I.d.s.

[whiskeryron]

I see the Tories hit man has been let out again
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2720940/Iain-Duncan-Smith-new-welfare-war-Plans-lower-benefit-cap-restrict-child-handouts.html
( open link & scroll down)
why have the Tories got an absolute downer on their lower classes ( the bulk of the people in the UK) ?. It is a fact that our beloved leader & his cronies are mostly from privileged backgrounds & have very little time for the working class population. I personally know quite a few people who are out of work & trying very hard to find employment, they are not all the work-shy scroungers they are constantly being pointed out to be. The truth of the matter is there are not the jobs out there this government would have us believe, so come on fair play.

[Gromit]

IDS will single handedly win the next election... for Labour.

His rhetoric goes down well with the aged Tory faithful, but it won't be well received in the 80 marginal seats that the Conservatives need to win. They want to hear that the Government will help them, not tread on them when they are down.

[mikey4444]

Ghastly man...I still don't understand why dave didn't get rid of him in the last re-shuffle. But, from a Labour supporters point of view, quite glad !

[lindapalmara]

Nobody is saying all people on benefits are scrougers. However a lot who were have come off welfare and got jobs, that's a fact so he's done something right.

[emmie]

i wonder how many are in low paid work, so will still need benefits to top up their income. Reforms are going to be hard, for anyone making them or on the receiving end, and i doubt very much at the end of the day that it will make a tuppence of difference, we will still be bringing in shed loads of people to do manual jobs, thus making the job market ever smaller,

[naomi24]

I tried to play the video in that clip headed “Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls spells out his welfare vision”, and all I got was a rectangle filled with white mist. Seems about right.

[tonyav]

Similar story in the Express and Star, Ron.
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/08/09/thousands-of-families-have-benefits-capped/

[Svejk]

every time I've seen Labour talking about cutbacks, it goes like this;
Lab spokesperson ' disgraceful, awful, terrible'
interviewer 'so you'll reverse this if you get into power?'
Lab spokesperson 'no'

[naomi24]

//Plans to cut benefit cap from £26,000 to average take-home pay £18,000//


I don’t understand your reasoning, Ron. Why should people who don’t work be better off than those who do? As you say, “Come on, fair play”.

[ladybirder]

Nobody on benefits should be getting more than the average man's take home pay. What's unreasonable about that?

[Gromit]

When this filters through, expect Mikey to post a latest YouGov poll show

[naomi24]

I'm not interested in polls, but I would like the complainers to tell me why people who don't work should be better off than those who do.

[sandyRoe]

If the breadwinners in a big family find themselves unemployed are their children to go hungry so that some politician who missed his calling as a workhouse master can crow about reducing the welfare budget.
A large family should get more because they need more.

[naomi24]

That's not an answer.

[sandyRoe]

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Someone working for the minimum wage would earn what, about £250 a week? Is someone who didn't work to be limited to that in benefits so that they're not better off than someone in employment?

[naomi24]

//From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. //

There is no incentive for someone with an exceptional ability to work hard if the fruits of his labour are going to be distributed to anyone other than his own family.

//Is someone who didn't work to be limited to that in benefits so that they're not better off than someone in employment? //

Yes.

[sandyRoe]

Naomi, you can't be seriously suggesting that a family on benefits, no matter what their circumstances, should be given no more that the equivalent of the minimum wage to live on?

[royfromaus]

If Ian Dunce Smith can get a job as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, then there shouldn't be anyone unemployed.

[naomi24]

sandyRoe, as far as I’m aware an income of £18,000 after tax equates to rather more than the minimum wage. According to the article, that's the average take home pay. If the average working man manages on that, I see nothing wrong with expecting people on benefits to manage on it too.

[murraymints]

I left employment services dismayed...the vast majority of claimants were decent folk that needed help...but my remit was to stop as many claims as I could...unfortunately I decided my job was to help not hinder and to inform those who did not know what or who to ask...

Until you've walked in those shoes you can have no idea of the despair some feel trying to feed family and find work..

The scroungers are very much in the minority..in my not inconsiderable , and informed, experience

[lady-janine]

why is the number of children taken into account when deciding benefits? no employer gives you more wages simply because how 10 children not 2.