So, moaning aside for a moment, what is the right way to reform the benefits system, to ensure fairness and encourage people to get back into work as soon as possible?

 Well, based on my personal experience of unemployment, here are at least a few suggestions..



1) SIMPLIFY



At the moment the benefits system is such a myriad of form filling and a minefield to understand there are people claiming benefits they should not be and plenty NOT claiming benefits they should be and need. Everyone needs to be treated in law as an INDIVIDUAL and benefits should be worked out thus. 
No matter if your wife earns 35,000 a year or you live with someone that is a millionaire we are talking about YOU here today and YOU alone!

 Being unemployed is unsettling and confusing enough. When you feel you have to wade through a mountain of paperwork, provide answers to questions you don't fully understand and then keep 'tittle tattling' to the DWP every time your situation changes (which by the way starts you off at square one with all the form filling and statement photocopying for the housing association etc again)
it can all just get too much. in the end it is easy to just say 'c'est la vie' and resign yourself to the fate of being branded a benefit cheat if ever your affairs are looked into by one of the very few ay the DWP or higher that DO understand all of this shit!



2. FLEXIBILITY



At the moment there is no slack in the system whatsoever. I was told that "you are either working, unemployed or sick - that's it". This is particularly unhelpful when say a person might like to try and see if they could make a go of self-employment. Because at the moment you cannot 'have a go for a few months to see if you could make a job for yourself" people just do not try to have a go. 
At present, the second you sign off, the housing people and the council tear you into financial pieces like a pack of rabid dogs wanting 'their share'. This means in most cases that either someone trying to help themselves is bankrupted or forced to sign back on or that, knowing this will happen, will not even attempt the venture in the first place. We need to take a more 'Sprat to catch a Mackrel' attitude to people that are out of work and provide them with an opportunity to make good rather than perpetually trapping them.



3. SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING



It is no fun being out of work these days. Forced to tell everyone all of your business you are then treated as if a criminal on probation by having to 'sign on' every two weeks or attend interviews with 'skills training' or some such organisation. Wording of every document you can shake a stick at warns of 'what the law will do to you and the penalties you will face if you don't play the game' and the whole thing is a totally depressing and humiliating experience. 
Depressed people are far less likely to get a job and persecuted or threatened people are far more likely to break the rules because they see their treatment as unfair and this brings about a kind of 'F You' attitude. None of this is positive - the government need to be less quick with the threats and more patient and supportive. Yes you are always going to get some that just don't want to work but the majority do and they do not need to constantly hear themselves referred to by government ministers in the press as 'spungers' or 'workshy'!



4 THE RIDICULOUS 16 HOURS RULE



Did you know that 16 hours work counts as a full time job? No, well according to the benefits office it does and if you work more than 16 hours you will find it hard to get any help. What? Can't live on the earnings from just 16 hours work so you are not going to take the job! Well, in that case we will stop your benefits you lazy bastard. 

For peats sake lets have a bit of common sense in this world. 16 hours is NOT a full time job so please stop counting as so or start paying everyone that works more than 16 hours overtime! Because of this rule, employers simply choose these days to employ a multitude of workers for 15 and a half or 16 hours rather than take on full time staff. This saves the employer from having to pay all of the insurances etc that they would normally have to for a full time member of staff. The fact that this then creates an army of workers doing only 16 hours a week and either unable to support themselves or having to live on handouts is not good for anyone least of all the economy. Lets go back to a system that encourages employers to employ FULL TIME staff.

Note: I put this piece on here to encourage sensible, respectful debate. If your argument is better than mine prove it don't just sling mud at me because if you do I will take it that even YOU believe your argument inferior to mine. To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself. With the best will in the world we are not all entrepreneurs or capable of working for ourselves for one reason or another. You have skills that you take for granted others have but just because you can do something it doesn't follow that everyone can!

I can write songs, I can stand up on stage in front of hundreds of people and do a disco but you can build a house or strip a car engine down. The world needs ALL KINDS of people and society/the government/ us as individuals need to recognise that and help each other...

Tony it's amazing how many people forget about the 16 hours rule. It's a fucking stupid how can anyone keep a roof over their heads pay bills ? There is hardly over time these days unless it's Christmas.

