Boom-time on benefits: The 140,000 families who claim £20,000 a year in handouts

mewbie_2

leveller2911 wrote: »

Lastly if you dont have a "PROPER" disability and im afraid "BAD BACK" just doesnt count,along with stress and all those other crazy excuses

I hate these sorts of threads, screws up my thank you count.

I've have suffered from a bad back, and stress at times in my life. Both are disabling conditions. I feel sorry for anyone who suffers with them, still more so if people are accusing them of cheating. I hear what you are saying about the cheats, but the problem is how to recognise the cheat from the genuine. To achieve that you would need to spend probably a lot more money on a crack team of Benefit Overseers or such like.

Then, having identified the cheats, how to deal with them? Prison? Poverty? Or some job creation exercise? Education?

Whatever the answer is, it would seem to be more money, not less is required.

beingjdc

amcluesent wrote: »

Is it? Let's remind ourselves of Labour's proven dirty tricks-

1) 'Heat mapping' NHS cut-backs on Tory voting areas
2) Gerry-mandering boundary changes to divide Tory votes between constituencies to preserve Labour MPs
3) Employing 50%+ of the working population in NE, Wales and Scotland in public-sector non-jobs to sustain dependency on Labour
4) And yes, feather bedding 1,500,000+ on Disability Benefits to spin the dole queue figures and keep their block-vote sweet.

1) The trend has been towards a smaller number of bigger hospitals with more facilities, rather than more small hospitals. That might be right or wrong, but it happened in spades under the Tories too. Obviously if you only have one hospital in an area, you're going to put it in the big town, not the middle of nowhere. Big towns are more likely to be Labour, but that's just a fact of political demographics. You might as well say they targeted foot and mouth at rural areas!

2) Boundary changes are done by a body which guards its independence extremely fiercely, and reacts venemously if there's even a hint than a politician is telling them what to do.

3) So over 1 in every 2 people in Scotland works in a public sector job that doesn't need doing, do they? Come on, give me a list. Presumably if you add in the 1 in 3 who work as doctors, nurses, teachers, policemen, firemen etc you are left with only 1 person in 6 in the private sector, and they're now unemployed. Think before you write, please!

4) Nobody who has ever tried to persuade someone on disability benefits to vote, and in particular vote Labour, could think that the Government's policies are even close to getting them their votes, even insofar as those people vote anyway. Here's what someone on benefits thinks of the Government. Do you think they'll be out to vote for them?

http://batsgirl.blogspot.com/2008/12/welfare-reform.html

beingjdc

mewbie wrote: »

I've have suffered from a bad back, and stress at times in my life.

My first girlfriend's father was almost permanently off sick. He was a warehouseman, and he'd done his back in. I don't see how anyone can claim that being unable to lift stuff, when your job is lifting stuff, is not a disability!

Darth_Marty

I dont know about the rights and wrongs of this but I know a girl close to my age with 5 kids and they clear 20k + each year in benefits. And the hubbie works too.

This next year due to my work id say i will have a tight year but will my benefits go up? Doubt it.....

MrsE_2

beingjdc wrote: »

My first girlfriend's father was almost permanently off sick. He was a warehouseman, and he'd done his back in. I don't see how anyone can claim that being unable to lift stuff, when your job is lifting stuff, is not a disability!

My Dh has a bad back (had major back surgery for crushed disc).
He works as a cab driver, as he never could do a physical job (he did till his mid 20s).
If you can't do that job, you do something else.
My DH didn't assume he would go on the sick for the rest of his life, he did something he could cope with his back condition with.

TotallyBroke

Agree with MrsE do something else.

beingjdc wrote: »

My first girlfriend's father was almost permanently off sick. He was a warehouseman, and he'd done his back in. I don't see how anyone can claim that being unable to lift stuff, when your job is lifting stuff, is not a disability!

He could've changed his job to be a supervisor that didn't have to lift, or just used the forklift so again no manual lifting.
I know a woman that is in a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down. She is still able to work 9-5 in an office.
I suffered from stress so much so that my hair fell out. Did I go to the Doctors, quit my job and claim that I was disabled and needed benefits. No, I shaved what was left on my head and carried on working bald. I don't need my hair to do my job, infact I don't need my legs. I could get away with only having 1 finger (although it would take me longer). I honestly believe there is a job out there for everyone. The only reasons that you cannot work are because you are dead or legally underage.
People that can't go out can do work from home. People that are not very good with words or numbers can do more manual things.

I think that anyone on benefits should have to some form of work, even if it was voluntary within their own community. Graffiti removal or something. Rubbish collecting, that way the kids will stop doing it when they realise that Mum or Dad is having to clean it up. You never know that might get the community spirit back especially on council housing estates.

The Olympics are coming to London in 2012. At the Hong Kong olympics they quoted that they needed so many 10000s of volunteers to have the games run smoothly. From people opening doors to rubbish collectors. I seriously suggest that the governement consider asking people claiming Job seekers allowance benefit to do this work. If they cannot or won't, then benefit will stop.

beingjdc

MrsE wrote: »

My Dh has a bad back (had major back surgery for crushed disc).
He works as a cab driver, as he never could do a physical job (he did till his mid 20s).
If you can't do that job, you do something else.
My DH didn't assume he would go on the sick for the rest of his life, he did something he could cope with his back condition with.

They trained him to be a fork-lift truck driver. Turned out that had, if anything, an even worse effect on his back than lifting. Sometimes he was alright for a while. There were not, in the early 90s, a lot of vacancies around for a mildly disabled man in his late 40s with no O-levels. Much like now, there was a recession on.

MrsE_2

beingjdc wrote: »

They trained him to be a fork-lift truck driver. Turned out that had, if anything, an even worse effect on his back than lifting. Sometimes he was alright for a while. There were not, in the early 90s, a lot of vacancies around for a mildly disabled man in his late 40s with no O-levels. Much like now, there was a recession on.

My DH has no qualifactions other than his driving licence & his self taught knowledge of London.
His back is a major factor, sometimes its red hot, sometimes is ice cold, sometimes the pains in his back, or his leg or his ankle, he takes a hot water bottle everywhere.
He drives a Ford Galaxy, nice & big so he can stretch out when driving.
His spine is actually twisted, he can't stand straight & walks with a slight curve.
If he was of a mind too, I'm pretty sure he could get himself on this sick:rolleyes:

beingjdc

MrsE wrote: »

My DH has no qualifactions other than his driving licence & his self taught knowledge of London.
His back is a major factor, sometimes its red hot, sometimes is ice cold, sometimes the pains in his back, or his leg or his ankle, he takes a hot water bottle everywhere.
He drives a Ford Galaxy, nice & big so he can stretch out when driving.
His spine is actually twisted, he can't stand straight & walks with a slight curve.
If he was of a mind too, I'm pretty sure he could get himself on this sick:rolleyes:

Well, well done him in that case, I probably would go off sick for fear of something worse - my back has never been quite right since I worked in a shop, and looking back I should have called in sick more often, a job's for a while, but you need your back for the rest of your life.

In his case, I don't see the taxi option as one that was open. He was in a town where licenses for taxis would have been heavily oversubscribed (even assuming he could get the money together to set up) due both to the prevailing economic climate, and the, umm, ethnic make-up of the area.

In Oxford (it wasn't Oxford, just saying) cab licenses used to change hands on the black market for vast sums.

mvengemvenge

MrsE wrote: »

:

With the recession looming I don't know how the benefits bill is going to be paid.
30k job losses from Woolworths & plenty more to come.

Less workers paying more benefits.

Common sense says benefits MUST be cut & benefits dependency time limited, but GB & co don't know much about common sense.

They are playing it by ear, not expecting to be in for much longer & aren't thinking about tomorrow.

Very soon, we will reach a tipping point where there simply aren't enough people paying in to keep it all afloat. What will they do then??