David Cameron calls benefit claimants - welfare scoungers.

[hornofplenty]

I was told by a friend that he had said this but I could not believe it was true

The friendly cover is slipping.

But not to worry he is not going to make "welfare scroungers" or the rich pay, oh no it is up to public sectors to pay us out of recession.

tapering for beneits is important - where thereare sudden cut-off points you get the situation where people are worse off working.

many of the jobs advertised are on minimum wage or for so few hours that it is not possible to live on the wage. Our local supermarket only offers 12 hours a week. Not enought to support yourself. Avon type jobs are too risky.

A living wage would mean that there was an real incentive to work. I think the problem is that too many employers have been able to pay low wages knowing that staff will apply for tax credits.

28 hours a week, that's only just over five a day. Wouldn't have thought that was off putting.

If benefits give you more than 28 hours a week minimum wage they should be cut.

You have twisted his words he said that it would be nice to target the really rich and people who do scrounge on benefits.

Meaning not all people on benefits are scrounging but there are a few that do.

I see the unions are lining up for a confrontation on public sector pay/pensions. Just like the 1970s, the public sector and nationaised industry kept their jobs and their pay went up with inflation It was he private sector that took all the pain. Thatcher reversed that.

It will happen again and frankly anyone at the top end of the publc sector who wants to strike ought to ask themselves whether they fancy getting a job in the private sector. Over sretched front line public sector need more pay but managers and senior officials need a massive wage cut and epecially their pensions which are gross and bleeding the country dry.

Neither do I think it acceptable that police or any public official can retire at 50/55 either. They are retired longer than they work and on bigger inflation protected pensions. Not on in the current environment.

it's not so much that it's off putting to have to work over 28hrs a week - you've got to find a job over 28hrs a week first though.......as I said I don't know how many hours it would be once tax/NI was taken off to get "the same".

I am 27 and finished university 2 years ago and i have not been able to find a job. I have tried harder than you can imagine but now thanks to David Cameron - a man not endorsed by the electorate as PM things are going to get worse. He has no idea what he is doing and i resent the fact people like me are now being called "scroungers" when i have probably applied for more jobs in the last two years than David Cameron and George Osbourne have in their entire lives!

This recession was caused by the banks and during the first six months of this year the economy grew by over 1%. So that proves Labour was correct to do what they were doing even though it was risky also. I am exhausted, my confidence is rock bottom and i now hope the Tories drag the country and other nations economies into a double dip recession so that no one votes for them again in my life time. The only thing i have in my life is volunteer work and i hate having to go to the job centre every week to sign on for unemployment benefits. I should be out there working, living away from home and experiencing independence. But thanks to the South East and Middle England we are again under an elitist Conservative government with 18 millionaires on the front benches. Tory governments for the last half century have caused recessions, not the banks, but their government policies.

Cameron is an idiot and Osbourne makes me want to puke. Those men are in there by the skin of their teeth, and Nick Clegg will never gain the vote of previous loyal Lib Dems again for making his choice to join the Conservatives.

I have to get out of this country. For my own good. Britain is a disaster.

It's a great country and someone has to pay for it. Why should the richest 1pc give a fuck what any of you scroungers think? Pay up and shut up. There isn't anything you can do about it anyway...done deal.

LOL

You so very much wish you were in the top 1% Coolfonz

Be what you like on t'internet eh !?

bring back the workhouse

Why is a 27 year old young man posting on Mumsnet? not objecting particularly, just

WhoKnew2010 - you win 1st prize for the least relevant post!

(I come second!)

There are hundreds of thousands of scroungers out there. Does a person that deliberately has a child when they can't even afford to look after themselves not count as a scrounger? Or families that don't earn anything to have a dozen kids and expect to be housed in a house most of us would only dream about?

Sorry if it's already been asked but what is the definition of a benefits scrounger?

I'm a SAHM so am I a husband scrounger? If I hadn't wanted children I would never have bothered getting married in the first place and would have carried on my merry way just furthering my career.

Having children forces women into a state of interdependance with someone, either a man or the state. Some women can use their mother for child care purposes while they work; others, middle-class ones, can afford nice daycare; others can't and raise their children themselves.

SO if I didn't have a H would I be classed as a benefits scrounger?

Some people are welfare scroungers and three generations of one family on the dole. Great.

Sakura. Yes you would be considred a welfare scrounger if you had children on your own and expected the state to pick up the tab for all of you. You seem more sensible than that.

I don't quite understand how having children forces you into a state of interdependence with either a man or a state? There are plenty of women who have children and are not dependant on anyone.

There are a minority of rich people and there are a minority of people who are benefits scroungers. Ergo the public finances cannot be sorted out by taxing the rich or cutting benefits scrounging.

Not all people who are rich and not all people on benefits are scroungers but there do need to be cuts to sort out the public finances and that means cutting public spending.

He is just making a logical statement. I dont see what is wrong with what he said.

Gaaaaargh! Its an old thread.

Yes, sorry BeenBeta, for some reason this came up on my current 'I'm on' list. I noticed it was old after I posted...