do "we" have the right to say what benefit claimants spend the money on?

[DizzyHoneyBee]

In the news today, a think tank suggests that many would support restrictions on what benefit claimants can spend the money on.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19792066

What do you think?

Drop in the ocean, MrsBucket, compared to the billions they spend on wars in other countries, aid to foreign governments . . .

But keep falling for their wag the dog bullshit.

cb no and tc dh and i earn too much to qualify, i don't need too.

we both work for ourselves, i have no qualifications etc and i still did it.

MrsB are you actually George Osborne?

BINGO, I claim the prize, she said "I did it everyone should have to too.!"

Does anyone have the figures for how many "business start ups" are still trading after their first year?

And at what point they turn a profit?

Im sure its not very high.

This is a vile idea; another way of dehumanising people on benefits.

so that should stop you? or even trying?

no I'm not george osbourne either.

No, I don't think we do.

My Dad chain smoked and was out of work for a year or so. This was clearly a stressful time.

There was much debate as to whether to up sticks and return to our Northern home townie wait until a job came up in one of the local factories.

I think Mum wouldn't have minded moving, but DDad, me and DSIS are country kids at heart and would have hated it.

This is not the atmosphere in which to try and stop smoking.

Yes it would bloody well stop me fort far too many reasons to go in to. But you have bought lock stock and barrel the idea that people are unemployed because it is their fault. They are lazy, stupid, unworthy of help, that is just so full of shite as a philosophy it is as bad as the flat earth believers.

think of all the nhs bills we would save its a win win.

star you dad could have dealt with his stress with exersize, gardening running etc.
smoking IS NOT essential.

I have to prioritise MrsBucket.

Where will I live while I start this business which is more likely to fail than succeed?

Who will feed my family?

Where do I get the money to start this up? You already stated you dont agree with budgeting loans.

And no, I cant save from the benefits. They dont even cover living.

lazy maybe stupid and unworthy. no.

billions of pounds if wasted skills, there for the taking

so your sat there wannabee, while you could be doing something, anything. to make a better future for yourself and your family

oh ffs, why don't we just bring back workhouses then and have complete control over people!

No way should anyone be able to "control" what others spend money on, and this just serves to feed the idea of feckless benefit scroungers who spend our tax money on widescreen TV's , fags and booze while their poor children busk on street corners.

The majority of people, and yes shock horror even those who are out of work and hence on more benefits are just normal families, who love their children and are trying to make the best of it. To then add extra controls onto these law abiding, normal families just like the rest of us is quite frankly going back hundreds of years and is such a shit idea I cannot believe it is even being discussed.

Some years ago I had a casual job for a few weeks, interviewing people on a local housing estate about how they wanted a lump of 'improvement area' money to be spent (maybe on building a community centre, that sort of thing.)
The estate was deemed 'deprived'. One thing I noticed - I'd read about it, but never actually seen it face to face - was the really high level of ill health or dodgy health in the people I interviewed. About one in three had something wrong with them. POVERTY and POOR HEALTH go hand in hand.

Going a little bit off topic - I really like the new thing of offering cheap rate fitness training at the gym for obese people. I know one of them - she's a West Indian pensioner, huge - and she's really enjoying her gym classes, they're doing her loads of good and it looks as if she may not need the NHS for anything much, now, for some time to come.

billions of pounds if wasted skills, there for the taking

For the first ever, Bucket, I agree with you. Such a pity our nation's funds are being channelled more and more intensely into foreign-based corporations, instead of being made available for SME start-ups and development.

No Im sat here pregnant.

My DP lost his job in August. Hes put ads in local shops. Applied for every job going. Put his add on gumtree. He has more qualifications than you could shake a stick at. But there are no jobs.

And before you even say it, I got pregnant when he had a 3 year contract. So I didnt just fecklessly reproduce to get benefits.

I teach the sort of people the government are targeting,

Young single mums so failed by the "system" that they come to our classes with a reading age that's so low as to be unmeasureable.

We teach literacy and numeracy by teaching things such as budgeting, menu planning, shopping skills.

This sceme would undermine so many of he skills I'm teaching. How to shop around. How to prioritise spending. By taking all choice away.

it infantilising and demonising, increasing rather than decreasing dependency, enforcing underclass status. How long till Tesco participating stores make it own brand only, or value-range only?

The Tories say they want small government, less state control. Only, it seems, of "approved" people:bankers, millionaires. But there's increasing talk of state control over the poor, the sick, the disabled.

It worries me. I teach on a voluntary basis as I work for a charity which has lost funding under this government. I'm doing he job the schools aren't. I'm part of Call-Me-Dave's "Big Society". So far I've been rewarded (by the government - the job itself is immensely rewarding) by the threat of losing my child benefit (and therefore pension protection) and the DLA that pays for my taxi (bus stop too far when I need walking aids in the house).. Thanks, Dave!

Oh those budgeting loans they are very very tricky to get and you have to justify what it's for and no guarantee your be allowed it

Just had a conversation with my DS (sister) and D?Bil.

Bil being the cockroach that he is is rubbing his hands together in anticipation of this. (his words) His thoughts were.

1. I can buy these cards of the food from them at a knockdown price.
2. I can go but shitloads of fags and cheep booze and trade it for the cards or food from cards at a rate good for me.
3. I might even get the chance to sell some of that food back to ppl who have cocked up their budgets and just less than supermarket price but more than I payed.

Took his all of 1 minute to come up with a scheme to profit from it . Thanks D?Bil for showing another reason why this is a potential fuck up in the making.

when a person goes on benefits, they already have clothes don't they?

this is my all time favourite quote. Ever

MrsBucketxx Wed 03-Oct-12 09:12:32
they can choose when they get a job and earn the money.

if it was me you would be made to work for it anyway like community service, cleaning street, washing graffiti off etc.

what happened to work ethic."

And what are people meant to do with their children while they are cleaning the streets for their benefit money, as it is impossible to afford childcare on the money you get for benefits? And what about people who are already employed to do the above? Do they get to stand and watch all these people wash and scrub for a pittance, or will they all get laid off, have to claim benefits, then clean the street to be able to keep their benefits? Oh and community service...what like people convicted of crimes!?

At least try to have given it some thought eh?

"It worries me"

Again, this is a poll run by left wing think tank Demos gauging public opinion and coinciding with the Labour conference where some support for their ideas in principle has been expressed. The Coalition, by contrast, is well down the road of introducing a Universal Credit whereby people who receive benefits will get one single payment - rather than the current system of multiple claims - and can spend it however they see fit. I know it's fun to tory bash but this story isn't about the tories....

ParsingFancy

"20-30 years ago" = 1980s and three million unemployed.
So no, unless you were lucky in where you lived, you couldn't simply go out and get a second job. Or a first."

That's rubbish. I worked two jobs throughout the 70s & 80s and so did loads of other people I knew.
My daughter is strapped for cash and is doing the same - she's had no problem getting casual work to fit in alongside her full time job. It's not pleasant casual work - it's either been gutting chickens or packing veg etc, working alongside East Europeans. But the work is there if you have the nous to go out and find it.
The truth is that people these days have little sense of personal responsibility and a huge sense of entitlement.

Yes, we did claim family allowance back then but people still get that today.

No. It's simple. Enough of the granny state. Free school meals for all on benefits with the responsibility for a cooked meal and a breakfast possible also an evening meal if facilities available at an after school club but that is all. Completely agree about giving any more money to Tesco and Sainsburys by using vouchers when some of the small grocers who may not be able to accept the vouchers are actually cheaper and better quality.