Thanks you are so sweet.

My God, you all would have loved Margaret Thatchet...

It would appear most people here have been lucky enough not to need welfare.
Also the general sterotypical image raises its ugly head. Its the minority not the majority who abuse the system.

The majority of people on welfare are decent people who have the misfortune to be in their situation due to all types of circumstance. I am perfectly happy to help these people. From what I have seen of Welfare it is not such a great thing. Most people on it are on the poverty line, living hand to mouth and it becomes a vicious circle. The people I know on it do not delight from being given 'handouts' even though they themselves have been hard working tax payers in the past and these people attempt to help themselves through education, courses and such as is now obtainable.
Welfare is not an easy ride, not here down south.

The old saying never judge a book by its cover comes into play here. Be thankful that most of you have not had to deal with such.

Somebody sent me this via email, I figured this would be the best thread to post it on.
Sorry......no source


1995 -- In October, New York City police arrested Herbert Steed, 63, outside his $4,000-a-month Trump Tower apartment (he was preparing to buy a $5 million home in Rye, N.Y.) and charged him with welfare fraud. For the last three years, Steed was receiving $88 a week in welfare payments by claiming he had no assets or income. Said the district attorney, "The ... welfare payments he collected just about covered his health club dues."

That man was wrong. This is sad.

I really hate these stories about welfare fraud on such a grand scale, it hardly ever happens when looking at all those who take welfare!

I didn't think it was so widespread either until one job I had. Four out of the twenty people that woked there were talking about how to scam the government for money that they "deserved".

One of them had three children that her parents were raising and she was receiving benifits as though they in her custody. She didn't give any of the money to her parents because they disn't "need" it. Another filed chapter 13 every time she could and still managed to buy new funiture every few years. A lot of the people I see with food stamps are buying better cuts of meat than I am and weigh three times as much as I do.

I see the abuse every day.

Welfare is good for those who are left holding the baby and for those who try so hard to find work but cant

Where I come from, a lot of women find it hard to raise kids and keep up a job at the same time, it's not easy for them, and a lot have found it hard to give up their work to look after their kids untill their kids where old enogh to be at school, so then the mother can get herself a part time job and home on time for the kids to return from school.

As for the lazy sods that don't care for work, they should be put on a employment scheme and had to report to the employment office at least 3 times a week, as proof that they are looking for work.

I am thankful I have never had to live on welfare, but if I had to, I wouldn't complain, but I would do my damndest to get back to a working enviorment...but hey thats just me!!

What's the odds he got a clip round the ear, and was told not to do it again?

Is there no one else even slightly left wing on this site?!

This has nothing to do with being left or right...it has to do with experience and what I have personally seen and heard.

Of course political views are involved!

Seeing as how you don't know what my political views are, don't lump me in with the right wingers. My views on this situation have nothing to do with politics, it has to do with abuse of the system.

Of course there are users and abusers...it happens in every society with a welfare system; and yes, they need to be sought out, named and shamed, not least because they expose the majority of, and genuine claimants to such wrath as seen in this thread. It's all very well to moan about women producing prolific offspring, but at the end of the day the children, who are innocent, must be fed and clothed! The problem lies far deeper than welfare handouts...responsibility of parenting, parental priorities, poor education, social unfairness, minimum wage etc etc etc..where does one start to make order from chaos in a capitalist world? We have to look to other areas....to prevention of need rather than cure...

...and immigrants? The majority of immigrants have come from war-torn countries, third world countries, from countries under despotic rulers etc...many come in fear of their lives; have lived through traumas we could never comprehend, have lost every single thing from family members to material necessities...have known what it is to starve from want of a crust of bread...experienced gangrene, hypothermia, disease, exhaustion just from trying to make it through another day, and so much more..we are so rich compared to them...we have it all, we have so much...can't we just be willing to give a little to someone, who but for the fact of geographical birth could so easily be you or I? For the want of a little imagination, to walk a mile in a refugees shoes, damn it all...what would it take?



Excuse me Mr Ed...perhaps you didn't notice this post of mine, one of many in topics I have posted on such themes!! But then quite a few males in UM don't reply to posts if they originate from females...I guess chauvinism is still rampant!

My Mother in-law once asked me why I would want a job? When there was a perfectly good benefit I could be going on. And she was seriuos.

I live in a country were I would say that 85% of those people on a benefit are defrauding the system. I know a solo Mum who breakfasts at one of our top restaurants two or three times a week, eats out there a few nights as well, drives an almost new 4wd vehicle, owns property which isn't quite under her name and helps her partner run his very equitable buisness. Poor thing.

I also know many people who actually set themselves the goal of getting on a sickness benefit, becuase once you say you can't work because your sick you get an extra so many dollars a week and you can't have your benefit removed.

The problem with benefits is that if your off work you can live quite comfortably, you don't have huge petrol bills, you have time to shop for good second hand stuff and all those spare hours in the day make life quite cruisy.

