Well, that is the headline in the Express and the Daily Mail carries a similar story with the headline "boom-time on benefits".
What the article in the Mail highlights is that about 140,000 families get more than £20,000 a year in benefits. The numbers in the Express are 20,000 households claiming more that £30,000 with a further 12,000 claiming more than £20,000 which does not seem to make a lot of sense.
The reports stem from parliamentary questions asked by Chris Grayling, the Conservative party's Work and Pensions shadow minister.
So there are a lot of people living on benefits that are better off than people on the average wage. The average wage being £25,000 a year, and curiously you would have to earn £27,000 before tax to get £20,000 in take home pay.
James Purnell's response? Well he and his department claim that a lot of these families are on benefits for disability. Really? How many? Does he know? Karen Mathews was on £400 a week in benefits, which amounts to just over £20,000 a year and I do not recall any of her children suffering from a disability (other than her mother that is).
This is clearly a patently ridiculous situation which seriously demoralises those of us who do work, have families and pay our own way on less.
The other bit of drivel that James Purnell came up with is that we do not 100% support the governments welfare reform plans. Specifically we don't think it is a great idea to start lone mothers training for work as soon as there children are 1 year old. No of course we don't that is nuts. We also don't support removing benefits from drug addicts if they are not attending treatment. I see. I wonder what they would do if they were not attending treatment and did not get benefits? Answer; crime. So James Purnell is clearly a bit of a pratt.
Showing posts with label Welfare Reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Welfare Reform. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Government to become loan sharks!
In what has to be the strangest policy move in history, James Purnell, work and pensions secretary, who has proposed controversial reforms to benefits, broadly supported by the Conservative party now wants to charge interest on loans from the Social fund at a staggering 26.7% APR!
After all the guff about banks cutting interest rates they want to raise theirs from 0% (for those on benefits in emergencies such as the cooker has just blown up and can I buy a second hand one) to nearly 27%!
Needless to say both Conservative and Labour and Liberal Democrat MP's think this is nuts!
The Mail on Sunday has this.
After all the guff about banks cutting interest rates they want to raise theirs from 0% (for those on benefits in emergencies such as the cooker has just blown up and can I buy a second hand one) to nearly 27%!
Needless to say both Conservative and Labour and Liberal Democrat MP's think this is nuts!
The Mail on Sunday has this.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
When will Frank Field come home?
I have for quite some time now had some admiration for Frank Field, MP for the formerly Conservative constituency of Birkenhead, and had indeed wondered if there was any chance he might defect to the Conservative party.
Thanks to an interview on BBC News 24's Straight Talk with Andrew Neil, I now know that he was originally a member of the Conservative party and child poverty campaigner.
What is more interesting also was that the Child poverty action group pointed out that under Harold Wilson's government between 1966 and 1970 poverty had got worse.
It seems clear to me that Frank is a very intelligent man. I would say he is a Conservative in the best traditions of the One Nation compassionate strand. However he is currently a Labour MP for Birkenhead.
What I found most interesting was some of his comments in the interview. I am currently reading his paper on New Deal. He will go on to publish papers on other areas of welfare and welfare reform. I suggest any one who cares about these things should read them.
Some remarkable observations were these:
From earnings of about £100 to £500 per week there is very little any one can do by their own hand to improve their standard of living. That is solely in the gift of the Chancellor.
Just go back and think about that. It is simply shocking.
A single parent with two children working 16 hours per week will get about £480 per week, after tax credits. A married couple with two children (he didn't say it but I presume both are on the minimum wage) would have to work 116 hours to get the same money. He is not surprised at how many single parents there are, but how many married ones there are.
On the Margaret Hodge affair, he was not surprised at what she said, he was surprised she was being attacked for telling the truth.
He pointed out that now the Bangladeshi community in Bermondsey was making exactly the same complaints that were being made 40 years ago by the white residents 40 years ago, that the welfare system favoured new immigrants.
You can find Frank Field's website here.
I do hope he rejoins the Conservative party. From my point of view, he would be most welcome.
Thanks to an interview on BBC News 24's Straight Talk with Andrew Neil, I now know that he was originally a member of the Conservative party and child poverty campaigner.
What is more interesting also was that the Child poverty action group pointed out that under Harold Wilson's government between 1966 and 1970 poverty had got worse.
It seems clear to me that Frank is a very intelligent man. I would say he is a Conservative in the best traditions of the One Nation compassionate strand. However he is currently a Labour MP for Birkenhead.
What I found most interesting was some of his comments in the interview. I am currently reading his paper on New Deal. He will go on to publish papers on other areas of welfare and welfare reform. I suggest any one who cares about these things should read them.
Some remarkable observations were these:
From earnings of about £100 to £500 per week there is very little any one can do by their own hand to improve their standard of living. That is solely in the gift of the Chancellor.
Just go back and think about that. It is simply shocking.
A single parent with two children working 16 hours per week will get about £480 per week, after tax credits. A married couple with two children (he didn't say it but I presume both are on the minimum wage) would have to work 116 hours to get the same money. He is not surprised at how many single parents there are, but how many married ones there are.
On the Margaret Hodge affair, he was not surprised at what she said, he was surprised she was being attacked for telling the truth.
He pointed out that now the Bangladeshi community in Bermondsey was making exactly the same complaints that were being made 40 years ago by the white residents 40 years ago, that the welfare system favoured new immigrants.
You can find Frank Field's website here.
I do hope he rejoins the Conservative party. From my point of view, he would be most welcome.
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