tracey.d

One thing that gets me is the way some people seem to think that the only people who scam the country are the immigrants.

It is an absoloute fact that a lot of the people who bludge were actually born and raised in the UK. From being a kid I have met loads of people who openly admit they claim benefits they are not entitled to. For example some common ones are:

Couples living together who claim not to.

People claiming dole when they are working and getting cash in hand.

People who claim housing benefit and council tax benfit when they are not entitled to it.

People who are claiming long term sick benefit when there's nothing wrong with them. A popular condition is a bad back, although how they get their bad backs when they've never done a days work in their lives is beyond me!!!!

My sister makes me laugh, she says that when she was at Uni (she's now a teacher) people used to talk about people from working class backgrounds. She says we weren't even working class as kids because our mother never did a days work. She still doesn't although she has had no reason not to for the last 20 years! People become lazy and don't want to work and it's just too easy to blame the government, society, immigrants or whoever else it is the current trend to blame.

I do agree that we are letting too many illegal immigrants into the uk but who can blame them for trying? Aren't they just doing what we are all trying to do? Move to a different country to make a better life for our families?

I have, in the course of my work, met many immigrant families. I have never heard a rude word from any one of them and they are always so polite and grateful for the work that you do and the time that you give them. I have also come across many English people who are on benefits. They can be so rude and threatening. Many don't appreciate what you do for them and nothing is ever good enough. They expect everything on a plate with no effort from themselves. I admit that they are not all like that but a lot are.

I'll get off my soapbox now! There aren't many things that I feel passionately about but this is one of them. I think we are sometimes too quick to blame immigrants for the mess this country is becoming but sometimes we need to look closer to home!!!

Tracey

Wol

Was skimming through a serious book on the potential of the Australian economy last week and noticed one statistic: whereas in the eighties there were 22 taxpayers to each benefit recipient in 2003 there were 5.

IOW there are four taxpayers to each recipient.

(Figures from memory, might be slightly out but not by much)

Usual caveats: depends what you mean by "benefit recipient", etc etc.

The basic argument is that the "Derek Hatton" effect means that there are too many (compulsory) voters taking benefits for any government of any colour to have the cojones to stop the rot.

Please don't shoot the messenger!

Storini

The poster is missing one important line:

"Bring all your relatives too, and then they can bring theirs, all are welcome!"

jad n rich

Yes there are very serious problems here, 7 MILLION heathcare cards were handed out last year I mean WT Heck only have 20 million people and only 10 million of them pay tax. Thats a staggering burden on the economy.

Tracy d, those scams you just wrote about above bad backs, people on compo etc are all big scams here too, teachers have been listed as one of the worst claimants, must be the weight of all those pencils

Pants

I think it was taken ok in the moving back to Uk forum just alot of us didn't bother saying anything..after all we do live it don't we !!!

Pants

:scared: :scared:

tracey.d

I can well believe it. I think that it's a universal problem, not something that's exclusive to the UK

jad n rich

Exactly

louise4

I don't think that people are implying that bludging is only a uk problem. wherever there are humans and money someone will be scamming. i think the problem here is that when people moan about the situation in the uk they get slated for thinking that another country (oz in this case) is some sort of utopia. if you live in the uk you can moan about what you dislike seeing here. if you live in australia, moan about what you think people taking the pxss with.


the op was tongue in cheek. we have far too many people on welfare here, i don't care about anywhere else when i am talking about the uk. if i were in oz i would apply those moans to oz, if i were in the us i would apply my moans to the us.

just because you moan about one country doesn't mean you think that another is some sort of heaven without it's problems

blossom

I won't be applying for 1st home owners grant (already had that the first time we went), no children of an age that I can claim child benefit for and medicare- I paid plenty of tax in Aus to allow me to claim medicare should I ever need to - just as I pay mega tax here and use the NHS.

I didn't create the document, just uploaded it as received.

Have a nice day all!

BLC

Blossom, you should re-name this the "Hedgehog Thread" as the prickles are coming out in so many

jacknat

can't believe oz isn't utopia

i think some people need a solaro

steve

blossom

If some of the comments that people have made on this thread are true, then Oz must be Utopia, all the benefits including the weather !!!

jacknat

enjoy the south coast

it wasn't right wing, was just a funny

steve x

gobbyjock

Unfortunately with these sort of threads it`s a case of wind me up and watch me go!!
Having worked for the Benefits Agency (Income Support) I know for a fact that there are a lot of genuine people out there (that also includes some asylum seekers and immigrants) at the end of the day people fill out the forms and if the rules and their circumstances allow, they are entitled to benefits. The whole system needs overhauling drastically, when I first started working there I was full of enthusiasm - looking forward to helping people but the old and bold warned me that would soon fade into jaded indifferance because I would get fed up running around doing my best to help people only to find I was being scammed. Sure enough I did help a lot of people and make a differance to some but I got hardened against all the people who after being told that because their youngest child had left school, they should start seeking employment/jobseekers allowance, would trot down to their doctor and say they were depressed. The doctor (probably just wanting to get them out of their surgery) would dutifully write out a sick cert, therefore they would be unable to actively look for work and could continue claiming.
It won`t make any differance who is in power because none of the parties really understand what goes on at grass roots level and none are brave enough to make much change to the system, as they will lose votes whatever way they jump. However trying to save money by making staff redundant is a definate false economy that I do know, because the system is already at breaking point.