Can you really blame them ?

[gfwgfw]

A young Portsmouth couple and their baby are in receipt of £16000 per annum from public funds - according to local Radio report this morning

They claimed that if they are not able to find employment paying exceeding their gross weekly income of benefits . . . £307

They argued that their respective parents are paying taxes into the system so they have no concern of their predicament living on the state

In a way I have to except their argument, they would need to earn circa £17000 a year to break even, odd .. . . back a fact

[Manoverboard]

How can anybody believe for a single moment that they have an entitlement to claim benefits on the back of their parent's contributions once they themselves have reached adult status ... I don't think so.

How about having a system where one of them gets a job and then the State tops it up to the Benefit level, if applicable ?

[Admiral of the Humber]

Dear Graham,

I blame the young man for having no pride.

Rgards
Rob aka AOTH

[Quizzical Bob]

Portsmouth, innit.

[Delboy]

They were interviewed on the this morning TV a couple of days ago.

At the end of the interview Phillip Scofield put him on the spot, and asked him, if somebody offered him a job, at slightly less than he was getting on benefits, would he take it. He said yes.

So PS put a request out asking if anybody had a job for him, he was offered a labourers job at slightly less than his benefits, and I understand he has taken up the offer.

Will be interesting if he stays, once he has worked out what he will be loosing in benefits.

[Kendhni]

This sounds like the same story that ran in The Sun earlier in the week ... to be fair some of the maths The Sun used looked very dodgy .. it just did not add up.

However they were claiming JSA which, if the article has any basis in fact, should be stopped immediately.

[Delboy]

This sounds like the same story that ran in The Sun earlier in the week ... to be fair some of the maths The Sun used looked very dodgy .. it just did not add up.

However they were claiming JSA which, if the article has any basis in fact, should be stopped immediately.

Re JSA I agree Ken, my daughters other half was made redundant from a job just before last christmas, where he was paid on a self employed basis.

Even although they have 3 Children, he was not able to claim any JSA, as he had been previously classed as self employed, even although he had paid in all his contributions.

[Kendhni]

Delboy, I find that deplorable ... the government should do much more for those that find themselves temporarily in between jobs .. even it means taking the money from elsewhere in the benefits budget.

[JohnTheDog]

Apart from a bit of child benefit & a short time between jobs neither my wife nor I have ever qualified for any benefits, so we now just do menial part time work to earn some money.

[gfwgfw]

To square the hole

Forget pride, morals etc, etc

Should the young couple be nationally outed, they are more victims of 21st century ideology

It's their right and they are using it

BTW he refused two opportunities of employment claiming he would be serious out of pocket

Unbloodybelievable

[Kendhni]

The link to the story is here
What makes me wonder about the story though is that the numbers The Sun presents are all over the place, they do not add up and I can not believe a young couple would freely put their picture in the press when it is obvious to an untrained chimp that their story would make them figures of hate.

It makes me think that the story may be manufactured!

[Silver_Shiney]

Maybe I'm too cynical, but perhaps they wanted their five minutes of fame and a fee from the press? They didn't have to be interviewed....

[qbman1]

In a similar vein, here's another one:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... onest.html

Just makes you realise what a right lash-up the current benefits system is !

[Kendhni]

It's totally stuffed, qbman, but when ever anybody has the balls to try and do something about it there is nothing but whinging and gurning ... sadly the mess it is in means people in real need or those that genuinely need a bit of extra help, while between jobs, are being punished by those that have made it a lifestyle choice.

[lioness]

Question? what did people do in our young days when there weren't benefits like this? Did they starve? Serious question. I've always worked, so I really don't know the answer. Most people didn't have kids until they could afford them is one answer.

[oldbluefox]

sadly the mess it is in means people in real need or those that genuinely need a bit of extra help, while between jobs, are being punished by those that have made it a lifestyle choice.

And that is the problem. Those who are 'in the know' manage to get all kinds of benefit and can live very comfortably on benefits. It is hardly surprising they kick up a fuss when they think it is being taken away. Wouldn't you? Our last government's idea was to give them more, supposedly to lift them out of 'poverty'. I can assure you any extra they got, for many, would be spent on extra scratch cards, cigarettes or drink. It only serves to illustrate that those in Whitehall have little idea of what is happening in the real world.

