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

Why should the OP explain? It’s for the parents to explain to their DC why they aren’t providing for them and to do something about it.

We have.

They had 14 years and a big enough majority to push through any "bully the unfortunate" policies they liked. All they did was fuck up the country. I can confidently (and happily) predict that we will never see another Tory government. Why not vote Reform? You could have enough workhouses and concentration camps to put a big smile on your face. As for the disabled? Just let them starve. After all they haven't "paid in". I sincerely hope that you never have the misfortune of waking up and realising that your comfortable lifestyle is achieved on the backs of those less fortunate. It would be such a shock to you.

I have a feeling you don't know how much it costs to take a child into care
Or the % of kids coming out of care and getting decent qualifications or jobs

Its not a completely new idea. When I left school in the 1980s, unemployment benefit was paid to people who had paid a certain amount in NI. Everyone else - e.g. school leavers, received supplementary benefit which was significantly less. I'm a 'leftie' and I support the idea.

They'll qualify for the breakfast club because they are on benefits -like anyone else who is entitled

Or steal.

Most people quote human rights, but haven't even bothered to read up on them. Fags and alcohol don't qualify 🙄

What I do support is cutting unemployment benefits for rhise who didn’t contribute. France has very generous unemployment benefits which are provided only if you worked for at least 6 months in full time job and length is proportionate to how long you actually worked - could be up to 2 years. Thats much better system than indefinite benefits

You do realise that applying for jobs is an online exercise these days? Perhaps those doing so should have to march up and down the road, phone in hand, wearing a sign explaining that they're not enjoying a walk they are looking for work so that nobody thinks they're breathing tax payers air or absorbing sunlight when not entitled because "poor". Small independent businesses are closing, those limping along can't afford to pay full time wages, and I think the last time I saw one hiring via a card in the window was about 2010.

That aside, this is a cunningly designed populist policy in line with all the other rhetoric to focus attention away from wealth transfer upwards and encourage in fighting amongst the haven't got enough, unlikely to be able to get enough in the current economic landscape (AI is a big issue here) and those with virtually nothing.v

It does make me chuckle how morals and ethics only apply to the poor. No matter if billionaires are driving slave labour in the third world, partaking in the sex trade (including underage) and snorting marching powder to fuel their grandiose delusions - they're entitled, they've earned it. And their entire remit is to amass wealth and leverage power and hang the rest of us.

Meanwhile, if they make the poor poorer to the point of desperation, the priblem they present will solve itself via malnutrition, crime, disease and violence, including civil unrest. Might take a while but they won't be affected by it, and the ends justify the means, right?

Anyone thought about carers? I technically haven't "worked" in 6 years because im a carer i get carers allowance which is taxable but obviously not taxed because its £86 a week 🤔 so what happens to us? Also shouldn't they be encouraging jobs and growth BEFORE cutting benefits? No point in stopping money if there are no jobs to go into

It wasn't significantly less. The difference was less than 2 pounds a week

They can’t encourage growth if they have to keep raising taxes to pay the benefits

Assuming this is only to target career benefit claimants, and not genuinely sick/disabled, then this is right. Benefits should be a stop gap when things turn shit, not your life plan.

This is the thing though. Ordinary working people can’t afford to take their kids to museums, lidos etc but it’s all free entry to people on universal credit. I have always lived in London and have never been to the Tower of London Madame Tussaud’s etc, never go to the Lido I live right next to, yet am told a high percentage of tickets on the online booking system are reserved for those who are entitled to get in free and their tickets are ring fenced, the paying customer gets what left over.

So many people on this site hate their fellow human beings it seems.

And amazing how the Tories have all the answers now yet couldn't get anything right throughout their many years in power.

I can buy fruit and veg with a card at my meagre market? Everywhere takes cards these days you know

Exactly. And the authorities can't even close the blatant fake vape and tobacco shops that are literally staring us in the face on the high st.

You’re only three pay days away from being “the type”

I've not understood for years why benefits can't be restricted to certain types of purchases, if I can do it on my DD rooster card then why can't the government do it on benefits?

Obviously the governement will need to provided some additional funding to the NHS for alcohol detox management which can be very dangerous and smoking cessation which can be challenging and distressing.

How does smoking help you with a disabled child?

As Labour are constantly asking (according to Labours own MP Work &Pensions secretary at the time):

'Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others' say Labour backbenchers.

No wonder the ‘squeezed middle’ are terminally fcked off.

He offers a fascinating analysis of poverty and in it says something along the lines of “when you’re already poor and suffering are you going to buy cake or carrots and brown bread?”
This sums it up in a few words.

There are two ways two ways to go about it:

• You're poor. Life sucks. You can't see a way out. Because you've never witnessed someone getting out. Because you are feeling so self deflated, you have no sense of hope any longer, because you've tried before and got nowhere. So you're only way to make like bearable is to focus on immediate gratification and what little pleasures you can afford. This is you for the rest of your life whilst you slowly deteriorate and your life ends years before others.

• you're poor - life sucks. You think no way do I want this to be me for the rest of my life (and that of my kids). I don't care if I can't make it happen, I rather spend my life trying than doing nothing and accept my fate. It will be even more hellish to start with but I trust that all the efforts, sacrifices and hard work will pay of. It might take longer than I want, I might step back a few times but I will get there.

The latter was a much more common mindset in previous generation. Hope, pride, detert.

Nowadays, the former is much likely the status quo. Young people gave lost all sense of pride and hope. They are brought up to only value immediate gratification

We can debate until we are all out of breath wether we should have a generous or strict approach to the situation. Neither is the way to go about it. We need to restore faith in the future, hope and pride.

That will certainly not happen without some level of political stability, whichever party it is.

You’re aware the shopping vouchers some people on UC/JSA already get block alcohol and cigarette sales right?

Those vouchers are very similar to the ones some companies give you as work perks, I’ve been to,d in the past my ‘job centre’ voucher only cover the food not bottle of fizz in my trolly but when I show them it’s a work perk one they scan it through and it works.

It relieves stress.