RE: mmm debateable that one... of course you are right! They are def not all scroungers! A lot of people are on incapacity due to debalitating conditions like depression. Getting them back into some kind of activity may help this and in addition benefit society in general.
RE: "i hope you get forced to work" No doubts that sentiment is correct. It's the assumption that the less able bodied are automatically spongers that is wrong, when there are plenty of idle rich to direct vitriol to. You know the ones who will be making more money through the increased cost of everything. Like the ***** who are investing in oil at the minute, driving the cost higher and higher.
RE: I think you have just hit the nail on the head as to WHY there are so many immigrants but the immigrants need jobs too. The benefit workers may steal their jobs?
I don't think that anybody would say that they all are but there are a lot that are choosing not to work when they have no reasonable reason not to. I know somebody with a dodgy ankle who doesnt work because of it and the government is quite hapy to sign him off as unable to work. Another who has his thumb missing on his left hand is unable to work, he gets a free car, disabled badge (presumably he walks on his hands and so needs a space next to the door), and is paid quite handsomly to sit at home all day on the internet. Wouldn't be so bad but he isnt even left handed.
Supertyke.. as the boards self appointed pedant, just check this calculation for me will ya; 66 million divided by 2 = 32 milliion 4.5 millioin = those out of work and claiming some kind of benefit. That was less than a tenth when I went to school.....
my fiance has been off work 18 months after falling quite seriously ill and then as a consequence suffering from depression. She gets benefits of £70 per week but no more because I apparently "earn too much". This has left me owing 2 months rent and over £400 in unpaid utility bills. The back to work scheme the government wants her to go on is next to useless, despite the claims that it will support people looking to return to work. Dozens of phonecalls unreturned and only one offer a job which was entirely inappropriate given that they knew her medical background and problems. The only thing they have done is give her a 'job session' which involved someone advising her about her CV, which having seen what they had said, was entirely useless in a competitive jobs market. The government go on about support, and how people wanting to work will get it, but my experience is that there is very little for those who genuinely want it.
You're confusing me with EastStander. And I think you knew that 'half' wasn't meant as an accurate figure.
"less able bodied" oh don't make me laugh....put 'itus' in and off they go you know full well there are around 2 million who are fraudulently claiming, and what is so wrong with the US style work for dole hmmm. for too long its happened. there are families in some cases of up to 4 generation who non have worked a stroke, how do YOU feel as you clock on knowing they are just spliffing up or switching on the 48" plasma your tax money has paid for.
RE: But the point is... Agreed, tax avoidance might be legally 'ok' but it's morally bankrupt and costs the country far more than benefit cheats. Yet the media pay barely any attention to it. Easier to whack the poor i guess.
Sorry to hear that mate..If that doesn't reinforce the point that not all people claiming benefits are so called scrounging gits. then I don't what will.
Not great.. but PLEASE do not use the US, where more people live in poverty in a supposed advanced nation than any other Western nation, as an example of what we should be doing. FFS we are better than that. And no, I don't know that 2m are claiming fraudulently, no one does.
Ok then, some immimgrants come to this country because they know jobs are available as millions of british people are sat at home or out fishing instead of taking the jobs available because of no other reason than they don't want a job. I don't think anybody can argue with that, it doesnt say that EVERYONE who is out of work doesnt want a job, it says that millions dont. And it does encourage immigration, just look at calcutta if you want a prime example.
So you put them all into 1 category and call them sponging Barstewards..you're unreal We all know that there are many people out there who claim benefits and shouldn't but you can't claim everyone is the same.
Immigration is NOT a new phenomenon.. and has happened for hundreds, nay thousands of years, just on a wider scale now.