Is it about time the word "benefit" was redefined?

MissMoneypenny

Alan_Cross wrote: »

And when, thanks to those who are 'in work' but who have wrecked the economy for the rest of us, there are no jobs to be had...?

There are jobs, but some people get more from being out of work and getting "me entitlement".

ultrawomble

PhylPho wrote: »

Beautifully put! Entitlement, not benefit.

Just like the ISA allowance is an entitlement.......only those people who can save are able to benefit from it.

Masomnia

Language is such a fascinating thing, how the words people use for things give away so much.

We have a guy who comes in the shop some nights and when talking about recieving his benefits he says 'I get paid on Wednesday...' says a lot about the system I think. OK he gets 'paid' his benefits, but he speaks about it just as if he had worked and his wages were paid to him.

Incidentally he gets a free bus pass when he has no mobility problems whatsoever as his disabilities are mental health related, which seems a little daft.

davilown

PhylPho wrote: »

or as a bonus to the well-off who're sending their kids to boarding school or into a private education only they can afford. (A situation resolved not one jot by the government's blatantly inept revision announced yesterday.)

Ah so if someone's kids have a private education they are well off? Not because they are sacrificing holidays, new cars, expensive toys and 'nice' food? Or their children have managed to obtain burseries reducing the fees? Or one half of the relationship's salary pays for the fee?

JP45

PhylPho wrote: »

In view of the condition of national finances, is it about time that "benefit" was redefined -- or more properly understood?

It's well overdue IMO.

The plain fact is we can no longer afford nor justify such universal benefits. Which is why it is essential IMO that David Cameron should renege on his absurd pre-election promise to protect winter fuel payments and free bus passes for the elderly. It is absolutely absurd that wealthy retirees (including my own parents and mother-in-law) continue to receive free bus passes, TV licenses and winter fuel allowances.

As Nicholas Timmins commented in today's FT:

Winter fuel payments, introduced in 1997, were paid to all largely as a matter of administrative convenience, even if Labour strategists tried to paint their introduction as a form of “progressive universalism” – tweaking the system to give something to everyone but more to the poor. Free bus passes were a simple piece of politics – money for the elderly.

Both, however, must now be vulnerable, despite David Cameron’s pre-election pledge to “protect” them. It would be a bizarre world indeed in which the coalition took on the sacred cow of child benefit but somehow left winter fuel allowances and bus passes intact.