'Policing benefit bashing in the forum: valid debate or hate crime?' blog discussion
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Hm. Aggression.
Your post is quite clear. You want benefits information removed from MSE.
Dealing with the benefits system is a nightmare for anyone with no experience of it (come to think of it, it's not so jolly for those who have, either).
Perhaps the 'anti-informationists' think that the CAB, or DIAL should be shut down as well?
The whole point was that nobody would touch Northern Rock (or its funny Channel Islands registered securitised mortgages) with a barge pole.
So we the tax payers were forced to take out a massive mortgage on the country, which devalued our currency and the 135% mortgage, by (say) 25% and cut the living standards of anyone getting paid interest.
At the time interest rates were rising rapidly - so the 135% mortgage people would have been facing very serious problems had the tax payers in general not bailed out their situation. I remember the days when Abbey National branches had a warning notice that a mortgage was repayable on demand.
I am pleased to see that Northern Rock Asset Management is now back into profitability. Perhaps us tax payers will one day get some return on our forced investment.
Such as:
'if you are living with your lover and have a baby together you should not be claiming single person Benefits'.
'If you have over £16k in savings you will not be entitled to means-tested Benefits'
'If you come into £50k from an inheritance and then give it away/hide it/ spend it on non-essentials/swing it from the chandeliers you will come under the deprivation of capital rules and will not be entitled to means-tested Benefits and will have to pay your own Council Tax'.
'There is no organised Government conspiracy to unlawfuly cheat people out of sickness and disability Benefits'.
And so on.
People quite often do not like the anwers they are given, do not agree with the Benefits legislation, and because of this they then shoot the messenger.
I do agree that a small minority of people are out to cause trouble and these people should be reported to abuse, but in the main any discord comes from people not liking the answers they are given,
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton
I can't personally substantiate the claim, but I certainly agree - particularly about the work-around part. That's what many of the posts on the benefits board that I read are about. Seven-day-weekend's post above confirms this from their experience, too.
A great deal of this site is about finding work-arounds and loopholes to systems put in place.
E.g. in many cases we would suggest someone gets a 0% credit card and then shifts the balance when the deal runs out. We wouldn't suggest that the borrower has some sort of duty to the credit card company to pay their high interest rates after this point. We have work-arounds (such as using Egg Money as a mule) to get this money out in the first place.
Equally we have people who come here asking for work-arounds to pay less tax.
I don't see the problem with people asking. If there was a loophole which meant I could pay less tax I'd like to do it. If there was a loophole which meant I was entitled to benefits then I'd like to do it.
When people ask they are told that there are no loopholes. You almost never see posts on here suggesting that people lie or cheat the system.
So while it is what people are looking for, I'm not convinced that it is a monster. I'm sure there are communities (online and elsewhere) where claimants get together and discuss ways of increasing their benefits through lying and cheating the system.
MSE is _not_ one of those places.
Slimming world start 28/01/2012 starting weight 21st 2.5lb current weight 17st 9-total loss 3st 7.5lb
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Absolutely. This is what causes many of the problems on the Benefits Board.
Another one is people not giving enough information and then taking offence when asked for more so that people can give an informed answer.
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton