How the other half live

[daffy654]

http://www.dailymail....-23-000-benefits.html

I wish I had £1000 to spend this Christmas!

[Booldawg]

''I did buy a new Alfa Romeo recently, but we needed it because the BMW was old.'

This is an excellent example of a crass comment and should be used in all secondary schools for demonstration purposes.

[squarebear]

Disgusting. Makes you wonder why anyone bothers working.

[albaqwerty]

an accident on a building site hurt his groin!!!! Yet he can produce a bucketload of offspring!!!

My mind is boggling.....

[VHG]

A few years ago I was in a well paid job, but got the chance, at 53, to take earily retirement with a good pay off package and a good pension.

Part of the reason I took it was because I was fed up with paying loads of tax each month to keep scroungers like this in a life of luxury for doing nothing.

Gordon Brown seems very happy to give other peoples hard earned money away to thousands of scroungers like this.

Part of the reason why the country is bankrupt.

[B00]

Makes your blood boil in anger doesn't it?

Like the other posters have already said, you do have to wonder why the rest of us bother working at all. Me and Mr Boo both work, him full time and me partime and we're sweating over a £200 electric bill that's just arrived, then there's scrounging gits like this who revel in doing bugger all and seem to enjoy rubbing it in our faces how much better off they are than us.

[Oneeyedvic]

////But by the age of 12 she started playing truant.

She has a four-year-old son whose father was a Big Issue seller that she met at a train station when she was only 14.////

I'd rather have no money that live my life like this.

///''I did buy a new Alfa Romeo recently, but we needed it because the BMW was old.' ///

Somehow I doubt the Alfa was brand new but rather new to them. A secondhand Alfa can be purchased pretty cheaply.

///I wish I had £1000 to spend this Christmas! ///

Save up £20 per week then. Most people could do if they really wanted to. But it means that you have to go without other luxuries.

If you smoked 20 a day you would save £1825 per year (based on £5 a pack)
If you had a bottle of wine a WEEK, that would save £260
Turn down the thermostat - save you more
Go to the cinema? There's £12 per couple without popcorn
Did you go on holiday this year? Bet they didn't (as I am sure they the rags would have loved to put this in the article).
Do you have a computer? Games Console, Nice TV?

Interesting how the picture was taken on the outside of the house and not on the inside where you could actually see the kind of life that they lead.

[B00]

Can see where you're coming from OEV, but if we work hard for our money why the hell shouldn't we have those luxuries?

You don't agree that it might stick in the throat of some of us that people like this couple can have all of the above without actually working to achieve any of it?

[squarebear]

I do agree that people should budget but not with other people's money. If they have £1000 left over then their benefit next year should be reduced by £1000

[dothawkes31]

someone correct me if I am wrong about the way this will work, but I certainly hope I am not, will the benefits agency ask for all the paid benefit back out of the 200.000 compensation payment? The other thought I had was that £15 a week saved isn't that much really, and they only started saving in May when they managed to hike their benefit by 16K a year cos of twins (how does that figure break down i wonder? same housing costs, same heating etc, only change would be child benefit and the 2 extra child benefits) anyway, 8 months at £60 a month is £480 not £1000. Something isn;t adding up here. It doesn't say how much their rent is either, in Kent in the house they describe, i.e 4 bed (and looking at the exterior on the photo) is probably £1000 - £1500 a month rent, they have to have rent for a private landlord paid to them, it could be that the house is in the family and they are not paying as much as they are claiming.
It stinks and I hope they are made to pay some back when they get the compo.

[Oneeyedvic]

Boo - ///Can see where you're coming from OEV, but if we work hard for our money why the hell shouldn't we have those luxuries? ///

You can - I make decisions all the time about what I can or can't afford. I am going to London in the new year and wondering whether I should buy some Show tickets or if that money would be better spent on a nice shirt to wear on Chirstmas day. I can't afford both. I could elect not to buy as many clothes and save far more than £1000 a year. But it is something I enjoy.

I don't actually agree with the current benefit system. I would not give money to people on benefits but I would give them food, shelter and clothing.

However, I can't see that they have done anything wrong.

With regards to the payout that he may get, he will not have to repay any benefits, but it will effect any future claims (in the same way that if you got a job, you don't pay back benefits that you have claimed).

[squarebear]

"I don't actually agree with the current benefit system. I would not give money to people on benefits but I would give them food, shelter and clothing. "

I agree 100%. Just give them the basics. Anything else is a luxury that must be earned.

[Quinlad]

This debate usually comes to the same old quandary.

Would you rather:

a) a tight benefits system that gives NO money to people who don't deserve it BUT will also mean some people who genuinely need help are denied it?

b) a looser syetm that doesn't see the needy going without BUT does mean that some people you consider undeserving of benefits receive handouts?

Most people fall on one side or the other. Expecting a system that is perfectly fair and equitable in every individual case isn't realistic, sadly.

[squarebear]

Surely each case should be judged on its own merits?

[Quinlad]

Has anyone else noticed that no-one just 'works' anymore? Everyone claims to 'work hard'. Any family with someone in employment is described as 'a hard-working family'.

Does anyone in the UK have a relatively easy job? Anyone?

[dothawkes31]

ahhh, and so when he finallky gets his compensation pay out they will have to live off that and pay their own rent and council tax until it drops below the minimum amount you can have saved before claiming benefit, i think that is 16K isn't it? Bet they blow the lot in months,

[R1Geezer]

I'm with vic on this, in this situation they should be given what they need to survive, no actual money to spend of luxuries. Food, shelter, clothing. If the lazy barsteward gets a job then the state can meet him half way with tax credits etc as they do now. The only reasons this guy isn't working in some shape or form is economic, I don't blame him, it's the system that's wrong.

[ummmm]

I think the benefits system is good for genuine people but it should be reduced for every year you claim. If a genuine person loses their job they have a good system to fall back on while they look for another job.

[B00]

Was that aimed at me Quinlad?

I like to think that I personally "work hard" for my wage. I'm standing up 8 hours per shift, serving usually ungrateful, rude, miserable customers.

[Booldawg]

It doesnt matter if you work easy, medium or hard; you play by the rules. We drag ourselves out of bed and trudge off to our tedious places of work knowing damn well that every month we're keeping a family of scroungers in lottery scratchcards, own brand biscuits and white cider for a week.