Spectator Exclusive: Britain’s welfare ghettos

The Spectator ^ | 10/9/10 | Ed Howker

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Today we are releasing a brand new picture of the nation’s welfare ghettos. Our research gives a disheartening insight into the extent of dependency in England and Wales. The top line: things are getting worse.

This is much more detailed and useful information that the statistics often bandied about by politicians. It is well known, for example, that nearly 2 million people have been claiming out-of-work benefits for more than five years. But what does that look like?

We’ve examined the smallest measurable units recorded by the Department for Work and Pensions (the technical term is ‘Lower Super Output Areas’) which are smaller even than council wards – they contain about 1,000 people – to show the ghettos into which public money goes in and nothing comes out.

[Krankor]

Increase the dole!

[Chode]

Ungland...

[Jim Scott]

Grim word-picture of England’s welfare/entitlement class. Coming to your neighborhood, soon, if Obama and the Democrats aren’t thrown out of power.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Why not establish a five year limit on all welfare payments ?
Get up, get off your backside and if you can’t get a job in 60 months, get out.

[sodpoodle]

Human beings with no purpose in life - other than parasitism.

Godliness is one remedy, civil war is another.

[ntmxx]

Want more of the same…keep subsidizing it!

Then bring in foreigners and tell everyone they belong there just as much and subsidizing them too, then see what you get…

Simple; a day older and more in debt with nothing left!

[Wuli]

Superior evidence of where Obama wants to lead THIS country and why Americans DO NOT want to copy their European cousins.

[hattend]

[Studebaker Hawk]

Just On-sloe keeping up appearances.

[texas booster]

Sound familiar?

As with New Labour, however, you don't need to look for too long before more worrying signs present themselves. The estate's grocer informs customers that 'milk tokens are accepted'. The other major retailer is a betting shop. A local cafe offers a £4.70 breakfast that includes a can of Stella. In that cafe, I meet a bailiff. He used to live in a council flat in Falinge, but he left 'as soon as I could get the money together'. 'People make judgments about you if you're a resident.'

Most residents do not leave. According to the bailiff, they have instead developed their own parallel economy. 'The ambition is there but it's not to get a job or move out, it's to get benefits. And there is a definite career path. You or I would aim to get a better job. They aim to get a better benefit.’

The expertise needed to navigate through Britain's 50 varieties of state handout is passed by word of mouth in Falinge. 'Everyone wants “the sickness” [incapacity benefit]. Then you've really made it. You don't have to turn up for work or sign on. Everything is taken care of.'

In a place like Falinge, you might hear two cogent objections to the idea of greater incentives to work. The bailiff would tell you that many people around here do work – for drug gangs, or for cash in hand, while continuing to claim their benefits. No system can succeed unless the rules are enforced. More sympathetic observers argue that there are simply too few solid jobs available to people here. An incentive to work is useless if there is no work to take.

[REPANDPROUDOFIT]

Do you remember the days when failure meant you might end up in the "poorhouse"? That was a low as you could go. You didn't even want to consider the possibility. Yes, at the poorhouse you and your family would have enough to eat. You would be warm. You would have a bed to sleep in - it might be in a dormitory, but it would be a bed.

Then, someone decided that it wasn't fair for "poor" people to have to live like that. They should have their own income, their own house (home), their own food allowance, etc. To me it almost seems like the new mindset is "the poor should have the same things the rich have". They must have cars and gas and home heating/cooling. They must have health care, mental health counselors, etc. They must have cell phones and clothes that make them look like the other kids at school. They must have backpacks full of school supplies, free breakfast, lunch and now, dinner. They must have free child care and no one dare ask why some have more children that than they can possibly afford.

For a long time, I have watched as the "entitled" demand more and more equity. I'm fed up with it! The poorhouse was a deterrent. It was the last bastion of sanctuary. Given a choice between working and going there, people chose work. With welfare, it is just the opposite!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

About a decades ago, the very liberal state of Minnesota (legislature) passed a five year limit on handouts.
During the debate, you would have thought it was the end of the world.
A local TV station (WCCO, I think) ran a camera and followed arrivals from out of state at the local bus station.
They got off the damned bus and took a cab to the welfare bureau. Less than an hour later, they had cash in hand.