Let's help Duncan Smith - how would YOU improve the benefits system?

carolt

Ideas on a postcard please; or better still, on this thread.

chucky

get The White Horse as Benefits Minister.

he is the voice of reason - our country needs him

lemonjelly

I would ensure that the staff have better & more practical training, and are better paid to get the best people to do the job.

More than £3bn a year is lost by admin errors and the like.
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd2/fem/fem_apr08_mar09.pdf

I'd be stricter on benefit fraud. If you've overclaimed/fraudulently claimed, you can't reclaim until you have paid off what you wrongly took out of the system.

I believe fraud is much higher than is recognised. Put some resources into that - there you go, a little job creation.

Abolish the fraud ridden nonsense which is tax credits. In particular, this system is abused in a massive way by the self employed - I see people who's parents allegedly earn £7k a year between them, & get a massive wad of tax credits, yet the family has 5 bmw's on the drive!

Also, why is every other benefit based upon your circs now, whereas tax credits are based on a year ago? Blairs stupid poxy idea!

There are more, but I'm staring to get RSI...

Exocet

I know nothing about benefits apart from what I read in the Daily Mail, etc. Some people seem to make a fortune, but I am sure for the most part it is a miserable and low level existence. It's all very well 'forcing them back to work' but if there are no jobs available - then what?

One thing that catches my eye, is the better off on benefits than working argument. And the Liberal proposal to increase the starting band for income tax. So my angle would be to ignore benefits to start with and focus on the economy...

1. Introduce higher starting tax band meaning more of low income goes in persons pocket.
2. Reduce taxation generally to encourage work and enterprise.
3. Improve education, especially by introducing more apprentice style work for those who would prefer to learn a trade than study Plato.

We may not be able to compete with Chinese and Indian labour, but we sure as hell can compete with Europe and US. So lets make an effort in that direction.

And finally, by all means review benefits. But they are the bum end off the system, not really where we should be focusing imo.

Wookster

Tax credits are the most stupid thing. Hard to administer and they have the effect of providing a disincentive for people to go back to work.

I don't understand why there isn't a time limit on benefits. Full benefits for 8 months, tapering down to 50% 4 months later and then zilch after that. The idea that one can claim job seekers benefits their entire life without doing anything is just wrong.

bendix

Link benefit payments to weight. Negatively.

Fatties get paid too much and spend it on cream cakes, thus making them fatter and less likely to work.

carolt

Interesting idea but I foresee a storm of protest from the overweight.

Blacklight

As an absolute minimum you should get vouchers for the essential things you need if you're able to work but are unemployed - food, clothes, baby stuff, etc. Payments for rent/mortgage should go straight to landlord/lender.

If you want anything more then you have to work for it. Plenty of stuff to do in the community for minimum wage if you want luxury items.

Fishcake_Random

Perhaps a system where you earn "credits" while your working. Benifits are there to support you during a rough period not something for you to live on, therefore the more you have worked previously the more help you can get.
No idea how you would implement it but it would reward all those people who have worked hard most their lives and fallen on hard times be rewarded for their efforts, while the lazy would receive nothing/tiny amounts.
Again not sure how this would work but I would like to see a system that rewards the industrious.

tincans

Wookster wrote: »

Tax credits are the most stupid thing. Hard to administer and they have the effect of providing a disincentive for people to go back to work.

For the majority of people this is simply nonsense.

ILW

carolt wrote: »

Interesting idea but I foresee a storm of protest from the overweight.

Put a pie shop to one side of the benefits office and a cake shop on the other and none of them would actually make it there to complain.