Wanted - Eglu Cube Mk1 Roosting Bars

[Christian]

Not aimed at anyone in particular, but could we keep it friendly please.

 

If you can't say anything nice, please PM me

[Woodcat]

Child Benefit does need reforming simply because in this time of economic hardship a benefit that the Queen could claim is ridiculous. Particularly when other people on the benefits system have so little.

 

The current incapacity benefit is utterly ridiculous, You get called up for medicals on a very regular basis somtimes as often as every 3 months which sounds like a long time until you go into how difficult those medicals are. Last time i attended one they had no disabled access so you had to climb a flight of stairs whilst being shouted at by the receptionist to hurry up because he had to lock the door behind you. Your then put through somewhere between 1 and 2 hours of questions and exercises and poked and prodded by a doctor whose manners leave a lot to be desired you then have to go back to the receptionist and attempt to claim your travel while being shouted at through a glass window and who when challenged about the shouting says "You don't matter your disabled," And this particular experience is not unique to me.

 

DLA is almost impossible to get unless you are in one of their automatic categories i.e wheelchair bound. I have many friends who have been turned down despite the fact they can barely manage to get out of bed let alone walk to a supermarket.

 

 

There are people who cheat the system (an estimated 0.6% in the case of DLA or 1% for incapacity) or who use it as a prop to enable them to not work. However there are many many more who desperately need it and more help than it gives and they simply get accused of fraud or laziness. It's very easy for tabloids and politicians to do a blanket attacks on the disabled and the unemployed and tar everyone with the same brush, However it's worth remembering that a single person aged between 18-24 get's £51.84 on jobseekers, that has to pay every bill except rent, I'm not sure if i'd be able to do it.

 

Child benefit is an outdated benefit from the days when all mothers stayed at home and relied on allowances from their husbands now days i'm sorry to say it but if someones husband earns over £44,000 and they only get access to the 80 odd quid from child benefit and nothing else then they really need to look at their relationship because there is a massive problem.

[Tiggy]

Woodcat I hear you !!! & agree, the whole point of a benefit system is to support those who really need it, infact many truly disabled people need more than they currently get from the state. The benefit system should be there to provide a safety net when things go wrong, we dont want to return to the days of poor people on the streets & workhouse situation so I have no problem with paying my taxes or NI, but it does need a real overhaul. I suppose we have to start somewhere & child benefit just a place to start, but it does have to be fair. If its not going to be implemented until 2013 at least being announced now gives time for public debate & allows the government to see where the pitfalls may lie & tweak it, hopefully !!! thats what democracy is about. Having travelled to other countries I dont think the UK is so bad

[paddy1709]

On a different note. I know of three 'middle income' families who in the last six months have emigrated to Australia for the better lifestyle over there. I support the welfare state as previously quoted but my OH is seriously thinking of going abroad in the next few years. It worries me that the government are putting so much pressure on the middle tax payers and there will be a serious 'brain drain' over the next few years much as happened in the early 70's.

[Rhapsody]

Perhaps you would feel happier living in the USA or a sub saharan country, or perhaps a Rio favela no welfare there.

 

If me and my family and all the other 40% tax families left, who would fund the country?

 

Since you were so good to ask, I would be happy living in a country that will not be spending £16 billion in interest alone on our National Debt next year while we pay 16 year old girls to pod out fatherless babies, give CB to the well off, and allow the perfectly able-bodied to sit at home on sickness benefit.

[Woodcat]

allow the perfectly able-bodied to sit at home on sickness benefit.

 

The fraud estimates for DLA is less than 0.6% and incapacity is 1% however the estimate for the people who are entitled to DLA and don't claim it is anything up to 40%. In total benefit fraud is estimated at 0.8% of total benefit expenditure

 

As i said the sick and the disabled are easy targets and are unfairly exploited because of that. As one whose been through it all. Sickness benefit is not easy to get even when you are sick let alone when you aren't. If you contrast this with tax evasion at around 3% of total tax liabilities, its very low.

[Space Chick]

allow the perfectly able-bodied to sit at home on sickness benefit.

 

The fraud estimates for DLA is less than 0.6% and incapacity is 1% however the estimate for the people who are entitled to DLA and don't claim it is anything up to 40%. In total benefit fraud is estimated at 0.8% of total benefit expenditure

 

As i said the sick and the disabled are easy targets and are unfairly exploited because of that. As one whose been through it all. Sickness benefit is not easy to get even when you are sick let alone when you aren't. If you contrast this with tax evasion at around 3% of total tax liabilities, its very low.

 

I'd be interested to hear where you get these percentages from, as from my own experiences the figures are much much higher.

 

I live in one of the areas with the highest density of benefit claimants in the UK, and I know of SEVERAL people that are falsely claiming incapacity benefit. In fact a friend of mine works for the office where they investigate this type of benefit fraud, she is very very busy!

[Woodcat]

I'd be interested to hear where you get these percentages from, as from my own experiences the figures are much much higher.

 

http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/tax-evasion-costs-treasury-15-times-more-than-benefit-fraud/a378274 that was the tax evasion and the over all benefit scores and i shall dig around and find the others though i think it was one of the official ones

[Woodcat]

and the others were here http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/2010/06/dla-clearing-up-confusion.html iit also offer the statistics for income support and job seekers.

