No it isn’t. The reason to bring up benefit fraud is because it is part of the same narrative that you seem to have swallowed. That poor people are thick scumbags.
The reason why their exists they narrative that child hunger is the fault of feckless parents is because if people understand that it’s not, then there is an obligation to sort it. And we can’t have that.
Child hunger being the fault of parents is, imo, fairly dismissive. I am sure that there are plenty of bad parents who are responsible for the neglect of children but I would expect that child hunger is due to circumstances beyond their parents control in the vast majority of cases.
Benefit fraud is something that sits separately to that although sometimes those two venn diagrams do overlap.
Lets not kid ourselves that there are no people out there who have no intent whatsover in working, and at every benefit payment the first thing on the list is Asda blended whisky. My own children went through this at the hands of their (working) mother.
There are also those in a genuine benefit and rent poverty trap, and a great many somewhere in between.
Its a complicated picture that no single position can fully explain. A venn diagram is about right.
There are also supermarket stakeholders sat right on top of the pile.
There are many different aspects to this.
But the most important one is benefits today are barley enough to live on. You might be fine if you live in cheap area and have a lidl or aldi waking distance.
But there have been times in my life were 75% of money coming in went on rent. If you wanted a council house it was a 2 year wait. The net result was significant proportion of jobseekers/child benefit went on rent.
Today a married couple gets just under £600 a month. The cheapest area in the uk to live is the north east. Average rent in north east is £539.
When you add electricity £100, basic transport like bus travel £20 it starts to get really difficult.
That’s why £30 makes a big difference.
Whichever way it gets sliced, kids in this country, one of the richest in the world, are going hungry…that’s really fucking not on.
Sorry, I think that’s beneath you and utterly wrong. I’ve swallowed nothing and simply don’t believe what you accuse me of. I SEE what exists in the world, not whatever fantasy you consider is spun by media sources about who’s concepts and morals you disapprove.
Having children is the greatest responsibility a person can take on. If that child is hungry at any point in its life, how can it possibly be anybody else’s fault?
I agree and have proposed a simple method to stop it.
Sometimes people are just unfortunate and life happens. They get sick, lose their job (for example due to Covid) , partner leaves. These are events that can not be predicted when having a baby.
Thats why benefits must provide a safety net.
Short of a famine, I would agree. I think the underside of what you are saying is often missed on here; which I think is this: Adults, especially with children, need to take more responsibility for their own livelihoods. Fully agree. Its at the heart of conservatism, and dare I say, the plane of nature. No welfare state in a log cabin hunting for food.
I come from an area of the UK where there are literally dozens of estates of people who actually have NO intention of ever working or contributing. The only labour they have to deal with is thinking about outwitting the DWP and how to come across their next scam.
Equally, As @ISMF states, the amount of State benefit paid is not enough; its not enough because of the above, and is a compulsion to get off of ones own arse.
What a horrible stereotype you paint. Bloody tory…
Just a point. If kids are going hungry you can often bet that the parents are as well.
Just a thought.
Anyway, there is only one word that underscores all of this hunger issue “CAPITALISM”; in capitals.
er…no, that isn’t true at all…
Well at least give a reason…
…it was the last time I heard IDS speak on it and it was he who reformed welfare benefits, so that going to work pays. Its the inverse of that.
I’m not really sure where to start to be honest. I think it is wrong on so many levels.
Whats wrong, that you can bring question without reasoning? Yeah it is. Its against discussion and that’s why were supposed to be here.
According to the government’s own statistics, for 2018-19 benefit fraud accounted for £2.3bn (1.2%) of benefits administered by the Department of Work and Pensions.
Even if all of this money was recovered and redistributed to the genuine claimants, it would not address the problems identified by @ISMF .
Not that it matters but I actually hadn’t realised the benefits budget was so large.
I can bring reasoning. As I said, I just don’t know where to start. While there will always be those who try to scam the system, they account for a tiny minority of overall benefit claimants and using them to justify cutting or paying reduced benefit payments is usually a sign that they either don’t understand the bigger picture or are just looking to scape goat others so that they can cut back on things they disagree with for political reasons.