What can us working people do to stop all the scrounging going on?

Question

If anyone knows of anything I can do to stop this scrounging that's going on in the UK, allowing people on benefits to be better off than people who are working and have a low income but no children, and also making it possible for those who are not working to afford luxury items such as cars, holidays, widescreen TVs...where the people who are actually paying for these things can't afford them themselves.....please tell me as I want to make a real stand here and know a lot of people who feel the same, but don't know where to start. Thanks.

Answer 1

Vote.  

Answer 2

If you're aware of a fraud going on, you can report it anonymously, as there is a benefit fraud hotline.  If enough people did, abuse of the system would be more difficult, and this ought to make life a little easier for the genuine claimants.

Answer 3

Get used to it, you can't do anything. But thanks for your efforts, that help maintain our indolent lifestyles.

Answer 4

I totally agree with you, but all they have to do is be a good actor with back pains depression etc (very sorry to the real people who are suffering from any of these, were not getting at you just the liars)

The only way is to be a detective and photo people doing what they shouldn't and report it with the evidence, but I havn't got time for that working 40 hours a week.  

Answer 5

Just wait a weeks or so till World War 3, then there`ll be no scroungers antwhere.

Answer 6

Stop working if your that jealous.

Answer 7

It sounds as if you have been reading (and believing) papers like the Daily Wail etc!

If you honestly think the grass is greener on the unemployed side of the street I suggest you try it for a while. I am certain you will find it is very difficult and not at all the easy ride you imagine it to be.

Answer 8

im with you

the only people who need benifits are people with disabilities and cant physically work

but sadly we cant do anything about people who can work and get benifits

sorry

Answer 9

I think you are making two false assumptions here.

Firstly you seem to think that everyone on benefits is unemployed out of choice, this is not the case, there is simply not a job for everyone.  July labour market figures give the claimant count as 864,700 and the number of job vacancies as 634,900, and then bear in mind how well-matched the unemployed people and the vacancies might be in terms of what skills and experience are needed for some of the jobs, and whether they are in the areas people are living in.  It is therefore not right to assume that all benefit claimants are scroungers.

Secondly, as some others have said, you underestimate that benefits are subsistence level payments and people can only afford a range of luxuries if they are on the fiddle, which they shouldn’t be anyway, but that is not the point of your argument.  You might see a family with a wide-screen TV, but you do not know that they have not made payment for it a priority, or that it was not passed on from family or friends.

I take your point that families on benefits with children are sometimes slightly better off than working families with no children because of housing benefits and the like, but that is not the fault of the benefits system, it is the fault of the system of often inadequate wages coupled with high housing costs which puts lower paid employed people in the poverty trap, and that is the situation the government, trade unions and individuals should be trying to do something about.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/lmsu...

Answer 10

Vote the stupid left-wing pricks out, and get a right wing government in.

Lazy left-wing sponging bastads

Answer 11

I don't know about the U.K. but in the state I live in in the US, it is very hard to get benefits for ANYTHING. You have to be dead-***, completely broke with no job at all. My husband makes a little more than $10.00/hr and our rent is $1100.00 a month. That doesn't count food, the house phone you have to have for emergencies to call 911, electricity or any other necessities like toiletries, etc. It's JUST the rent. Subtract the money they take out of his check for medical insurance and you are talking about seriously struggling. And we qualify for no assistance. None. And we have kids. So as much S**t as gets said about people on assistance, believe me... I'd LOVE to be one of them right about now. Then maybe we could actually pay our bills. We have nothing fancy. No nice tv or anything like that. This computer was a gift and the place we live offers free internet. What bothers me the most is that part of the reason no one can qualify is that it all goes to illegal immigrants. I know, some people like to say it's racist to say that but first of all, last time I checked, "American" wasn't a race and second of all, it is absolutely true. There is no money left in the programs long before the fiscal year is over. They even tell you, "It's doubtful but you MIGHT qualify. There's no point in running it though, because the program is out of funds." I sat in the office once, watched a Hispanic lady speak with a social worker and heard the worker tell her she'd get her food stamp card in 3-5 days and then watched the Hispanic lady go outside and get in the driver's seat of a lowered white Cadillac Escalade with rims and tinted windows and drive away. We have to push our 2 year old son in the stroller in the 100 degree heat because we have no car and can't afford one. That just pisses me off. My sister and I were in the same boat a few years ago and she received an auxilary grant to pay her rent. We were in EXACTLY the same financial circumstances. There was absolutely NO difference whatsoever so I decided that we could try to get one to pay our bills so we did not fall behind and get evicted, which was getting dangerously close to happening. You should never have to choose between rent or food. My husband went to apply (I had health problems at the time) and was turned down flat. So I went up there to apply and was turned down flat. The lady wouldn't even do the application! I kept asking her why and she just kept saying, "You aren't the type of family we recommend this grant for." What the h**l does that mean? I told her, "My sister came up here a month ago in EXACTLY the same situation and she got an auxilary grant. What is the difference?" and she could not tell me. She just kept saying the same thing over and over, just as she had done to my husband but we needed that money and we pay taxes for it. I was not going to let her bulldoze me out of there like she did to him. I finally asked her, "Is it because my sister's husband and her kids are black and we aren't?" Oh, she got PISSED when I said that. But what could she say? It was, indeed, the only difference. We were the wrong "type" of family. I found that extremely racist on her part; just because you're black or non-white doesn't make you automatically poor. I had to FORCE this woman to go "speak to her supervisor" not once but three times (who I had already spoken to twice over the phone and who already said we DID qualify and she had no idea why we had been turned down) and finally demanded to speak to her myself before she would even pull out the paperwork. She then told me in the most IGNORANT voice, man: "You know that they don't just give you a check, right? The money goes to the people you CLAIM you owe money to." I looked her in her eye and said, "As long as we don't get evicted, I don't care if you pay them in pennies." She also said, "What are you going to do next month when you still don't pay your bills and need MORE money?" (That didn't happen; my husband found a new job soon after; that grant saved our bacon and that's what we pay taxes for.) Then after we were approved, she sat on the application for almost two weeks even though she had the eviction notice with the date on it and all the medical bills proving all the surgeries I had and why my husband had lost his job (he had to take care of me and the baby) and our situation qualified as an emergency. She just kept saying, "Oh, something came up. Other people came in." I did my best to get her fired. I hope she did get fired.

My point in this long narrative is that assistance might not be as easy to get as you think and sometimes you can't get it even if you really need it. Sometimes you are trying hard but still falling short. Yes, some people do ride the system and some people do get things they never paid in on and are not entitled to. I don't know how you know that these people don't really need assistance but if you know that for sure, report them. They won't get it anymore and could also go to jail. That's all you can do.

Answer 12

its only people who cheat the system or who have loads of kids on benefits who are better off then people who work.

I'm a single parent of one,and yes i'm on benefits and I haven't been able to afford a car or a holiday for the past 8 years-i don't have any new furniture/new big tv's in my place either ,i don't smoke and rarely have a night out so if you think people on benefits are living it up you are very wrong-many of us would love to trade for a decent paying job so that we could afford life's luxuries-but its never a simple as that is it?

Answer 13

go on welfare.

Answer 14

it's all now part of the system , benefit pays for food , alcohol flat screen t.v. car , holidays , keeps people in work , get it , get it , there is little or no industry to soak people up . Don't be envious it keeps you in a job . Housing benefit alone provides thousands of jobs , housing associations , council , benefits office , construction , all good social  engineering , you are getting on , others are not .