[zAndy1]

Claimants must earn their benefits - Yahoo! News UK

The government have been saying this for as long as I can remember, 10 years ago the same things were being said and if anything the system is being abused more than ever. Do you think anything will change this time, personally I'm very sceptical

[prking]

I doubt it, because its always reported that the government is depriving disadvantaged people and putting them into poverty.

I would imagine, everyone knows someone who is ****less and never worked, and yet suddenly when their benefits are threatened they develop a medical condition that has prevented them working. All the while, genuinely disadvantaged (but honest) people struggle on.

So should a government risk being unpopular with some? Or carry on dishing out money to the lazy?

[GrahamC]

I think you will find that in these days of rising unemployment the benifit system will be an easy place to hide the true extent of the downturn (just as Maggie did). Does any put-upon, hard working tax payer think that any claimant is deserving ... I myself have never met one.

Times are going to get harder and harder lets keep the lid on the Tar and drop the brush. Forced to work is pointless, helped and encouraged to train while being able to keep all current benifits is the only way I see to not just swapping the type of benifit claimed. It's taken 30 years for the system to get into the state it's in, might take another 30 to get it to where most people would want it.

[lostinspace]

As someone who is on Jobseekers at the moment after being made redundant in September, I see lots of strange things when I go to sign on.
They go through my job applications with a fine tooth comb, wanting to know who, when, what happened etc. As far as i'm concerned, this is as it should be. If I want the safety net of the state, I should be doing all I can to get out of the net.

But there are a number of obviously non English people in there at the same time. They just sign on the line, and gone in seconds whereas I can be there 20 minutes. Why are they treated differently? Am I being discriminated against? Or is it that they realise I'm one of the minority (?) who is trying to get back into work? I think I know the answer.

One agency I am registered with has told me that, at 50 next birthday, I should expect a very long wait to get back into employment. Obviously my desire to get off benefits will not get me anywhere with them, so I'll concentrate on the other agencies who don't see me as a lost cause.

Then there's the ones who keep having the Giro stolen...............more of those than you'd think according to one person who works there.