Benefit Cheats

I couldn't think of anything to write yesterday and then helpfully Mr. Cameron pops up and gives me something to put pen to paper for. The issue of cracking down on benefit cheats.

Now I am going to be charitable and say maybe the conservative Government have come up with something that will work. However history suggests that it will not. What all these crackdowns do is put off and catch the people in the middle. Not those who do not claim, not those who really are cheats. It catches the people who have genuine needs but are not as brazen as the actual cheats.

Its all very well stating the case firmly that people should work. We all know that. But the truth is in my job I have been to families where we are now in the third generation of people who have never worked. Not only does nobody in their family work but nobody else they know does. How do you start in a situation like that ? I don't know.

My suspicion is that what we actually do is pay these families just enough to live on so they will not cause too much of a nuisance to the rest of us. Pay them too little and the crime rate goes up and social workers and other people can't deal with the people they really need to help because they are too busy with the chaos they cause.

The benefits system was meant as a safety net and to a certain extent it still does that job but for some it has become a cultural lifestyle they are unwilling or unable to escape. A depressing post but there you are. We have an agreement and it more or less works, even if it doesn't. Take your money and stop bothering us.