The comment was not directed at you...

Lauren, that is a mighty big post. I simply meant that I liked the idea of a welfare system being in place, whilst many in the thread didn't.

Welfare, when used properly is a good thing. Any of us can loose everything and need help. It is the abuse of the system by the minority that gives it a bad name. I definetely think job training should be mandatory. I even think that while a person is on welfare they should be forced to use birth control.

I agree entirely...a welfare system is a fundamental necessity. Whilst some will inevitably abuse the system, others who are genuinely in need slip through the bureaucratic net.

ericraven...that would entirely bar the Catholic population from claiming welfare...a massive section of the USA! What would we do for them when they are in need??

Exactly, eric...if you can't afford the ones you have you shouldn't continue having them.

The girl in particular, that I told about that had the three children being raised by her parents, and I almost came to blows one day. She was holding one of the other girls newborns and said, " I want another baby...I miss having a baby!" I wasn't having a very good day and I thought my head was going to explode! I told her that I couldn't afford for her to have another baby!!! Needless to say, the situation went downhill from there, as you can imagine.

That is the kind of abuse that angers me to no end!

Who cares about the church when it comes to a government program? If your on welfare you cannot afford the kids you already have. You sure as hell can't afford new ones.

Amen!! You're preaching to the choir. Why do these leeches think, working taxpayers for pay for their kids?

Not all Catholics abide by the popes rules...no contraception I for one didn't...I waited untill I felt I could afford a baby of my own.

This type of thing does not just happen in the USA, it happens all over the world and where I come from in Ireland, the place is full of young teenage moms (mostly catholic) that sponge off the goverment for child tax credits ect.

Some women/girls have kids that are hyperactive (probably because they don't know how to controll their kids) and they use that as a way to gain more benifits from the goverment.

This man I work with, once told me what I could claim for, when I told him I felt it was wrong, he said - "Who's gonna know" This guy has the one son and each time he has claimed his son has some weird conditions, some we believe are made up, because the same guy is known for being a compulsive liar and uses the money to get his beer and drugs. The same guy once tried to get another person that is a friend of mine to pretend her son has autism because she had once said her kid was a lil hyper at times, so the guy told her to claim he has autisim wtf!!
He has sat up on his lunch break with a few others I work with, bragging about all the false claims he has put in for and bragged how easy it is to fake such things. This is the very same guy that cries about paying his tax dollars!

It's people like that I don't like.

makes sense

Becky's Mom..did you make a conscious effort to deliberately ignore this part of a previous post of mine, as one or two others have done, when quoting my last post? From previous posts of yours I had judged you to have more integrity!

...Of course there are users and abusers...it happens in every society with a welfare system; and yes, they need to be sought out, named and shamed, not least because they expose the majority of, and genuine claimants to such wrath as seen in this thread...

Actually no I didn't, in a way I was agreeing with you, then I went on to give an example of a guy I work with that loves the idea of claims and seeks benifits for his own needs & not the need of his kid.


Peace out


Beckys Mom

...and you couldn't beat me to the front line to expose that SOB, and others like him...


Peace

Actually here in Canada, Welfare was created to help support families who lost their bead earners in WWI. It was not meant to be used like it is being used today. (could say alot more, but it would be derogatory and type casting, so I will not)
But we should do like ( and I hate to say this) the Soviets did with their unemployed, make them sweep the streets clean of snow in the winter and mow grass and pick trash in the summer, to earn their welfare checks (unless they have severe handicaps, then they are excused).

(maybe allow free daycare to working mothers, or even train welfare mothers as daycare workers), but if anyone ever found dealing, using or even holding drugs, lose their welfare forever, receive triple sentences and lose whatever children they have. This might make some of these Crackheads around here think twice before they start.

Ohh trust me Lauren, I have been so tempted, in fact a few of us got together once and where talking about it, but then the guilt trip set in.

I have to return to work once my maternity leave ends, and when I do get back, if he rants on to me about benifits, I most likely will sock it to him, and make a report. My younger sister is in charge of child claims & benifits, she is the 1st person I would go to, I did however get her to look into such claims before.....must give her a call and see if she did this. But she can't do anyhting without 100% proof of his so called fraud claims.

What annoys me is there are people like him that do get away with it

and much like him brag about it...well someday that faceache will brag to the wrong person and BINGO he is off to the Cost of Del-jailieo

Go for it Becky's Mom...let's rout 'em out and make it a viable system..

Oh don't worry I will

I just remembered once when I did get tired of his yapping on about paying tax for this and that, and at the same time how he can manipulate the system.
He saw a scar on the palm of my hand ( a lil touch of dermatitis I have had for years, that comes & goes) and immediately he told me to put in a claim for it and told me I could get just over £1000! I went on to tell him that I have had it for years, he told me not to let on I have had it so long and to pretend to my doctor I may have caught it in my present job. I am in kitchen sales & design, how on earth could I catch it, what could I tell my doc, that I caught it from the use of my .....keyboard?!!!wtf

He went on to tell me he has a book at home that contains a number of ways you can catch it and that he would bring it in for me, of course I told him what he could do with his book and just at that moment my boss came over to chat with me, when she asked as to why I look a lil cheesed off, I told her. She shook her head and said that nothing that that guy says surprises her anymore, and I agreed to ignore the SOB.

