I live in the most socially deprived part of the UK and have worked in the social care sector for almost 30 years. I can assure you that the vast majority of people living on benefits will choose the welfare of their kids and family over the other stuff. Misuse of money and resources is a human nature at all levels, right from the tory wastage of 10s of billions to their friends down to the sloppy parent that prefers a bottle of vodka and a new i-phone over their kids’ dinner; and i know plenty of them too.
t’s just easier to push the narrative about the sloppy parent though when the media that control that narrative are your friends.
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Grumpy? Grumpy my hole. I couldn’t be happier mucker.
I could give you hundreds of examples of people struggling to make ends meet who go without stuff to put food and basics on the table for every one i know that prefers the i-phone and the vodka. I don’t have a narrative, i just don’t like people cherry picking examples of the worst cases to tarnish a whole sector of our community. It’s what bigots do.
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Yesterday I read an ipsos mori survey from 2013 that indicated that the true figure of fraud was for every £100 of benefit paid, about 17p! respondents to the survey had thought the figure was about £34. I would imagine that the figures are probably somewhat similar now.
This obviously doesn’t capture genuine entitlements that are spent on things they shouldn’t be.
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I could tell you stories about the billionaires I meet everyday…
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Pales into insignificance when you consider government corruption and cronyism in the last 12 months.
Yet again they have managed to turn our focus from where the real issue is.
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The majority do, no argument there and I’ve never said otherwise. My objection is to those who perpetuate the lie that children going hungry is the government’s fault. They could ensure it never happens by implementing a voucher system. I just don’t see why anybody considers this to be a bad idea.
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I wasn’t tarnishing anybody except the two in my example. I don’t do the stereotype bigot thing as it’s at odds with the bulk of my experience. There are always exceptions to the norm. The key is to legislate to protect their kids.
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Sometimes it is though. Rashford wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing if it wasn’t.
It all stems from the bottom being defined (by government) so low that actually surviving is not that easy. Is that right in a modern society and a so called wealthy state. Daily Mail would say it is!
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Should have been made of coal.
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Would agree with that if ID cards applied to everybody. It would make life considerably easier.
( quickly ducks, grabs coat and exits 
)
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This constant chopping and changing is absurd.
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If you read my previous comments,if the supermarkets were involved/consulted it would be better.
People could be given a choice of say five different boxes which would include suitable dietary items,or 10 boxes whatever.
But what do I know I’m not a politician and have been known to make very little sense on times.
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If you’d look into this subject beyond ‘I saw someone in a food bank with a smart phone’ you’d know that’s only true in vanishingly small numbers.
But I don’t blame you for thinking that, after all there has been a deliberate strategy to create this myth over many years.
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Yep, that sounds about right.
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I would imagine that the 17p out of £100 is accounted for by a disproportionately small amount of people as well, professional fraudsters. Individuals who have made numerous fraudulent claims so that the number of fraudulent benefit claimants by number is not in proportion to the amount of benefit fraud by value.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, 17p out of £100 paid in benefits has been paid due to fraud and put that as a percentage (0.17%). I would strongly suspect that the number of benefit claimants that are actually committing this fraud would be far less than 0.17% of those claiming. Obviously this would vary significantly depending upon the benefit being claimed (disability benefit and housing benefit are particularly vulnerable to fraudulent claims).
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Myth? Put your fingers in your ears all you want. The reality is not what you like, I get that. But don’t call it a myth, that’s just making shit up in the face of evidence. Why is Rashford doing what he does? Why do we have food banks?
Anyway:
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Meanwhile…
In June 2019 HMRC published revised estimates, which put the tax gap at £35 billion for 2017/18, representing 5.6% of total tax liabilities. [
Source:
But that’s all right.
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Ole Moggy’s been busy!
You’ve fallen for their trap, I didn’t see anybody bringing up benefit fraud except those claiming it’s tiny. Moving the discussion away from child hunger being the fault of parents is much easier than addressing that problem.
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I’m sorry to break this to you, but you seeing a couple of women and coming to a snap judgement about their pushchairs is not evidence.
The reason we have food banks is because people genuinely cannot afford to feed their families. If you think think that it’s because those people en masse are prioritising Sky telly and Mobile Phones over their own children’s food, I can only suggest you urgently seek help for Daily Mail addiction.
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