The thing is with people like yellow and welldoneme is that they will never listen or agree unless they find themselves or someone close to them in the same situation and it's a waste of oxygen trying to persuade them otherwise. Some people just lack the empathy and compassion required to see another point of view. Unfortunately the people pushing through these policies appear to be of the same ilk.
On the one hand, I almost don't want them to have to understand because nobody should be in a position to feel so wretched.
But since you only care about yourselves, let me ask you this:
How do you think you will be better off under this policy? Do you think you'll get a refund on your tax because you no longer have to pay us scroungers? Do you think that the tax taken from you will lessen? It won't, the government will spend it on something else they deign to be more important (probably not something useful like the NHS either). Personally, I would far rather my tax (and I have paid into the tax system) was spent on people in need than some other shite.
There are not enough full time jobs for unskilled workers paying the living wage to make this system a success. I don't know how many times this needs to be said. And there are scores of people not able to work them even if there were.
And as a PP pointed out, who do you think will fill the positions in such menial work as us NMW people do when we can't afford to do it any longer? The shop I work in will hire people on a max of 15 hours. It is a big company. Under the proposed changes that's not a job I can afford to keep. I could go on for days about the horror stories of things myself and others have had to put up with at work which you simply would not put up with if you could afford not to.
The only option the companies will have left will be to turn over the jobs to technology. How many times has a self scan till pissed you off? Enjoy that because we were told this week that our company intends to have no manned checkouts within the next 10 years. I have worked with self scans. I know how to use them properly and there are still times it takes ages because they aren't calibrated correctly. If they aren't kept up to speed now when there are colleagues there then what makes you think they'll be maintained to run efficiently with nobody there?
Where do you think the carers for your elderly relatives will come from? Who will man the call centres you contact when you have a problem? Who will empty your bins? How will you be well cared for in hospitals without the number of healthcare assistants there are now? Who will stack the shop shelves with the food you need to eat? These are all things you need to consider. The rich would not take these jobs on the whole because they are thankless. If the poor can no longer afford to work them who will? These jobs rarely come with 35 hour contracts. Even when they do they rarely pay enough for people to get by.
It is easy to tell someone to work more and bury your head in the sand as to the practicalities of what you're asking; but the truth is that if it were that easy, people would be doing it.
Read the threads on here about how many people hate having to rely on tax credits because of the fact they can decide they've overpaid you (due to their mistake, not yours) by thousands. If it were a case of laziness then those people would have already taken steps to get themselves off of them in the first place.
The very (and I mean very) small minority of people who are living on benefits due to laziness and through choice will not change. People have been work shy long before there was a benefit system, they'll just find another way around it. The people who will be hit hardest by this are not lazy. Full time, well paid jobs and flexible, affordable childcare options do not grow on trees. Abusive/disloyal will not suddenly stop being shits and morph into the perfect husbands because women won't be able to afford to leave them.
Considering how much changing the system is costing in admin and new systems etc, how much do you think will actually be saved? Have you done your research into how much 'damage' claimants are doing to the economy? Do you really think this will fix it?
I understand that it is galling seeing the crappy benefit street programmes and the like. The perception peddled by the media leaves you feeling like you've been cheated working as hard as you do when those you perceive not to be are living the life of Riley. But it is just that, a perception peddled by the media. Claimants are not your enemy and benefits are not some underhanded way to get rich quick. Go and talk to the people actually using food banks or the job centre. Read the stories on here with a more open mind. Don't just take the pot-stirring headlines as gospel without talking to real people.