Flexibility is a joke it they don't think you have a life outside the job centre, they all think we lazy and don't want to work which is bullshit. They arrange appointments at the last minute, get phone calls at 4pm asking can you go and so and so tomorrow if not your sanctioned ?


Support and understanding there isn't any from them, everything is our fault. They won't admit they fucked up on claims or mark you down wrong, they look down on you, talk down to you and speak to very arrogantly, they like to know why people abuse them.

It's never been perfect but this reform is a shambles

Quote..

"To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself."

End quote..

I would hope that most of us can empathise and understand the situation perfectly well without experiencing it for ourselves.

easiest solution : give every citizen a basic social wage on which they can live and jobs can become a luxury to pursue.

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
Quote..

"To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself."

End quote..

I would hope that most of us can empathise and understand the situation perfectly well without experiencing it for ourselves.

One can try got a read letter for a water bill today £136 was £200 made £5 instalments but they now want it all in one go, threatened me with recovery action. This for an old property I lived in and also got one for £60 to pay for at the same address.

andrew wrote:
Tony it's amazing how many people forget about the 16 hours rule. It's a fucking stupid how can anyone keep a roof over their heads pay bills ? There is hardly over time these days unless it's Christmas.

Flexibility is a joke it they don't think you have a life outside the job centre, they all think we lazy and don't want to work which is bullshit. They arrange appointments at the last minute, get phone calls at 4pm asking can you go and so and so tomorrow if not your sanctioned ?


Support and understanding there isn't any from them, everything is our fault. They won't admit they fucked up on claims or mark you down wrong, they look down on you, talk down to you and speak to very arrogantly, they like to know why people abuse them.

It's never been perfect but this reform is a shambles

And does this kind of treatment make you more or less likely to get back into work, Andrew? Anyone who thinks the answer to that question is more is crazy!

Treat ex-offenders like they are still offenders and see how many of them re-offend. Treat unemployed people as if they are lazy, dishonest and worthless and see what a positive effect it has on them! When you work for an employer, if you make a mistake which costs the business money you often have to compensate the business out of your own wage packet but if you are the government or work for the DWP NOTHING is ever your fault because it is the individual signing on in the first places fault for being unemployed! David Cameron and Ian Duncan Smith are always talking about how people must 'take responsibility' - well, they are obviously NOT leading my example, are they?

The whole work situation has become little more than dressed up slave labour and no matter what spin politicians put on it the kids of today are not as gullible as they think. They recognise when the dice are loaded against them and so now, treated like scum, they have instead chosen to work the governments own system, remember it is THEY who created this mess, against them.

Until society as a whole is prepared to acknowledge unemployment as a problem which needs to be solved for the common good it will continue to be acceptable in the eyes of many at the bottom of the pile to 'work the system'.

hedda wrote:
easiest solution : give every citizen a basic social wage on which they can live and jobs can become a luxury to pursue.

Your idea Hedda is not as 'far out' as others here may think. A friend of mine has expressed the same opinion to me before.

I think the irony of what lies in your words though is the fact that, at present, life on benefits IS already the equivalent of living on a social wage. At present, for most unskilled people, going to work leaves them unable to pay their bills at the end of the week because wages are too low and living standards too high. If on the other hand they do NOT go to work and remain on benefits they CAN pay their bills. Making work pay and thus making those who work better off for doing so HAS to be the first step towards getting more people back into work. A person can stay art home and do nothing and not be able to pay his or her bills and live why should anyone wish to work all Gods hours and STILL not be able to better their situation?

I had a co-worker who put in all the overtime under the sun, and I still earned nearly the same, as more over you do more tax you pay.

Benefits? Well they don't want you to claim them, basically.

I don't think the Benefits system needs a reform.

It's the UK Companies that need reform. People don't want to go to work, because they get treated like idiots & many companies enjoy employing immigrants, for less pay.

There is no compassion when you work for many companies & you are expected to work to the company's budgets i.e. work 4 hours a day, but do 8 hours work in that 4 hour period. Many companies are so short staffed, the staff hate working for them & overtime is expected, without asking the person first. The Sunday To Saturday working week is well in force, with stupid shift patterns, usually no full time work is available, so you are employed on part time hours. Some companies employ staff on 0 hours contracts, meaning they will phone them up, if needed to come in.