He used to leave us in the lurch all the time at work to run home early and had made one too many feeble excuses, saying his kid or his wife had taken ill, and at times he used to get confused as to who was sick and who wasn't. Someone reported him once after he had claimed his wife had taken a mini stroke, his wife was spotted in our store a few hours after he had rushed home (his football team where playing that same day) and finially he was taken into the managers office and had his hours cut big time LOL

So it's only a matter of time before he wind up in the slammer for his fraud claims too

This people is a prime example of the type of thing we pay our tax dollars for!!!

Undeniable blatant fraud! But I'm confused...don't these people have to prove their claim? I understood that someone from welfare visits in order to check out these claims...am I mistaken?

Apparnetly because his kid is a lil hyper (like a lot of kids) it in some way is a form of autism so for all I know he could have had his kid play up on their visit to the doctors office!!

There is a young woman that lives a few mile from me that was reported to have had her 3 yr old drink lots of orange drink that needed to be diluted as it can cause diabetes and fed her nothing but candy, and had told her kid to reach for the tube of smarties when the doctor shows up. This of course was to claim another benifit from the goverment.
She was later found guilty of fraud benifit and cruelty to her child.

Serves her right!

Good grief! Words fail me....

sh'yea it does serve her right!


being in the medical field, I have seen many things like this. Some suprising, some not so suprising.

I have never met so many people -excited- to be on disability in my life

See, this is related to something I said in an earlier post...we have to change the way in the thinking, of the next generation. Teach them early to strive for goals in life, not to exploit others; give them a sense that they don't need crutches...they can go the extra mile...

Of course, I am speaking of the fraudsters, not those genuinely in need.

I understand what you mean, and there are a lot of people out there (as you know) that do give themselves that extra push to be able to work like the rest of us, and I admire those people. I was once involved in a car crash many years ago and was told I may not be able to walk again, this got me so angry and I worked my butt off untill I was able to walk again and I am so glad I stuck it out and never gave up hope. It sickens my happiness to see people claiming for the slightest thing.

The Simpsons to the michael out of this sort of thing, the episode where Homer looks up ways to work from home and finds that by gaining more weight, this classes him as disabled!!!

You know what, if there was a way to stop paying tax dollars due to the vast number of fraud claims ect, I would be one of the 1st to stop it, but unfortunately I can't.



Have you ever been tempted to report them?...anonymous call perhaps?!! As I am sure this type of thing sickens the hell out of you each time you see it happen.

In my opinion, people that are happy with the fact they got away with such stupid excuses for disability allowances make me so angry. As there are people out there that are disabled and still have a job to go to, not to forget those that are badly disabled and cant work and it frustrates them

What about the children of the mother who kept making moronic decisions, should they have to suffer? The children were just born into a bad situation, it’s not their fault their mother forgot or dose not know how to use contraceptive. Maybe she just decided to have another child to collect one more welfare check.

Even if the state dose decides to take the children away, if there are no family members willing to take them in, they’re not in a much better situation. Either way they’ll just grow in an environment knowing how the welfare system works, and soon they’ll be collecting welfare checks. In the end it’s just going to cost taxpayer more money.

The question is, how to stop the cycle of deadbeats?



Someone needs to look out for the children, It’s not the child’s fault their mother is a deadbeat moron. If the state ignores them, the children as they get older could become on burden on society.



If this is true that drug addiction counts as a disability in New Jersey, the state needs to rewrite who qualifies for welfare benefits.

If a person is abusing drugs, it is probably no one fault, but their own. Why should the taxpayers pay for some drug addict's misery?



This has to be addressed. If a person or families are making more money on welfare then they would have working blue-collar jobs, they’re going to try to stay on welfare as long as they can.

Welfare should be six months to a year of financial support, then cut off. If one wants to continue collecting benefits, they would have to apply again in one year’s time.



It is irresponsible when couples are having children while on welfare. All the couple is accomplishing is making life harder on taxpayers, state, society and themselves. It shows a lack of common sense and the well being for other.

I have thought about it, but really if I do (and this is sooo selfish of me, but true) it takes away from my job

so I'm kind of stuck between my job and knowing "whats right"

Working blue-collar couples with families who struggle to make ends meet, should qualifies to get some sort of state assistants. We should have a society that help’s their citizens and legal residence.



It is irresponsible when couples are having children while on welfare. All the couple is accomplishing is making life harder on taxpayers, state, society and themselves. It shows a lack of common sense and the well being for other. Until there is a plan to discourage welfare couples from having children, society will continue to suffer.