Is this another attempt to woo the voters?
The government has just announced that they are going to target financial help for energy costs to those citizens claiming benefits, In principle it is a worthy statement BUT in reality it is wrong! This ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ is spouted by the media and encouraged by society and the government. Let’s be honest, the people on benefits have seen a 6.8% rise in the amount this year, plus the removal of 2 child cap so they get extra money for every child they have. Those people working do not get a pay rise when they have another child and the majority haven’t had a 6.8% pay award this year. People need to learn to budget and stand on their own two feet.
Let’s look at what else is provided
Free school meals,
Free dental care -assuming you can get an NHS dentist
Free prescriptions – already free for under 18yrs
Help with local council tax and may not need to pay at all
Financial help with fuel bills from the big fuel companies
Free fruit and milk for under 5yrs
Help with school uniform costs
Food banks
Stores where they can buy produce much cheaper than everyone else
This list is not by any means exhaustive, there are all of the charities providing winter coats, Easter eggs, Xmas gifts – who are the recipients of this free support – anyone on benefits and this includes those indigenous people who have never worked, those who work a minimum number of 16hrs so that they can still claim benefits this includes, teachers, nurses, etc in this county you can earn can be between £400 – £700 per month depending on if you have children or not, this still lets you get benefits. It also includes everyone who arrived here illegally and have temporary residence granted, so they could work and everyone who is here illegally but unable to claim benefits, however they get all of their basics provided free by the government anyway – not luxurious I agree but hey, they are illegally here have never paid a brass farthing towards the system and will languish at the tax payers expense for years.
Now, whilst you may think I don’t have a social conscience you couldn’t be further from the truth, I buy new children’s winter coats and footwear each year for a local charity, I donate Easter eggs and new Xmas toys etc for gifts, provide underwear, sock, toiletries, make up, ladies sanitary provisions and some goodies to homeless teenagers, often the forgotten homeless group.I donate to the food banks and I am not complaining about any of this- I choose to do it , I don’t want some great accolade for doing this but it does mean I am one of the guilty people encouraging this dependency.
What I do object to is the fuel and water companies and the local council adding extra to my bill to help out ‘the less fortunate’ and to cover the costs of them not getting everyone to pay their local tax. They never asked me, I’m not allowed to refuse and they assume because I pay my bills I can afford it. Their response is ‘ It’s only an extra £5 – £10 per year’ That’s not the point, if they all feel free to add that then we are up to at least £20 per year, not to mention what the supermarkets add to cover the shoplifting costs.
But the main point of this post is to highlight the group of people who work every hour they can get and earn a few £’s over the upper limit so they get nothing! there needs to be some kind of system where they can slowly get some assistance whilst they are working. When you look at what the idle and illegal get there is no fairness to the system. The only people who should be getting everything provided for them are those unfortunate individuals with health conditions that are severely limiting; and as technology develops that group should reduce especially as they can also work from home.
Unless they fall into the group I have just mentioned, people should all have to be working a minimum number of hours to claim any benefits, there are too many hands taking out of the pot rather than putting into the pot.
We have people in this country – in no small number – who have never paid one penny Tax or National Insurance from the cradle to the grave, and even their funeral gets paid for by the tax payer. There are at least 60,000 people entering this country illegally every year and they all get supported by the government using tax payers money, it is quite simply unsustainable, soon there will be less people working than there are paying tax and national insurance, no wonder the retirement age is rising.
People need to understand, the U.K government has NO money of it’s own, it only has what it gets from taxes and borrowing, it cannot keep bailing everyone out.
Rachel Reeves should have told the country to save over the coming summer months to offset the costs of fuel, we have 8 months of the year where fuel use is much lower, at least it will be a buffer. She should have made it clear that the decision on the issue will be made later in the year, god knows what will have happened globally by then and she is making promises she may never be able to meet because that money may be required for defense of the country.
What happened to the days when people took pride in being able to provide for their families and it was a social disgrace to be on benefits
Crank Corner 