 

Edited for terrible spelling, thats what i get for trying to watch Ann Widdecome salsa and type at the same time

[sari]

My Mom used to clam incapacity benefit, as she was injured at work ( District Nursing auxiliary) at the age of 53. She has both Cervical and Lumbar Spondulosis, Fibromyalgia and now has bony growths on her spine, due to the Spondulosis. She is almost constant pain, as she cannot take high doses of anti-inflammatories, due to the previous ones causing her an ulcer, and she is intolerant to opioids. She now is 63, and has a small pension, as she paid the married woman's stamp ( I don't know exactly what this means- all I know is she didn't pay as much pension contribution, as advised at the time...) She does not get an NHS Pension, as she was not allowed to join the scheme at the time of commencing employment- as she was part-time.

She was called in regularly for painful and humiliating examinations, as they debated whether she could work..she had to go for something called the all work test...could she sit down and work, stand up and work etc....I am happy to apy tax, in order for people like my Mom to receive benefits, and you forget that many people who claim benefits have also paid taxes. My Father has had to claim benefits this year, at the age of 63, he was made redundant....not much around for a Logistics Company Director.....thankfully he's just found another job...... But it was a humiliating experience for a man who started working at 12, on a milkround, keeping chickens and selling the eggs.

 

Benefits should be there as a safety net, not a way of life, but the whole sea-change needed requires joined up thinking. Lifting the aspirations of young men and women trapped in a cycle of poverty and non-achievement, will take a massive amount of input and funding into Education, youth and Community services...all areas that are having swinging budget cuts. I'm a working class girl, working in Education, getting paid very little. as a Communication Support Worker.....I use my child benefit to pay for the luxuries for my girls, to go on school trips, have music lessons, out of school activities ( I promise you, my daughter is a future Judo champion... ) and the ever increasing price of school shoes!

 

There is little point to this rant, except to stick up for the working classes...and I mean the working class....!

 

rant over....I'm off to check I've locked the WIR...

[PapaJuliet]

I have no problems with those who are genuinely unable to work getting incapacity benefit, disabled living allowance or whatever. I also believe that most of those on these benefits "ought" to be long-term "incapacitated" (if that's a word) so there should be no point assessing them every 3 months to see if they really can't work.

 

What REALLY bugs me is some of the stories in the Mail last Friday, particularly the woman who had "curvature of the spine" so bad that she couldn't work and that her partner had to give up work to care for her yet she was obviously fit enough to give birth to a further 7 babies. And they get ... was it £160k in benefits? Well over £100k anyway.

 

I have curvature of the spine! I had an operation to fuse it when I was 14 (from roughly shoulder height to about mid-lumbar region). The operation I had is now considered not to be the correct way to deal with my type of curvature these days (it is twisted, not a simple curve). Yet I don't claim incapacity benefits, I don't consider myself "disabled" and I work full time. And I get nowhere near this family of scroungers.

 

Can you tell I'm a bit incensed by this case?

 

The other thing that "gets" me is when these families are in benefits but they can afford to pay £50 per month on Sky, or provide each child with a PlayStation, a Wii or a laptop, or take multiple holidays. I'm sorry, but benefits should be a safety net to pay for bills, new shoes, school uniform, etc, not luxuries!

 

And breathe.

 

PJ

[sari]

I'm with you on the Sky, wii etc....when my OH was made redundant, the first thing I did was cut off all the Sky..

[Christian]

Without wanting to sound condescending, and not attacking the Mail, but they write to sell papers.

 

Having been on the receiving end of their venom, with an alleged salary of 50,000+ a year, plus second homes in America, I take what all papers say with a pinch of salt.

[Space Chick]

Without wanting to sound condescending, and not attacking the Mail, but they write to sell papers.

 

Having been on the receiving end of their venom, with an alleged salary of 50,000+ a year, plus second homes in America, I take what all papers say with a pinch of salt.

 

You mean you haven't got a second home in America I'll have to crawl to Angels4 for some cheap holiday accommodation across the pond then.

[sari]

An elderly lady that I visit gives me her newspapers, as she knows I use them for the chooks and guineas, and of course, it's the Daily (hate0Mail. I read it with morbid curiosity, and with the idea of " know your enemy". I am sometimes horrified at their spin on things....they know exactly which buttons to press, to wind up Middle England.....

[Rhapsody]

Dont get me started on the Daily Rail..

 

 

Benefits should be there to get people back on their feet and to look after society's genuine casualties, it's the funding of certain lifestyle choices that is surely unacceptable and unaffordable.

[patsylabrador]

I think that this is outrageous

childbenefit

 

Sorry if it's been mentioned already, I haven't read the whole thread yet.

[Tiggy]

I think that this is outrageous

childbenefit

 

Sorry if it's been mentioned already, I haven't read the whole thread yet.

 

 

no way!!!!!! how on earth did someone think up that one surely thats the place to start cutting back!!!!there really does need to be some joinned up thinking on this one

[Charlottechicken]

That's EU legislation.

 

It is reciprocal ,and any UK resident working in another EU country can claim their equivalent benefit if they so wish.

[Tiggy]

That's EU legislation.

 

It is reciprocal ,and any UK resident working in another EU country can claim their equivalent benefit if they so wish.

 

OK, I didn't know that.