Tories and unemployment benefits | Forum

Merrick Aug 13, 2008 15:42:42

David Cameron says he wants to emulate the Wisconsin system of welfare benefits.

Johann Hari looks at what that actually means - compulsory work for anyone with kids over three months old and, most frighteningly, a maximum of two years unemployment benefits. not as in 'two years non-stop in any given claim period', but as in 'two years when you add it all together for your whole life'.

If you have two years out of work in your late teens, work for 30 years and then get made redundant when you're 50, it's soup kitchens for you.

It cut the number of people on benefits by 80%, says Cameron. That's because they're too scared to use up their claim, so they're blagging off their families or begging on the streets.

In a world where there's more people than jobs (1.6 million unemployed in the UK and rising) it's cruel and insane to treat unemployment as a criminal offence.

pooley Aug 13, 2008 16:29:50

Replying to Merrick

It is an awful thing to treat unemployment as a crime, and should be fought all the way. It is, however, also a crime to treat unemployment as some kind of career choice. I know loads of people who wont get a job as they are better of on the dole, and one of them told me he was proud that he had taken more out of the system than he had paid in - tosser.....

head-first Aug 17, 2008 17:22:56

Replying to Merrick

Cameron's greatest talent is for acting. He's the consumate modern politician, who is sincere about nothing but the need to achieve power and hold on to it. To do that he'll appear to offer something for everyone, while spectacularly reverting to Tory type if elected.

How to sum him up? Look no further than the big black gas-guzzler that tails his bicycle. Even his daily commute is a spin-job.

sttomas Aug 18, 2008 20:13:40

Replying to Merrick

A friend of mine was on about this a while back, it's a really bad idea, and singling people out has never been a vote winner in my recollection. My friend, who is currently unemployed is doing a course in business management so he can set up his own company (he does gig promotion). I don't see this as doing fuck all all day, admittedly it may not be everyone's idea of a good little earner, but it's what he has a passion for, and therefore makes him more productive.

What surprises me about this thread is the general surprise that the tories might have actually been above doing something like this! It'll be the workhouse for the lot of us before long!!