They will expect you to follow strict Health & Safety & security measures...without necessarily following the rules themselves. You will be expected to sign in & out all the time & waste more time, by clocking on & off on a slow computer. Holidays will only be allowed between January & October. Don't expect managers or other staff, to have common sense & one mistake & you'll be question about, it for weeks after. The manager won't be able to spell properly & probably has a split personality.

Go to work in 2013? No thank you, not in the UK. Nazi Germany sounded pretty much a-kin to the same thing...

Tony May wrote:
hedda wrote:
easiest solution : give every citizen a basic social wage on which they can live and jobs can become a luxury to pursue.

Your idea Hedda is not as 'far out' as others here may think. A friend of mine has expressed the same opinion to me before.

I think the irony of what lies in your words though is the fact that, at present, life on benefits IS already the equivalent of living on a social wage. At present, for most unskilled people, going to work leaves them unable to pay their bills at the end of the week because wages are too low and living standards too high. If on the other hand they do NOT go to work and remain on benefits they CAN pay their bills. Making work pay and thus making those who work better off for doing so HAS to be the first step towards getting more people back into work. A person can stay art home and do nothing and not be able to pay his or her bills and live why should anyone wish to work all Gods hours and STILL not be able to better their situation?

Because it's the decent thing to do.
I do agree that the lowest wages need to be more than than the dole, but why should people refuse work until their "ideal" (and sometimes unrealistic) job comes along.

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
Quote..

"To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself."

End quote..

I would hope that most of us can empathise and understand the situation perfectly well without experiencing it for ourselves.

The horrors Honey

mysubdomain.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/open-letter-to-avanta

avantablog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/avanta-work-programme.html













If you get hit by car you still need go to Avanta

Tony May wrote:
hedda wrote:
easiest solution : give every citizen a basic social wage on which they can live and jobs can become a luxury to pursue.

Your idea Hedda is not as 'far out' as others here may think. A friend of mine has expressed the same opinion to me before.

I think the irony of what lies in your words though is the fact that, at present, life on benefits IS already the equivalent of living on a social wage. At present, for most unskilled people, going to work leaves them unable to pay their bills at the end of the week because wages are too low and living standards too high. If on the other hand they do NOT go to work and remain on benefits they CAN pay their bills. Making work pay and thus making those who work better off for doing so HAS to be the first step towards getting more people back into work. A person can stay art home and do nothing and not be able to pay his or her bills and live why should anyone wish to work all Gods hours and STILL not be able to better their situation?

My plan is not that radical and Switzerland is considering it.

Unfortunately Britain (and the US / Aust and NZ- but so much in NZ) suffers from a Puritan 'work ethic' where the perception of someone getting 'something for nothing' is all persuasive.

Social problems with the unemployed (ITK's 'dolers')are something else and result from basically people having nothing to occupy their time.

Vast leisure industries could arise to keep numerous people occupied and the 'dolers' "off the streets".

That rabid capitalist Henry Ford paid his workers 3 times the average wage so they could buy a Model T- other factories followed and the USA became super rich.

It's all so simple. It probably won't change until the ITKs of the world are voluntarily euthanised.

Tony May wrote:
andrew wrote:
Tony it's amazing how many people forget about the 16 hours rule. It's a fucking stupid how can anyone keep a roof over their heads pay bills ? There is hardly over time these days unless it's Christmas.

Flexibility is a joke it they don't think you have a life outside the job centre, they all think we lazy and don't want to work which is bullshit. They arrange appointments at the last minute, get phone calls at 4pm asking can you go and so and so tomorrow if not your sanctioned ?


Support and understanding there isn't any from them, everything is our fault. They won't admit they fucked up on claims or mark you down wrong, they look down on you, talk down to you and speak to very arrogantly, they like to know why people abuse them.

It's never been perfect but this reform is a shambles

And does this kind of treatment make you more or less likely to get back into work, Andrew? Anyone who thinks the answer to that question is more is crazy!

Treat ex-offenders like they are still offenders and see how many of them re-offend. Treat unemployed people as if they are lazy, dishonest and worthless and see what a positive effect it has on them! When you work for an employer, if you make a mistake which costs the business money you often have to compensate the business out of your own wage packet but if you are the government or work for the DWP NOTHING is ever your fault because it is the individual signing on in the first places fault for being unemployed! David Cameron and Ian Duncan Smith are always talking about how people must 'take responsibility' - well, they are obviously NOT leading my example, are they?

