Yes, it's a Guardian cut and paste job. This time it's a comment on the Guardian's website. Here is the original article:
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/23/welfare-cuts-emergency-loans
5 myths about welfare peddled by the right-wing newspapers, the Bullingdon Broadcasting Corporation and the useful idiots of Tory Middle England:
Myth 1: ?Benefit claimants are idlers and parasites.? Wrong. The majority of those who claim benefits are in work, including nearly 90% of those who claim housing benefit.
Myth 2: ?Unemployment is a lifestyle choice for those who wish to live comfortably without working.? Wrong again. Firstly, there are between 4 and 5 million people looking for work but only half a million job vacancies. Secondly, only 5000 people, 0.017% of a UK workforce of 30 million, have been claiming Jobseekers? Allowance for more than 5 years. And thirdly, according to the CPAG, after housing costs have been deducted, the UK poverty threshold is £124 for a single person with no children, £214 for a couple with no children and £348 for a couple with two children. JSA amounts to £67 per week for a single person with no children and £106 per week for a couple with no children. A couple with two children would receive an extra £34 per week in child benefit and a maximum of £109 per week in child tax credit ? a total of £249 and nearly £100 below the poverty level.
Myth 3: ?The massive welfare bill is crippling the economy and needs to be cut.? But in 1997 welfare spending as a % of GDP was 7.76%. In 2010 it was 7.26% (www.ukpublicspending.co.uk). And unemployment benefits in the UK are amongst the lowest in Europe, having fallen from 17% of average earnings in 1976 to 10% in 2011. As for the proposed housing benefit cap, this will save £290 million per year, a minuscule 0.5% of the £53 billion per year in welfare payments given to those in the top half of the income scale.
Myth 4: ?The UK is being bankrupted by benefit fraud.? More nonsense. Benefit fraud has been declining for years and now accounts for less than 0.5% of the welfare budget (£1.1 billion). Compare this to the £16 billion of benefits which go unclaimed every year and the annual £20 billion plus which is lost through tax avoidance and evasion.
Myth 5: ?Welfare saps the will to work.? In which case how come post-war unemployment was at its lowest in the 1950s, when unemployment benefits were at their highest in relation to pay?
So The Great Tory Welfare Lie will be parroted ad nauseam in order facilitate a further transfer of wealth from poor to rich and to distract voters from the disastrous effects of the government?s NHS reforms and the monumental incompetence of George Osborne?s economic policies. After all, demonising the unemployed sells millions of copies of the Daily Mail, is guaranteed to improve the Tories? opinion poll ratings and is the easiest way to divide and rule.