Call me Brave

So Dave Cameron has been in the news today with his latest suggestion for tackling perpetual benefits claimants and that is to make them all do community work in order to get their wages (benefits). He is right that the benefits system needs a reform, however I am not sure this almost communist idea is the one that will do it.

Apparently benefits cost the UK £100 billion per year which seems like a lot, although I'm not really surprised when for those that are on benefits there is no incentive to try to get a job.

Benefits are the gold paving on the streets that many people crave. Get on benefits and you get all your dental and optometric care for free, you get a free house, a free car (in many cases as its cheaper than paying bus & taxi fares), free money and you can sit on your arse all day watching Judge Judy on Sky. If you aren't on about £20,000 you are probably better off on benefits when you consider all the free stuff you get.

Why would you get a job on minimum wage and be worse off than having no job? It doesn't make sense to me, and evidently not to those on benefits as they don't apply for jobs either. Indeed, a large percentage of those that apply for jobs in this area are Polish immigrants - it's the indigenous lazy Brits that are the ones claiming. People on benefits create jobs though - I daren't think how many civil servants are employed to administer the benefits system. In addition people on benefits create jobs for patronising wrong-righting, crime-fighting (maybe) talkshow hosts like Jeremy Kyle.

You have to bear in mind that people are on benefits either because they can't be arsed to get a job; they can't work due to disability; they have 5 million children by 3 million different partners or because they have criminal records, no qualifications and are on drugs.

They took an example of a mid twenties chav on the BBC News this evening and asked him what he thought of Dave's great new idea. He said he thought people on benefits already did community work and that many are on benefits because they can't get a job. He was obviously on drugs.

I have trouble being sympathetic to people like him because he ruined his own life by getting a criminal record and by skipping school. The result being a youth with no aspirations and no qualifications that is a drain on society. The kind of person that probably aspires to go to prison in order to get a better life. Making him do community work for his benefits wont solve the root cause of this guy's problems, wont make him any more appealing to an employer and wont make him any less of a drain on society. He will still be an unqualified convict.

I guess Dave is thinking that if those on benefits that are doing the community work they might think "hey! I could be doing the same amount of work in a proper job and get paid more!" Unfortunately when you get a job you lose all the stuff you were getting for free as well.

Dave also said he plans to punish people that refuse to work. How? He's not going to let them starve or kick them out of their council houses, so whats the plan? Send them to jail? It costs the state 40 grand a year to jail a single person but in this age of crazed judges that dish out completely bizarre sentences such as giving people that are a danger to society a community sentence and jailing an old lady for not paying her Council Tax I would not be surprised if jail was the threat.

I'm sure many on benefits would be glad to go there.