Benefits cut for 3 years....

Get a grip Lambie or the men with the white coats will be around (if they still exist and haven't been part of the cuts)!

When I first read the opening post on this thread, I thought so what? Aftar all I have had just one small pay rise in the last five years. This had meant my earnings have really dropped over the last five years as everything has gone up and up.

The thing is I do not work for some big company that needs to make profits for its share holders, but a very small one that has suffered due to the recession and has done well just to keep going and keep us all in a job. Therefore being fully aware just how much money has to be found each week just to keep the doors open so to speak, I understand the situation we are in and think to myself I am still lucky to have a job as I know I would be far worse off having to live on benefits.

The reality is those at the lower end of the pay scale, do feel the effect very hard when taxes go up, or any other type of price increase, that eats into any (if there is any in the first place) disposable income. It is no wonder therefore that lower paid workers feel angry if they believe some people who do not go to work, do not put anything into the country, are being given more money than they are bringing home in their wage packet.

It is too easy to fall into the trap believing everyone living on benefits is far better off than so many lower paid workers as that is not the case. How many times have I heard people say to me then I found myself out of work, I got nothing and yet I have paid into the system all my life?

If you were a single person for example and had lost your job, you might get the interest on your mortgage paid, or the rent and not have to pay council tax. If you are under 25 get £56 a week job seekers allowance or £71 if you are over 25 and around £111 if you were a couple. How the hell can anyone live on that? Yet unless you have children living at home, you are some how expected too.

Things do change when there are children living at home and yes it is them possible for a family to be far better off staying at home and not working. I know one family that is having the rent and council tax paid and then gets £300 cash each week plus £100 child benefit. I would imagine one would have to earn over £600 a week to be in the same position. I know someone else who only works 16 hours a week and has told me his family would be far worse off, if he worked full time and anyway we would not be able to find a job around here that could pay him enough.

The day will come when all the children would have left home and such people will then find themselves in the same position so many others are in, but until that happens its not hard to understand how some working people with children and struggling to make ends meet, end up feeling.

I think having a benefits system is a wonderful thing; no one should ever have to live with out a roof over their head, or be in a situation where they have nothing to eat. But in saying that I do find myself agreeing with some of the statements I have heard made over recent months and one of those being there is something wrong if people are getting paid more for staying at home, than those who are working for a living. Another thing I have heard recently is this something for nothing culture has to be stopped, sadly we do now live in times when for some its seems perfectly acceptable to hold your hand out and take what ever is going and give nothing back in return.

But I do not believe for one second that is the case for most people who do end up on benefits for one reason or another and I’m sure many would work if they could and it’s those I feel sorry for as they do get tarred with the same brush. Let’s not beat about the bush here, there are people in this country who do not want to go to work, are happy to live off the backs of others and bring children into this world others will end up having to pay for their upbringing.

It used to be said once, if you can’t afford to look after any children you bring into this world, then you should not be having any. I’m not political in anyway shape of form, but I do agree with something that was said by a government minister recently. A working husband and wife do need to work out if they can afford to have another child, those not working do not need to do so as they know they will then get extra money coming into the household.

The big question is can be it right for any government to say to the unemployed, you can have x number of children we will pay for, but one you have reached the limit we have set, you won’t get paid for anymore. I’m sure most people on benefits are very reasonable people and do not bring children into this world as a way of ensure they receive as much money as possible. But we have all seem those programs on the TV where some people have a large number of children that costs this country a very large sum of money to keep.

Much as been made of such things such as housing benefit, working families so often having to down size when they end up with less income coming into the home. We had a thread running on here a few years ago called social cleansing as the government said it was putting a cap on the amount if housing benefit anyone could be paid. But can it be right for people to get far more in housing benefit just to start with before all the other benefits are paid, than many low paid workers are going to be taking home to have to pay for everything? Is it right for someone who never wants to work, live in a home someone working could never afford to live in? It can’t be surely? But then so many of those living in such homes might well have been working and have ended up on benefits through no choice of their own.

