Posted on 04/02/2011 8:20:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
...Between 1971, when Invalidity Benefit was introduced, and the mid-1980s, there were typically around 700,000 claimants. Today, there are 2.6 million (the name was changed to Incapacity Benefit in 1995). We have, tragically, encouraged some people to arrange their affairs around qualifying for the allowance.
Those who suffer most are not the grumbling taxpayers – they have rather more pressing things to grumble about – but the people who have been trapped in the squalor of dependency. Before you rage about scroungers, imagine you would feel if you relied – relied – upon a weekly handout of £91.40 (the maximum long-term rate). I can imagine how I would feel: impoverished, demotivated, resentful and enervated. If I lived that way for long enough, I might well become genuinely incapacitated through clinical depression.
The grimly efficient Chris Grayling aims to rescue millions from this wretched state. Pilot tests run under the last government yielded astonishing results. When claimants were reassessed in Aberdeen and Burnley, 30 per cent of them were passed fit for work, and another 30 per cent classified as capable of some work.
To understand the magnitude of the task he faces, though, the minister should read this article by Richard Littlejohn........ .......Just as David Cameron’s unarguable critique of state multiculturalism has yet to percolate down to the armies of racism awareness counsellors, council interpreters and diversity outreach workers who bloat the public sector, so Chris Grayling will find that the biggest obstacle to reform is not the benefits claimants themselves, but the bureaucracy that has grown up to service them. If he wants a primer on how to tackle that problem, I suggest this book.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
About ten years ago...I was listening to a radio news interview...over a Dutch unemployment program started in the early 1970s. Basically...if you were too stressed to work....you got unemployment compensation....which went on for years. You showed up...even at age 25...and presented evidence that you were too stressed.
The interesting thing is that each and every year....the number of Dutch people on this program grew. At the point where I was listening to the report...it was up around 50k Dutch who were too stressed to work.
The curious thing was that millions in the Netherlands were paying taxes so that the 50k stressed folks could just sit at home. No one questioned this....which I thought was remarkable.
If you're not part of the solution there's usually darned good money to be made prolonging the problem.
Well I certainly can’t work in a factory or dig ditches anymore but that doesn’t mean I’m not trying to make my own way.
Oh, the humanity! Poor babies!
This has me baffled too. And I thought it again reading about the welfare housing system early today [excerpt] ....Paul Harris, 28, his sister Diane, 25 and her 10-month-old son Tommy, were told they had to leave the three storey house in Covent Garden following the death of their father after the association’s decision to invoke an “appalling” internal policy.
The family, who lived in the house in the heart of London’s theatre land for more than 25 years, were told they had to leave because a “succession” had already occurred.
In 1986, their parents Joan and John were given a joint tenancy with only one succession, meaning the property could be passed on only once.
After his wife died aged 44 in 1997, Mr Harris senior raised their four children alone. When he developed cancer, Paul and Diane returned to care for him....
....They ordered the siblings, both single parents on benefits, to leave as "there are many families in housing need in Covent Garden".....[end excerpt]
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Now that story is written to relay that the person who benefited by this eviction (moved into the house) is involved with the co-operative that supports these "households" but what struck me is that generational dependency is nurtured by these programs. But as author of the Blog that starts this thread notes, "..... Chris Grayling will find that the biggest obstacle to reform is not the benefits claimants themselves, but the bureaucracy that has grown up to service them....."
One look at that photo - showing both of them smoking cigarettes - which are very expensive in the UK.
If they could romp around and copulate - (to produce that poor child)....perhaps they could generate some energy to bathe themselves and go to work.
OMG - NOTE THE stained glass windows! They are smoking in CHURCH!!!
(perhaps the building has been converted to a welfare office)
I'm making a guess here, but I bet that picture is from one of the very excellent British shows we get to enjoy here in the States from time to time.
LOL
"....It appears that neither 39-year-old Tanya or her long-term partner Tom, 42, has a job. Instead, their family is entirely supported by the state....On the social networking site Bebo, she gives her nickname as ‘Gypsie T’. Her home page carries a picture of the ‘Just Do It’ logo of sportswear giant Nike. Beneath it she has written: ‘Pikeys Just Nick It!!!!’"
Bingo! - A solution has been suggested: CUT THE PAY OF THE BUREAUCRACY.
Oh please, I'm going to puke. I've been flat broke, destitute, not knowing where my next meal was coming from and living out of my car by the time I graduated college (the first time) in early 1986. I had a part-time job that gave me enough to put gasoline in my car, keep my clothes clean and occasionally get on the tollway so I could use the showers in the rest stops to keep myself clean. Whatever I had left over was used for food which typically consisted of a loaf or two of white bread, a jar of peanut butter, some jelly and occasionally some fruit. Any food I kept had to keep in a cooler in my car and not spoil, so my choices were pretty darn limited.
No one helped me, I never received a penny from the Government, not a dime. Rather, I found employment and worked my way up. When I had saved enough money, I rented an apartment (by the week!) which had water, heat and partial electricity included - for $300/mo. That was mid 1986.
Today I'm married, two children, live in a nice home that's paid for, have cars that are paid for, two Bachelors degrees and one Masters degree and don't worry about where my next meal comes from. I have enough living expenses in the bank for two years, a full pantry to ride out the latest wave of food inflation and don't owe anyone a damn' cent.
Now, I'm not saying this to brag, rather I point out myself as an example of anyone who has the desire to get out of poverty can do so. I'm nothing special, I'm not the smartest guy on the block. I went back to school at 42 to complete an under-grad degree and finished my masters at 46.
ANYONE who wants to do it, can. Some sloths just keep making excuses for themselves, and frankly I have no pity for those people. If it takes kicking their sorry asses out onto the streets and told they have to WORK for their next meal to get them to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING to contribute to society, then so be it.
I'm sick and damn' tired of the moochers and leaches of this world.....
You are a role model!
And why the author makes us cheer when he follows with, Chris Grayling aims to rescue millions from this wretched state , but removing their stipend crutch.
You gotta love Daniel Hannan.
Seems adequate. I've lived off that budget for years.
Amen! The only reason they are still there are the democrats and the industry built to distribute our tax dollars to them. Time to cut it completely off. I’m willing to pay for a disabled person who is truly incapable of working but when one can get disabilty for not being able to read or depression something is very wrong!
Let me suggest a novel medication I recently invented.
Hunger: Cures stress fast.
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