"our government has now decided to redefine the word 'welfare'"

[Mr Angry]

..to help fuel their propaganda machine against the poor.

"Across the country this month millions of us will be receiving tax returns from the government with colourful, sexy-looking pie charts on them, helpfully outlining where all our tax is being spent. This is, according to George Osborne, a revolution in transparency over how people’s money is being used by the government.


My own tax return, its shiny little pie chart practically glowing with a sense of its own transparency, arrived through the door yesterday. The first thing that struck me and shocked me about it was that the largest part – a whole quarter – was taken up by the term "welfare". Could it really be true that welfare receives more money than any other part of the public sector? More than health? More than education? Something seemed untransparent here."


A very interesting read.

[Taf]

Propaganda... election looming...

[papa smurf]

i must say when i looked at my pie chart and the breakdown in £ my first thought was the bone idle turd that lives next door to me and his wife and 5 kids he's in his thirties and to my knowledge has never done a days work but its ok i'm keeping them in fags n drugs etc .

[Osem]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

i must say when i looked at my pie chart and the breakdown in £ my first thought was the bone idle turd that lives next door to me and his wife and 5 kids he's in his thirties and to my knowledge has never done a days work but its ok i'm keeping them in fags n drugs etc .

Having kids IS their 'work'...

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Osem

Having kids IS their 'work'...

he puts quite a lot of time into test-driving Stella Larger [reassuringly expensive ] but what does it matter when someone else is buying .

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

i must say when i looked at my pie chart and the breakdown in £ my first thought was the bone idle turd that lives next door to me and his wife and 5 kids he's in his thirties and to my knowledge has never done a days work but its ok i'm keeping them in fags n drugs etc .

I cannot stand the **** who can work but will not work and instead play the system.

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Sirius

I cannot stand the **** who can work but will not work and instead play the system.

Quite. However, you might be interested to know that those in work constitute a very sizeable number of those in receipt of benefits (welfare) in the shape of housing benefit.

"The number of middle-income earners relying on housing benefit to keep their homes has risen by 350,000 since 2008, a report has found.

National Housing Federation (NHF) research show that middle-income households earning between £20,000 and £30,000 a year accounted for two-thirds of all new housing benefit claims during the past six years.

Between November 2008 and May 2014, there were 570,000 new households claiming housing benefit who were also in work, the equivalent of almost 300 households per day. That increase in working claimants accounted for more than three-quarters (79%) of new housing benefit claims made over that time."

[papa smurf]

how can you claim benefits if you earn 20-30 k

[Mr Angry]

The fact is that you can and clearly many hundreds of thousands of working people do.

People need to realize that the welfare bill is not made up solely from the "feckless", "workshy" and single parent mothers - that's the point being made in the article.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

People need to realize that the welfare bill is not made up solely from the "feckless", "workshy"

But surely the point is that they shouldn't be on the welfare bill at all?

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

The fact is that you can and clearly many hundreds of thousands of working people do.

People need to realize that the welfare bill is not made up solely from the "feckless", "workshy" and single parent mothers - that's the point being made in the article.

Indeed ,apparently now it is also made up of teachers pensions and other state employees pensions .Thankfully ,as a self employed worker I won't receive that piece of government propaganda and I've no intention of going online to look at it

---------- Post added at 21:42 ---------- Previous post was at 21:38 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

But surely the point is that they shouldn't be on the welfare bill at all?

Exactly ,it is the great shame of this country that someone in work needs benefits

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by martyh

Exactly ,it is the great shame of this country that someone in work needs benefits

Err....no. I was referring to the "work shy & feckless" surely they shouldn't be on the welfare bill?

If you're going to quote me please at least read the context of my post.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Err....no. I was referring to the "work shy & feckless" surely they shouldn't be on the welfare bill?

If you're going to quote me please at least read the context of my post.

Apologies but your reply Mr A suggested you where referring to workers being on the welfare bill

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by martyh

Apologies but your reply Mr A suggested you where referring to workers being on the welfare bill

No I was suggesting the work shy and the feckless should not be receiving welfare!

[Cobbydaler]

IMHO people who are in work and on benefits are there because big business will not pay a living wage. They expect the government to step in and subsidise their wage bill to increase their profits.