Welfare spending to rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn

[topicalaffair]

Over the next five years, the OBR is forecasting that UK welfare spending will rise by £73.2bn to £406.2bn.

How does everyone feel about this? I’m livid because I pay lots of tax. I don’t mind paying tax to maintain a civilised society - but this? This is surely taking the piss and will result in weaker and weaker services as the amount of £ available reduces day by day.

YANBU - it’s totally deranged. The every growing uk population can’t function effectively on such a benefits for all basis.

YABU - this welfare spending bill is truly representative of need.

👏👏👏

If I could litter pick / clean graffiti / garden / "low skill work", whatever that is in exchange for my benefits, I could continue as a teacher and not require benefits in the first place. Stupid idea.

Sigh. You said

‘I'm too much of a lazy benefits goat owner to check; has the OP told me how us disableds can become high earners yet?’

So answer my questions. To recap for you, in case you’ve lost track, they are:

Are you suggesting that all ‘disableds’ are a homogenous group, with the same abilities, capabilities, qualifications?

Would you say that all able bodied people have the same ability, capabilities and qualifications?

We have a quadriplegic man in my workplace who works in the research department

I am assuming he is highly qualified and has sought after skills.
Someone who is disabled and not worked for years is not going to have potential employers falling over themselves to offer them a job, and make all the reasonable adjustments so that they can work comfortably.
They will be looking at low paid work, much of which is physical in nature and simply not possible.

I agree, and I would love to know how much of the "benefit bill" ends up in the pockets of private landlords.

My (step) DIL is a single parent paying £1,220 for a small 2-bed attic flat. She has been very lucky, she has a good landlord who appreciates having a good tenant and who hasn't increased the rent for 3 year. He could probably relet the flat easily for £1500. She works slightly less than full time hours and some of her rent is covered by UC.

No. He was hired out of university, trained for two years and then retained. He’s been at my workplace for 6 years now.

Clearly you don't live or travel around London. The streets are filthy. Plenty of litter / graffiti / scruffy roads.

The point I am making is that people should be given money just to sit around and watch TV all day.

I asked my question first.

You said

Oh dear. So judgmental. So wrong. So not surprising. I’m disabled myself. As in I have a physical disability that is incurable. I’m also a high earner. How does that fit in your judgy little box?

I asked how I could become a high earner with my disability, if it's so easy to become a disabled high earner.

Answer my question, I'll answer yours.

I'm not against immigration entirely but it shocks me when I see people in their fifties coming here, working a few short years in low paid job and then getting unwell and onto disability benefits for life. They then turn state pension age, haven't paid enough NI credits so end up on Pension credit, PIP continues for life as barely any checks or assessments past state pension age. I don't understand how we actually allow this to continue ? These people will be getting supported for the rest of their lives for working here a few short years ? What is going on?

Over 600,000 people claim PIP for anxiety and mood disorders, with 250+ new awards made daily.

Given those rates, it doesn’t sound too hard to me

So you think benefits should be given in exchange for doing FA instead?

You want 'stay at home benefit mums' looking after your child over those who are actually qualified to do it? What would happen to them since they'd be out of a job?

They may have other disabilities. If it wasn't that hard why are so many people (70%) going to tribunal and winning?

Wow. But I’ll continue in the interests of not just ignoring you.

Your earning abilities depend on your qualifications, work experience, capabilities etc etc. As for anyone else. Not rocket science. I didn’t say it was ‘so easy’ nor did I allude to any such thing. You’re not special and neither am I. We’re in the same country (well actually I don’t know that you are in the UK, I’m assuming so given you’re here).

I think workplaces should be obligated to prioritise suitable working practices for qualified applicants (e.g. home working, flexible hours). I think there should be stricter regulations and mandatory reviews into disability discrimination in workplaces.

I think that if the councils are looking for people to clean up spaces and do "low skilled work", they should be hiring them and paying the appropriate wage and reduce the benefits bill further.

that’s right….blame pensioners again. No mention of child social services, broken families, family courts, SEN provision in schools, motability cars for young people (yes, I know I’ll get pilloried for this), ….!

Why do you think people on benefits are doing FA?
Some are carers. Some are just trying to get through each day with their health conditions. Some attend day centres and support groups.
Some are in work.

People on benefits that are fit to work have to spend 35 hours a week looking for or preparing for work.

Work coaches have all but given up on some of the long term unemployable ( of which there are huge numbers). They certainly don't get asked to do 35 hours work searching.
I will be having to claim JSA ( £92) a week soon when I get made redundant form my benefit advisor job. I have worked solidly for 40 years not even taking more than a few months of maternity leave but you can bet I will be hauled into the job centre and made to do 35 hours job searching !!

Are young people never disabled enough to have a motability car?

Cool, I'm qualified to postgraduate level and experienced, but can't find suitable work.

I'll now answer your questions:

Are you suggesting that all ‘disableds’ are a homogenous group, with the same abilities, capabilities, qualifications?
Would you say that all able bodied people have the same ability, capabilities and qualifications?

The answers to both are "obviously not", so I don't think we can make judgements about benefits being too lenient / all people on benefits being able to work etc.

How old should someone be to be allowed a motability car?

I think this rather proves my point. They may have to go through an extra step, but 70% of appellants then have their benefits reinstated. That is a very high success rate.

The reinstatement of those benefits is a bill that is shared by every tax paying worker in the country.

So why did you ask ‘has the OP told me how us disableds can become high earners yet?’

His set of circumstances are unique, as are everyone’s so you can’t use him as some kind of example to then judge others by as too many variables when it comes to disability, qualifications and employment.

Although I’m sure at some point someone
will post that they know someone dead who works 25 hours a day so therefore nobody should be getting disability benefits and not working 🤦

I just read recently that the UK has by large the highest number of people in temporary accommodation from all the developed countries. I was shocked by this, myself coming from a country that used to be considered a poor EE state (not anymore). UK is considered to be a very rich country, so why all these problems? Then I could see how many here live on welfare, something that is almost non-existent in my home country. We just don't have all these benefits, because we were always a much poorer country, so couldn't afford it. People work, because they have to. If they can't find full-time job, they do whatever they can - clean homes, wash cars, do baby-sitting, sell mushrooms they found in the forest, paint homes, or brew and sell home-made alcohol. But of course, no Playstation, no trips to Tenerife 3x a year - something that I've noticed people in the UK think is their holy right, as even 'poor people deserve to have good things'. Can someone really claim poverty if they can afford to buy expensive stuff or travel abroad? I mean, I've seen unimaginable poverty in my life, children living on the street, etc. so I kind of understand why e.g. boat immigrants risk their lives to come here. It's just that the benefits here seem to fund a rich lifestyle from their perspective. But I do think UK can afford it still, we have here unimaginable riches in many safes and museums, a lot of treasures and gold and jewels plundered hundreds of years ago. Surely, they can just sell some of it?