Meanwhile those who genuinely need help are unable to access the benefits they should be entitled to because they are too honest and don't 'play the system'. I am all in favour of benefits, but only as a safety net in hard times, not as a lifestyle choice. Now it is seen as a right.

[Kendhni]

... Or the new word that has crept into our vocabulary ... 'entitlement'.

[paultheeagle]

To be honest I don't think this couple are doing much wrong.......Just like the people that don't pay their fare share of tax they are playing the system, they ain't breaking the law.

I cannot for the life of me see what the difference is... dodge the tax man and that's fine, perfectly acceptable in some quarters, indeed I know of people that openly brag about how little tax they pay and they consider it their duty to pay as little tax as they can....

Turn it around and look at people at the other end of the social ladder, then suddenly people that claim benefits are lazy, work shy, low life spongers, who are bleeding the country dry, who get called all sorts of names by those with plenty, those that want for nothing.

It ain't the people that are wrong, it's the system, change the system, don't blame those that legally play it and get all that they are entitled to....The Coalition are trying to change the system but the problem with this Government is that they are bleeding the poor dry, so they ain't got much more to give and leaving the well off, the affluent, millionaires and multi millionaires alone.

And £16,000 ain't that much...is it?

[oldbluefox]

PTE, it is the system which is wrong and I am pleased the coalition government is doing something about it - at both ends of the spectrum.

Whilst you may complain about this government, under the last Labour government the gap between the rich and the poor widened. Whilst they improved benefits they also scrapped the 10% rate of income tax which really hit low earners so in the end it was more economical to go on benefit than to work. How can that be right? It was actually the middle earners who suffered most, and I think they are getting a bit fed up with being hammered.

[oldbluefox]

I would say £16000 tax free, plus all other benefits which may be claimed such as help with housing, free prescriptions, dental care is not much less than some of those who are working full time on basic wages, considering they lose all entitlements to benefits. It has been shown that some of those on benefit are getting more than those who are working. That can't be right can it? In those circumstances what incentive is there to work?

As you say it is the system which is wrong and although it is not a popular move something has to be done to change it.

[Kendhni]

I agree OBF ... The last government knew but didn'thave the balls to do anything, this government wants to do something but are being fought every inch of the way by the worst sort ... Those that will not recognise that drastic changesare needed ... It is them that are responsible for those in genuine need being deprived of money because they want the pot of available funds to be spread thinly.

What i do know is that half my family loves the flamin ' do gooder' mentality because it means they can continue to do nothing while others make up excuses for them ... They don't even have to make up their own excuses.

[paultheeagle]

Here they go again.....It's laughable, like a Carry On film.

I wish you Tories would stop blaming the last Government or your own failings...We all know that the last Labour Government got a few thing wrong but I don't remember them giving a tax break to the most well off...Whilst taking benefits off the disabled...

[Silver_Shiney]

If someone is in genuine need, I have no problem with helping them out. What I have major problems with is people like the young woman who was in the papers a few months ago boasting about how she was using the benefits payments she'd saved up to have a breast enhancement. She was said it was her money, she could do what she liked with it. Sorry, but no, it's MY money ( and Ken's, and OBF's and Rob's and..........) and it's to put a basic roof over your head and nutritious food on your table - not to pay for cosmetic surgery or iPhones or plasma TVs or holidays (the inlaws said that there was a gang of people on their last Oriana cruise who were bragging about how they screwed the benefits system for every penny and that was how they could get on that cruise - they were chucked off at the first port of call).

We had some youngsters across the road (turned out they were selling the old Colombian vitamin pills.....) a few years ago, they had a TV delivered. I watched the delivery team bring it in - the box was bigger than our wardrobe, we coulld see the damn thing hanging on the wall in their upstairs bedroom. I'm sure they were claiming the maximum possibile under our perverted benefits system.

The whole system needs a radical shake up but, as has been said earlier by others, no-one seems to have the courage to take the bull by the horns and actually do anything about it.

[Quizzical Bob]

Here they go again.....It's laughable, like a Carry On film.

I wish you Tories would stop blaming the last Government or your own failings...We all know that the last Labour Government got a few thing wrong but I don't remember them giving a tax break to the most well off...Whilst taking benefits off the disabled...

By 'tax break' I presume you mean only stealing 45% of their money instead of 50%?

[Kendhni]

A few
Thanks for that laugh, Paul, saying labour only made a few mistakes is a bit like saying someone is only a little bit pregnant ... Funniest post you have made