Should UK adopt a more US approach to benefits?

[Niceguy2]

BBC Article

Has the time come to compel people to work for their benefits? Should single parents also be forced to work or should they be exempt?

I think most people realise we cannot continue to support the current system but what system should replace it?

I've seen levels of deprivation well on par with what I saw in the US taking oral depositions from asylum seekers in Texas.

It definitely exists here in pockets and is utterly shocking.

That's why I riles me up every time someone pulls the 'There's no poverty in the UK' line.

I think vouchers stigmatise people , and imply you can't be trusted with money because you are a scum parent. If parents spend money on booze and not their kids it should be dealt with by social services.

Being on benefits does not make you a bad parent.

Yes, why not just go back to victorian values with your 4pence stamped with "workhouse" so you can't spend it in the pub

I don't agree that you should be told what to spend your money on. people on benefits are stigmastied enough already.

It's not vouchers, it's a debit card with a chip and PIN that you slot into a machine like a bank card.

And the belief behind it isn't that people on benefits can't be trusted with money, but that if your basic needs are provided for you don't need cash; that cash should be something you work for.

I don't know if that's the right approach, personally.

Don't people already use Healthy Start vouchers here, anyhow?

Expat you are a bigot.

Huge numbers of people have lost their jobs already through no fault of their own. The majority of them are sensible, hard working people, your suggestions are downright nasty.

I don't think Expat was saying she agrees, just trying to explain the thinking behind the scheme.

Any nation as rich as the US that has charities run drop in centres once a week for the poor to seek basic medical treatment at an affordable price should be ashamed of itself for failling it's own people, more often then not it is the poorest who work the hardest, America is built on the blood of the workers (especially low paid illegal ones).

we have nothing to learn from the US, we should pity them, pity the poor, even Cuba a struggling country has healthcare for all (and free 24 hour dentists as well, something we should learn from).

But the ConDems are scum, they hate the working man and love the tax dodging bankers and other such sods who thrive off the misery and hard work of others like parasites constantly sucking away at the vains of the nation until there is nothing left and then they fly off to find other victims over seas, so it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if they covert the US system of fuck the poor.

We do not have the levels of deprivation that are in the US. For a start, we have the NHS which ensures EVERYONE has access to health services and is not bankrupted by it.

Emergency hospitals intended for third world disasters have had to set up in the US as there was such a need to provide emergency care and operations - in the US, everyone is on the borderline of living in third world conditions.

Sadly, I agree with you Ryoko. I dont even think your post is too extreme, it seems an apt description

You should read nickel and dimed. The us system is not obe to copy.

Yes darlene - And the point of the book will be even more true if/when people are forced to work for free. Or rather, when slavery returns to the UK - lets call it by its proper name shall we.