The whole work situation has become little more than dressed up slave labour and no matter what spin politicians put on it the kids of today are not as gullible as they think. They recognise when the dice are loaded against them and so now, treated like scum, they have instead chosen to work the governments own system, remember it is THEY who created this mess, against them.

Until society as a whole is prepared to acknowledge unemployment as a problem which needs to be solved for the common good it will continue to be acceptable in the eyes of many at the bottom of the pile to 'work the system'.

I remember the bollocking I got for throwing away a coffee cup when I was told throw everything. away, when DWP put me and partner in the wrong claim cycle we suffered the consequences and got very late payment, Job Centre staff are crude and obnoxious Nazi's, they lower your self esteem and make you worthless going to interviews, they don't even give you advice these day what to say when you got the interview. IDS and spent too much on the reform and A4e and still nothing positive have come out of it.

Why scrap New Deal and replace it with the work programme ?

andrew wrote:
honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
Quote..

"To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself."

End quote..

I would hope that most of us can empathise and understand the situation perfectly well without experiencing it for ourselves.

The horrors Honey

mysubdomain.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/open-letter-to-avanta

avantablog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/avanta-work-programme.html













If you get hit by car you still need go to Avanta


Thank you for finding these, Andrew.
The work programme needs to be scrapped and they should start all over again. (Atos too) It is all show and no substance.

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
Because it's the decent thing to do.
I do agree that the lowest wages need to be more than than the dole, but why should people refuse work until their "ideal" (and sometimes unrealistic) job comes along.

Quite right, honey!

The longer these people avoid work the harder they are making it for themselves.

Your welcome Honey, New Deal was harder but they spoke to you like a human, and you got £15 extra for doing it, which most people used for lunch as it was 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Hardship is money you get if your sanctioned and takes weeks to process and it's about £40 a week.

Job centre only used to sanction if you failed or missed appointments and if you wrote a few things down, they say it's good as your showing willing. People have been sanctioned for not filling a box, too many crossing out, wrong contact number used. Tories have never lived in reality and still blaming Labour for their mistakes wimps. ITK is very quiet on this thread, he must know they fucked up but wants to be denial.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302745...nt-lessons-Left.html
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-ta...nning-scared-2786058

Tony May wrote:
So, moaning aside for a moment, what is the right way to reform the benefits system, to ensure fairness and encourage people to get back into work as soon as possible?

 Well, based on my personal experience of unemployment, here are at least a few suggestions..



1) SIMPLIFY



At the moment the benefits system is such a myriad of form filling and a minefield to understand there are people claiming benefits they should not be and plenty NOT claiming benefits they should be and need. Everyone needs to be treated in law as an INDIVIDUAL and benefits should be worked out thus. 
No matter if your wife earns 35,000 a year or you live with someone that is a millionaire we are talking about YOU here today and YOU alone!

 Being unemployed is unsettling and confusing enough. When you feel you have to wade through a mountain of paperwork, provide answers to questions you don't fully understand and then keep 'tittle tattling' to the DWP every time your situation changes (which by the way starts you off at square one with all the form filling and statement photocopying for the housing association etc again)
it can all just get too much. in the end it is easy to just say 'c'est la vie' and resign yourself to the fate of being branded a benefit cheat if ever your affairs are looked into by one of the very few ay the DWP or higher that DO understand all of this shit!



2. FLEXIBILITY



At the moment there is no slack in the system whatsoever. I was told that "you are either working, unemployed or sick - that's it". This is particularly unhelpful when say a person might like to try and see if they could make a go of self-employment. Because at the moment you cannot 'have a go for a few months to see if you could make a job for yourself" people just do not try to have a go. 
At present, the second you sign off, the housing people and the council tear you into financial pieces like a pack of rabid dogs wanting 'their share'. This means in most cases that either someone trying to help themselves is bankrupted or forced to sign back on or that, knowing this will happen, will not even attempt the venture in the first place. We need to take a more 'Sprat to catch a Mackrel' attitude to people that are out of work and provide them with an opportunity to make good rather than perpetually trapping them.



3. SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING



It is no fun being out of work these days. Forced to tell everyone all of your business you are then treated as if a criminal on probation by having to 'sign on' every two weeks or attend interviews with 'skills training' or some such organisation. Wording of every document you can shake a stick at warns of 'what the law will do to you and the penalties you will face if you don't play the game' and the whole thing is a totally depressing and humiliating experience. 
Depressed people are far less likely to get a job and persecuted or threatened people are far more likely to break the rules because they see their treatment as unfair and this brings about a kind of 'F You' attitude. None of this is positive - the government need to be less quick with the threats and more patient and supportive. Yes you are always going to get some that just don't want to work but the majority do and they do not need to constantly hear themselves referred to by government ministers in the press as 'spungers' or 'workshy'!



4 THE RIDICULOUS 16 HOURS RULE



Did you know that 16 hours work counts as a full time job? No, well according to the benefits office it does and if you work more than 16 hours you will find it hard to get any help. What? Can't live on the earnings from just 16 hours work so you are not going to take the job! Well, in that case we will stop your benefits you lazy bastard. 

For peats sake lets have a bit of common sense in this world. 16 hours is NOT a full time job so please stop counting as so or start paying everyone that works more than 16 hours overtime! Because of this rule, employers simply choose these days to employ a multitude of workers for 15 and a half or 16 hours rather than take on full time staff. This saves the employer from having to pay all of the insurances etc that they would normally have to for a full time member of staff. The fact that this then creates an army of workers doing only 16 hours a week and either unable to support themselves or having to live on handouts is not good for anyone least of all the economy. Lets go back to a system that encourages employers to employ FULL TIME staff.

Note: I put this piece on here to encourage sensible, respectful debate. If your argument is better than mine prove it don't just sling mud at me because if you do I will take it that even YOU believe your argument inferior to mine. To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself. With the best will in the world we are not all entrepreneurs or capable of working for ourselves for one reason or another. You have skills that you take for granted others have but just because you can do something it doesn't follow that everyone can!

I can write songs, I can stand up on stage in front of hundreds of people and do a disco but you can build a house or strip a car engine down. The world needs ALL KINDS of people and society/the government/ us as individuals need to recognise that and help each other...

You missed this one out Tony.

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/12/...INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

In The Know wrote:
honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
Because it's the decent thing to do.
I do agree that the lowest wages need to be more than than the dole, but why should people refuse work until their "ideal" (and sometimes unrealistic) job comes along.

Quite right, honey!

The longer these people avoid work the harder they are making it for themselves.

What if they can't find employers don't even get back to you these days ?

In The Know wrote:
honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
Because it's the decent thing to do.
I do agree that the lowest wages need to be more than than the dole, but why should people refuse work until their "ideal" (and sometimes unrealistic) job comes along.

Quite right, honey!

The longer these people avoid work the harder they are making it for themselves.

I have to say honey! that you are missing my point about wages. It is not about whether or not someone is earning more than dole money working but about whether by working they can improve their situation. If a man/woman can have no pride/self respect by earning his or her own money and paying their own way WITHOUT having to go to the state, fill all the forms in/tittle tattle to the housing/council/DWP about the slightest change in circumstances then does it really make any difference to that person whether they BEG for handouts as a working person or as someone unemployed?

Work must be made to pay so that those who work can break free of the shackles and feel good about the contribution they are making to society. At the moment, the established order says it wants us all to be independent but continues to pander to a system that keeps most of us 'in our place'. Well, if they want to control my life - fine - but it will continue to cost the tax payer one way or another because working or not working I cannot earn enough to live on!

andrew wrote:
Tony May wrote:
So, moaning aside for a moment, what is the right way to reform the benefits system, to ensure fairness and encourage people to get back into work as soon as possible?

 Well, based on my personal experience of unemployment, here are at least a few suggestions..



1) SIMPLIFY



At the moment the benefits system is such a myriad of form filling and a minefield to understand there are people claiming benefits they should not be and plenty NOT claiming benefits they should be and need. Everyone needs to be treated in law as an INDIVIDUAL and benefits should be worked out thus. 
No matter if your wife earns 35,000 a year or you live with someone that is a millionaire we are talking about YOU here today and YOU alone!

