zebidee said:
Are you deciding who deserves it then? Come on Shoes, lets go round all the homes of people receiving benefits and do a statistical analysis of who deserves what and who doesn't, we'll call it the Special Shoes Test and you can just make up your mind based on what they look like.
This is like trying to have a debate with a four year old.
No. It's perfectly simple. In the context of this thread, I outlined quite clearly, right above your post, my thoughts:
shoes said:
this discussion is purely about those receiving benefits when they don't need them - for example having your nth child, being married or earning £44k and still receiving benefits.
Personally I don't think you should be entitled to squat after about 16k. It's perfectly possible to live on 16k, probably less in all fairness. It won't be an extravagant lifestyle, but tough shit. When I moved out from my parent's house in 2004 I was earning 12k dead. I appreciate that the cost of living has increased since then, but it's not 30% more for sure.
We've all had to live like a student at some point, but most people manage to progress up the career ladder or change how they make money to fulfil an increased standard of living, if they so desire. If you don't want to then fair enough, if you do but can't be arsed to do anything about it then tough shit.
I don't know what it is, but I just cannot get my head around why we would give people more money to have kids? It should be a privilege, not a human right. Why is it a human right?! You can't drive a car unless you pass a test. You can't even go on most building sites these days without a CSCS card, effectively a licence to say you're smart enough to pass a multiple choice test about not walking in front of diggers etc. Yet you're allowed to have children without any form of screening whatsoever!?!?
And then you get PAID TO DO IT!? I have a human right to water. As such, from now on the government should pay my water bill. What do you think the response would be if I asked for that?
I think a much fairer society would be if everyone paid a flat rate of tax, say 25%. Everyone. Cleaners, Office workers, Bankers, MPs etc. Everyone. Couple that with some serious cost saving. Promote independent schools, for example. Stop ALL benefits to everyone working and earning more than 16k, regardless of children - you, as an individual can control whether you have them, regardless of outgoings - you have control over those too.
This should free up some money for those who actually need it - disabled people, pensioners, education authority etc.
I have lots of ideas on how to administer JSA but that's for another thread.
The bottom line is - why do we have to pay others to have children, especially those earning a salary well above the national average?