Monday, February 12, 2007

Welfare reform

One third of people are dependent on the government for their income. This is a frightening prospect as we are becoming a nation of parasites. The fact is we must reform the welfare state so it is much harder to claim welfare and get people to become dependent on themselves and not dependent on the state.

Unemployment benefit

If you have not worked for atleast 2 years you should not be able to claim any unemployment benefit. Unemployment benefit should only be open to those who have actually had employment.

Unemployment benefit should be given out not in cash but in tokens for food, water, toiletries, electricity and gas. Anything else is a luxury and should be paid for by you. Want to buy your child a Christmas present? Find a job to pay for it.

For the first 3 months the tokens should only make up 50% of the welfare. For every month after that the tokens should make up another 10% so after 8 months all your unemployment welfare will be given out in tokens.

There will be people selling these tokens so to get any unemployment welfare you will have to have your photo taken which will be placed on these tokens. The government will also have access to your bank records. If you have any money it will be taken out to reimburse the state until you get a job. This will be the same if you have a car or anything of value. This may seem wrong but if the government is paying for you they have every right to do this.

Things also have to change for the low paid. It is stupid that people can earn more on welfare because those on welfare don’t pay much rent, council tax and income tax. Those earning below a certain threshold should not have to pay council house rent, council tax or income tax.

Child benefit

Child benefit has become a reason for teenagers to have children while they are at school. This has to be stopped and a cap put on the amount that can be claimed. Only once reaching the age of 20 will any child benefit be given. This will allow for a period of employment before they have children. Child benefit should not be a way for people to avoid work by having more and more children so child benefit will only be paid for 2 children. If you want more you better have the money to pay for it.

Child benefit will be given to both the mother and father so if child benefit is £100 per week it will be split equally between the father and mother which means each get £50 per week. This will only happen if they are married and living together. If they are not married and living together only the mother will receive the benefit and it will be only her share.

To encourage women to have children and not wait until later on in life the amount of benefit they can claim will be lower the longer they wait.

All benefits claimants will be made public for anyone to see. This would hopefully stop benefit cheats as people will know what benefits their neighbour is claiming and would know if they are actually disabled if they are claiming disability. Most other benefits should be done away with unless you are seriously ill.

Hat tip: Ranting Stan.

5 comments:

Stan said...

Good to see someone thinking about this.

When I left school at 16 I had no idea what I was going to do. I went to the local job centre and the first thing they told me was to go and sign on the dole!!! They didn't want to know until I got myself a UB40.

The only money I had before this was my 50p a week pocket money and the odd couple of quid I earned helping out on a milk round. Now they were offering me £9 a week for sitting on my arse!

I didn't sign on, of course - there was no way an old school working class socialist like my dad would accept one of his sons doing that. Unemployment benefit, in his eyes, was something for men who'd worked hard all their lives and suddenly found themselves out of work - not for snotty little kids fresh out of school.

alanorei said...

Agreed, an excellent set of proposals.

sanbikinoraion said...

Wow, what an excellent way to encourage women with abusive partners to stay with them "for the kids".

I didn't even realize that we still had an authoritarian right wing, never mind that it was so moonbat crazy.

youdontknowme said...

If they have abusive husbands they can report them to police and get them sent down.

How many women divorce their partners because they are physically abused by them.

Anonymous said...

Simple answer to the abusive husband claim (which will be a minority - lets not forget that) is to say if the guy is sent down then you can keep the dosh.

I quite like the American idea of saying everyone has 5 years of benefit claims, its up to the person to decide when they use it. Once its used up thats it. However for this to work, I think there must be better incentives and opportunities for work and self help. This cannot be an isolated change, benefit traps must be removed, and as already mentioned the issue of how to allocate housing allowance without making a trap needs further work