 Being unemployed is unsettling and confusing enough. When you feel you have to wade through a mountain of paperwork, provide answers to questions you don't fully understand and then keep 'tittle tattling' to the DWP every time your situation changes (which by the way starts you off at square one with all the form filling and statement photocopying for the housing association etc again)
it can all just get too much. in the end it is easy to just say 'c'est la vie' and resign yourself to the fate of being branded a benefit cheat if ever your affairs are looked into by one of the very few ay the DWP or higher that DO understand all of this shit!



2. FLEXIBILITY



At the moment there is no slack in the system whatsoever. I was told that "you are either working, unemployed or sick - that's it". This is particularly unhelpful when say a person might like to try and see if they could make a go of self-employment. Because at the moment you cannot 'have a go for a few months to see if you could make a job for yourself" people just do not try to have a go. 
At present, the second you sign off, the housing people and the council tear you into financial pieces like a pack of rabid dogs wanting 'their share'. This means in most cases that either someone trying to help themselves is bankrupted or forced to sign back on or that, knowing this will happen, will not even attempt the venture in the first place. We need to take a more 'Sprat to catch a Mackrel' attitude to people that are out of work and provide them with an opportunity to make good rather than perpetually trapping them.



3. SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING



It is no fun being out of work these days. Forced to tell everyone all of your business you are then treated as if a criminal on probation by having to 'sign on' every two weeks or attend interviews with 'skills training' or some such organisation. Wording of every document you can shake a stick at warns of 'what the law will do to you and the penalties you will face if you don't play the game' and the whole thing is a totally depressing and humiliating experience. 
Depressed people are far less likely to get a job and persecuted or threatened people are far more likely to break the rules because they see their treatment as unfair and this brings about a kind of 'F You' attitude. None of this is positive - the government need to be less quick with the threats and more patient and supportive. Yes you are always going to get some that just don't want to work but the majority do and they do not need to constantly hear themselves referred to by government ministers in the press as 'spungers' or 'workshy'!



4 THE RIDICULOUS 16 HOURS RULE



Did you know that 16 hours work counts as a full time job? No, well according to the benefits office it does and if you work more than 16 hours you will find it hard to get any help. What? Can't live on the earnings from just 16 hours work so you are not going to take the job! Well, in that case we will stop your benefits you lazy bastard. 

For peats sake lets have a bit of common sense in this world. 16 hours is NOT a full time job so please stop counting as so or start paying everyone that works more than 16 hours overtime! Because of this rule, employers simply choose these days to employ a multitude of workers for 15 and a half or 16 hours rather than take on full time staff. This saves the employer from having to pay all of the insurances etc that they would normally have to for a full time member of staff. The fact that this then creates an army of workers doing only 16 hours a week and either unable to support themselves or having to live on handouts is not good for anyone least of all the economy. Lets go back to a system that encourages employers to employ FULL TIME staff.

Note: I put this piece on here to encourage sensible, respectful debate. If your argument is better than mine prove it don't just sling mud at me because if you do I will take it that even YOU believe your argument inferior to mine. To fully understand the horrors and frustrations of life on benefits I respectfully suggest you have to have experienced the hopelessness of it yourself. With the best will in the world we are not all entrepreneurs or capable of working for ourselves for one reason or another. You have skills that you take for granted others have but just because you can do something it doesn't follow that everyone can!

I can write songs, I can stand up on stage in front of hundreds of people and do a disco but you can build a house or strip a car engine down. The world needs ALL KINDS of people and society/the government/ us as individuals need to recognise that and help each other...

You missed this one out Tony.

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/12/...INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487


Yes Andrew!

The only thing I would say in total fairness is that at least Universal Credit is in an idea about how to simplify the benefits system.

The snags with it however are that - as we so frequently find via E.U. regulations - one size does NOT fit all. The other problem with it is that yet again the government want to keep their hands firmly on people's lives at all times. Dictatorship by stealth is what I call a lot of the policies these days but what these people cannot see is that we ALL Lose out by such policies. I repeat my opinion that the only way to solve/simplify a lot of the benefit problems is to treat every person as an individual. Have you got any money? - No - right then you get X - no matter whether your Dad is Sheik Mohammed! In the long run the cost of doing so would be recouped by the vastly reduced cost of administrating and adjudicating the current mess.