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no way im skint enough as it is,vouchers aargh
what happened to the old days, when we used to joke
whats green and gets you drunk?a giro :D
@momentaryloss wrote:
Don’t believe in vouchers as they restrict what you can buy, and lead to black markets so that parents can buy essentials other than food for their families.
I do however believe in work for everyone.
If you claim a benefit and are physically fit, you should have to do some kind of work. Not as a punishment but for all sorts of positive reasons like socialisation, learning etc. It would force the state to provide some childcare so that parents of young children could do a few hours a week, but ho hum why not?
We should all be happy to contribute to the society we live in (and pay tax when we are earning as well)!
:)
Agreed people on unemployment type benefits they should be given work, whether it be charitable, or general work for the council/ government, whether its picking litter, stuffing envelopes, or if people have specific skills use them, give them some dignity so that they are actually doing something for their money, and not feel like they are just getting free handouts, merely some support which they are earning, while they are looking for full time paid employment.
In principle it sounds like a good idea to me, even if it doesn’t work in practice.
Do we agree that the welfare system is bloated and needs to be cut down to size, in the interests of the continued solvency of the country?
And yet;
Vouchers instead of benefits? Uproar!
Cuts to housing benefit? Outrage!
Streamline child benefit? Oh my God!!!
A thankless task for any politician indeed.All I can say is how galling it is when you see the jobless go off on holiday to Turkey for 2 weeks. How angry it makes you feel when you see them roll up with an outrageously big flatscreen TV and home cinema system.
Jealousy on my part? Oh yes.Fair society for the genuinely needy? Absolutely. But also fairness for those to do graft bloody hard for a living for very little reward.
Lynch me now….
*nods at number 2*
Just watched a programme on tv about families living 1920s style. The poor family had to ask the state for help. It was means tested. The family had been doing ok until the Great Depression. They were helped out by the state but they had to pay for it by giving up a lot of their furniture!
Can you imagine that happening today? Maybe it would please Desmondy if families wanting to claim benefits had to pay for it with their household goods like flat screen tvs, play stations, cars etc etc
Having said that, I used to work for a housing association. I visited ppl who had supposedly been on benefits a long time. The amount of leather sofas, wide flat screen tvs, laptops and various other luxury items they had was astonishing. I could take an educated guess at how they could “afford” it.
But I don’t think vouchers are the answer for kids that are being neglected by their benefit claiming parents due to alcohol or drug abuse.
You see, ironically, according to the same newspaper, a million ppl a day go to work with traces of drugs or alcohol in their system. Seems to me substance and alcohol abuse isn’t limited to the unemployed. So do we pay these workers in vouchers as well?
I’m wondering how vouchers would work on the tube/trains/taxis etc. etc. etc. They would probably have to chop bamboo plants down to make extra, for change! :lol:
@desmondy wrote:
In principle it sounds like a good idea to me, even if it doesn’t work in practice.
Do we agree that the welfare system is bloated and needs to be cut down to size, in the interests of the continued solvency of the country?
And yet;
Vouchers instead of benefits? Uproar!
Cuts to housing benefit? Outrage!
Streamline child benefit? Oh my God!!!
A thankless task for any politician indeed.All I can say is how galling it is when you see the jobless go off on holiday to Turkey for 2 weeks. How angry it makes you feel when you see them roll up with an outrageously big flatscreen TV and home cinema system.
Jealousy on my part? Oh yes.Fair society for the genuinely needy? Absolutely. But also fairness for those to do graft bloody hard for a living for very little reward.
Lynch me now….
I remember when I was young my mum, working or not, always had a catalogue, The prices were always significantly more than in the shops, but you could pay for stuff over 20 or 38 weeks. Amongst her generation of West Indians there was also a system called ‘pardner’ where a group of people would each put a small but significant amount – a fiver or tenner in those days – into a pot and each week one in turn would have the whole pot to spend on something major, settle a debt or whatever.
High interest loans, and high street shops offering easy credit at high interest target people on low incomes and benefits who will pay a portion of that so that they don’t look like total failures to others around them. The true rate of interest – sometimes well over 1000% apr. These days many people feel that they, or their kids are judged by possessions.
My dad always told me never to envy anyone what they have, because you don’t know where they got it from. Having been in my own credit hole, I now know what he means.
My parents did their best never to owe more than they could manage. Credit was harder to get in those days but it’s a very hard thing to resist.
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