Benefits should be a safety net not a lifestyle choice
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Samizdata quote of the day – Down with dole bludgersDecember 27th, 2025 |
 8 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – Down with dole bludgersLeave a Reply |
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Fair enough Annunziata Rees-Mogg – I will take a job that you offer me.
Presently I have several jobs – including looking after a shop (I was working on Christmas Eve, and was working today, and will be working tomorrow), however none of my jobs are PAID.
I should have specified that I will take a PAID job that Annuziata Rees-Mogg offers me – I will NOT accept yet another unpaid job.
I have quote enough unpaid jobs already.
As for the table of numbers the lady presents – it is outside my experience. Whether for benefits or earnings – the numbers all seem incredibly high.
I have never in my life earned more than 15 thousand Pounds a year.
I am 60 years of age – so I rather doubt that I will be find a job paying more than 15 thousand a year, if there are any paid jobs at all (which is unlikely).
What sort of job pays a 100 thousand Pounds a year? Doing what?
And what person on benefits gets anything like the amount of money the lady suggests?
I am NOT saying the lady is being dishonest – I just can not think of anyone in Kettering (a town of 70 thousand people) who gets anything like these numbers, either in pay or benefits.
Perhaps there are such people – but I do not know them.
On the other hand – the food banks are well used (there are lots of hungry people), and there are also homeless people.
These numbers seem unrealistically high, and the comments seem to note she may have overstated things. However, I do think that one way to improve things is with the name. In Britain they are called “benefits” in the US the even worse name is “entitlements”. We should call them charity because that is what they are.
And, ideally, we should set up a fund, perhaps managed by the government (god help us) where people can contribute some amount voluntarily, and the benefits pool is capped by whatever is in there. Maybe I prefer to send my charity money to orphans in Ukraine, or to educate girls in Africa, or to help support the local animal rescue shelter, or to support victims of natural disasters or famines. If you think the indigent and disabled deserve more than the current level of benefits, convince me and I might send more, or redirect my priorities. There is a certain amount of charity money available, surely the people who make the money should get to prioritize it? That way we can have a safety net based on voluntary contributions, and the contributors can feel good about their generosity rather than harangued and threatened by the tax authorities and the recipients can gain the extra benefit of appreciation of the kindness of strangers rather than rage at their supposedly ungenerous government entitlements.
I thought about this when everyone in America was getting their panties in a bunch when USAID was heavily curtailed. We were told that people were now going to die of AIDS in Africa. But, it struck me that there are hundreds of charities helping with AIDS in Africa, if you care so much donation is easy, online with a credit card, and tax deductible. And unlike government “charity” nearly all the money from these charities actually goes to the victims. Government “charity” is notorious for its gross misallocation of funds — in a sense it is often a miracle if even one cent gets to the people who actually need it.
An American version of the problem:
In Minnesota, we have approximately 100,000 Somalis. Some came as refugees, some were born here in the last 20 years.
As of today, 78% of them live completely on welfare benefits.
Our welfare system has failed in its essential purpose.
https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/graph-does-not-show-foreigners-get-more-social-housing-than-britons-2024-08-27/
A fact-checking article from Reuters which, while not denying that the latest census shows 72.4% of Somali households in the UK living in taxpayer funded social housing, comes to the predictable conclusion that this is no big deal.
While it isn’t a brilliant solution, I have for a while thought it might be better in some cases for there to be a pool of public works type jobs available for those on welfare who are struggling with getting a new job. Anecdotally I know some people who have been on UC for a while trying to get a new job but despite trying aren’t getting one and they say they’d prefer almost any type of job (within reason) rather than vegetate on welfare. The longer you’re out of work, the more likely employers pass people over for interviews, making things worse. Even if it is a relatively economically unproductive job it would at least get them working, picking up good work habits, building soft skills etc, reduce gaps in CVs and so on.
While there are plenty of scroungers and lazy so and sos on welfare, it is an awful labour market in Britain thanks to terrible government policies and AI wiping out many entry level positions, so I feel for those trying to get work but not currently succeeding.
@Frazer Orr at 8pm
OK, this is the Daily Mail so maybe take with a pinch of salt (or a shovelful if you are particularly cynical) but …
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15388599/better-benefits-labour-analysis-graphic.html
I knew of a married couple who “separated” and each claimed to be a single household, the man renting a single room bedsit, the woman, now a single parent bringing up two children all on her lonesome (sob, sob, brave and stunning etc.) staying in the Council provided home, claiming benefits, well in excess of the pre split income.
Once the bureaucratic dust had settled, the husband moved back into the family home and carried on as usual, both of them claiming housing benefit, various assistance etc.
Remember that tale when you hear of cruel and wicked benefit cuts that will have children starving and being sent down coal mines, up chimneys and in general, back to “the bad old days”.