Then you hear stories about Polish workers coming here and we send benefits back to their country for the family they still have living at home there? Can this be right? Its no wonder those living on benefits that have no children, get angry such things are going on, let alone the low paid workers who see money taken off them, being used to support a family still living in another country. I heard one story where some polish people who lost their jobs here still sign on here, yet are now living back in Poland and get cheap flights over just to sign on when they need too, are such things really happening? If so it’s no wonder our country is in such a mess.

We could go on and on, lets take the winter heating allowance, how made it is given to everyone no matter how rich they are, does Sir Paul need it? But it’s his to claim if he wants it. Then we have all the people living in Spain who get it, do they need it? No but we get told they have paid in to this country and are entitled to have what everyone else gets. Very true but our country is in a mess and it can’t keep paying out what it has not got.

Child benefit paid to all, once again in one way I agree with the arguments those very top earners who do pay large sums in tax, should bet the same benefits as everyone else, but the truth is they do not need this money and if I were in charge, any household that have £35.000 or more coming in, would not get paid it.

Is it true when people say so many come to live in this country because of the benefit system, I do not know myself, but it does seem it’s not that hard to come and lives here and soon are able to start claiming benefits? Is that right? Should that be stopped? It’s not for me to say but how long can it go on before the country is even more broke?

We could even talked about foreign aid, can we afford to be giving so much money away to other countries when we do not have enough to pay for the things we need in this country? While we are at it, less save some real money and get out of the EU, then stop all the things that are wasting so much of the money and then we can afford to ensure everyone has enough money to be able to enjoy a reasonable standard of living.

Dave, welfare isn't provided because politicians are nice and generous, it's provided because a person with no house and no food is considered a bigger menace than someone who has. That's why we have a welfare system. The government has simply made the calculation that these people can be bought off with even less.

You say the company you work for might not be a massive corporation but if the owner wants to sell up or close his business, you can be sure that he won't let the fact that people who made him his profits will be thrown out of work stop him from doing that. What about a worker there who decided he could afford to have a child because he was in a job? What about the kid who never asked to be born? What about the millions of others who find themselves in that situation at some point in their life? Are you going to pop round and ask them all what happened?

The government doesn't cut the welfare budget because they want to make workers like you and me feel better about the world. They do it because the corporate welfare handed out to banks, construction companies, railway companies, Richard Branson, PFI hospital owners, "small businesses" (that’s any company with an annual turnover below £40 million btw, not the local butcher or painter and decorator) and the system that serves it is of more importance. You don't have to be "political" to realise that.

Its not that simple Lambie, many small businesses are struggling just to try and keep their workers in a job let alone pay them the sort of money they might be worth.

I do happen to think the system must be at fault if people who do CHOOSE to stay at home and not work( and there are people like that I'm afraid) end up better off then those who choose to go to work.

I know some who won't do over their 16 hours as it will effect their benefits and while in one way I do not blame them, if they did then the benefit bill could be reduced.

By the way I have not put my accident in the accident book, but I have talked with my boss about ensuring they give a little more thought to ensure I do not get injured again. I have to handle some big machines such as large mitre saws, when they move them around the workshop they always have two people carrying them. When they have been repaired they end up on the floor for me to load at 5.45am in the morning on my own. Due to their shape and size its imposable to just bend your knees to keep your back straight to pick them up. I have now said if they are simply left on the floor, I will be leaving them there and going out without them on board my van.

You should put it in the accident book. No-one should be injured going about their work, and if you're being asked to do duties like that then your boss is taking taking you for a fool.

Has it not occurred to you that many of these 'welfare' cuts will effect millions of people IN work who receive tax credits and housing benefit because their wages don't cover their living expenses?

This is nothing but a tax payer funded subsidy for businesses to pay low wages, just as housing benefit is a tax payer subsidy for buy-to-let landlords. But you can bet those businesses won't be plugging the shortfall

Go on - don't be shy, stick the details up here.