To be agreeing with new conservative benefits proposal re alcohol etc

[Tigerthebreadroll]

They will cut benefits for people that haven't paid into the system and been unemployed for over 6 months (don't quote me on that number ) by 30 % and it will be given on a prepaid type card. Meaning it won't be accepted by betting shops, for alcohol or cigarettes. I feel that's right . Why should tax payers money be spent on funding cigarettes etc but I have no problem with funding the basics like food etc.
Thoughts?
Basically you will claim full benefits if you've worked and paid into the system. Should reduce generational unemployment hopefully

If you have worked before you will be fine. So efficiently we now have a two tier benefits system.

Ever had to run a home on 434 pounds a month. There's no wriggle room. Cut peoples benefits further and there will be suicides like there were over the bedroom tax.

What do you think should happen to those not qualifying for benefits?

Where will they live, how will they afford to eat?

If you’re out of work for the rest of your life because you’re disabled you shouldn’t receive zero money for clothes, Christmas / birthday gifts, days out etc. It isn’t their fault they’re disabled or seriously ill. I think the argument here is forcing them to spend the money on food and nothing else but last time I checked people still needed clothing and it also isn’t much of a life if they can’t afford to even leave the house - how is that compassionate?

Absolutely!
Given the vote on this thread and the radioearlier, they've calculated the response correctly.

This. This thread is a lot of sanctamonious bullshit.

Next they won't be allowed fish fingers because those are a convenience food. Why do people without a job need convenience food, eh? Let's make them spend their benefits on fishing lessons and they can catch their own dinner.

Fuckssakes.

That is a great point and hugely problematic. I'm sure I have heard similar about food stamps being sold in the US also so people can buy the 'banned' items.

The issue with their proposal is an alcoholic can't just agree to not drink anymore because they can't buy it, it can be hugely dangerous for them to do a sudden dettox. They'd probably be trying to steal it instead, or otherwise harassing the shopkeepers.

It's a good proposal but the Tories will never ever win alone another election, unless they choose to form a coalition with Reform, so it's futile to talk about it.
They have essentially destroyed the country for the young people and the Millennials will never forgive them this and will never vote for them, whether in 10 or 20 years.

I’m shocked.

I think, generally speaking, enacting small cruelties against those who find themselves out work and reliant on an already cruel and broken system is a bit shitty.

There are absolutely people who generationally don’t work and spend what they are given on things that some people would deem to be inappropriate, but how about we spend our energies fixing the vast and complex underlying issues?

I also believe that there should be a cut off 6 months support and if you’ve not got a job by then tough no more support

My DP has been looking for a job for a year (made redundant after 15 years in his last place). He is 55 with epilepsy, so not someone employers want despite him being qualified for every job he's gone for. So unless there is a law compelling all employers to hire someone who has been out of work for more than 6 months then what are those like him to do. FWIW there are more people out of work than there are vacancies, so rather a lot of people will still be looking for work after 6 months, the vast majority of whom are not "work shy scroungers".

There are many, many reasons why people don’t work … and rich people who don’t work are presumably free to drink , drug and puff away without penalty ?
it’s the thin end of the wedge in government controlling us based on how poor we are.

To be fair, there are lot of mumnetters who utterly despise people on benefits and who always pile in on threads like this.

I am not sure how it would play out in the real world in terms of convincing more people to vote Tory. Who is Badenoch trying to appeal to with this? Who is she hoping to win over? Does she even know or is she just enjoying being spiteful, which she has form for.

I'm disabled. Why do you think I'm not allowed a glass of wine on occasion? As for taxpayer funded I must have forgotten all the years I paid into the system.

Being sick and being disabled aren't necessarily the same thing btw.

OK so what is rhe solution ? How do we get more people in work and pay out less percentage in benefits whilst making it fair and essentially getting rid of generational unemployment (not surge unemployment which could happen to anyone to be fair ). I have a friend who has been unemployed for 9 months now. She really is trying her best. But she's recently said it doesnt pay to find work and she is better off staying as it is as the jobs she can get pay less. How is that a good system?

It's already been done in Australia and now abandoned for the reasons outlined by so many posters who've pointed out how this won't work.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/05/abolished-cashless-debit-card-still-divides-two-years-after-labor-ordered-its-demise

I think giving alcoholics PIP in cash rather than mental health services is fairly abhorrent. It’s like offering them euthanasia.

Low wages following years of wage stagnation (especially in relation to inflation) certainly don't help here.

I think most people here agree poor people shouldn't be allowed luxuries, and certainly should not smoke, drink, go out, or eat at expensive restaurants.
They should stay quietly indoors and ponder on their inadequacies while the rest of us get on with our lives.

I have a friend who has been unemployed for 9 months now. She really is trying her best. But she's recently said it doesnt pay to find work and she is better off staying as it is as the jobs she can get pay less. How is that a good system?

Why don't your ask your mate how she'd like what you espouse? Go on. Do it and get back to us, @Tigerthebreadroll

A former MP for this area claimed 900 pounds a month on a London flat in mortgage interest and 1500 pounds a month in rent for a second London flat. Taxpayer's cash.

They tried this in the US. SNAP prepaid debit cards for groceries that wouldn’t work for alcohol, cigarettes, other ‘luxuries’ like perfume. What happened is a thriving black market for these cards sprang up. Parents who needed their cigs and alcohol would sell their SNAP cards for cash. Obviously a SNAP card for $200 would sell for $75 in cash. The children just went hungrier and people like struggling entrepreneurs with food trucks or small pop up restaurants got to buy food supplies cheaply.

Well then you aren't the target are you, if you are disabled and have paid into the system.

It is the lazy, entitled, 'can't be bothered to work like you idiots if I can get it all for free' that the OP is talking about

I'm not an alcoholic. Your earlier post referred to people on benefits in general. You didn't specify people with alcohol problems in your post.

My Dad (RIP) proposed this many years ago, and in his typical funny style, he proposed that the card be the size of a human, just for the sheer inconvenience of having to carry such a huge thing around. He also suggested that everything bought with said card should be khaki coloured with no labels, so you would open a tin, and would have no idea whether it contained baked beans or pineapple chunks. He really didn't like people who didn't work. 😂

Governments totally uninterested in addressing the lack of growth. See Jim Ratcliff. He says he can’t work here because of sky high gas prices and employment taxes. That and excessive regulation is what every business that leaves the UK is saying. I’m the government could try to show that it’s listening.