his input.

How the disabled are treated