Work harder, millions on welfare depend on it!


It's crap they get paid for doing nothing yes there are people who really need it but 90% of those on welfare are very capable of working! I'm sick of paying for them to do nothing.

Agreed. Welfare is so damn easy, and given the choice, why not take the easy option......

Wellfare was, very unfortunately, founded on a very lovey duvy ideal that only those who needed it would go after it, that those handing it out would be sensible in what cases they awarded, and that nobody could ever even consider exploiting it...which obviously isn't what happened

I just don't believe in wellfare at all outside of people who are actually unable to work for health reasons. The only people the state should be giving money to are pensioners and the physically handicapped (and there should be very tight restrictions on who is allowed to claim such a handicap).

For everyone else, I simply propose we stick with job seeker's allowance...if you're out of work, then you can earn a baseline sum (probably bellow minimum wage) so long as you can, on a weekly basis, provide satisfactory evidence that you are in persuit of work. If you are still employed six months later, then it shall be concluded you are not trying hard enough, and the allowance will be withdrawn. If you fail to hold down your new job, you will not be allowed to claim allowances again for another year.

No more of this garbage where people spend their entire lives living on other people's money, despite being perfectly healthy...or of idiot girls who can't keep their legs together having sixteen kids, and leeching off the state because they can't afford them...take the bloody kids off them and sterilise them. Problem solved.

Seras has a valid point.. in fact if you are wanting to leave your country and start a new life in the promised land, come to the UK we have a great free benefit system.

We seem to attract many Eastern Europeans, Africans, Pakistans, Indians.. etc etc etc... come over here and you will never have to work a day in your life.

I agree with Seraphina completely. Here in NJ you have to be actively seeking work or going to school/training in order to get benefits -- at least for new applicants.

To extend those excellent guidelines -- NO extra money for any children conceived or born while on welfare.

Disability is too easy to get around here I think though. I knew a guy who was on full disability for a back injury he sustained supposedly working as a garbage collector. He was perfectly able to move small boxes and stand around at a flea market all day however. Here, drug addiction can be considered a disability as well. NJ actually has some ex important government worker who couldn't shake her drug habit so she now receives full disability plus her pension for working for the state -- even though she was on drugs the whole time.

Welfare is a joke. When I was in college I worked in a grocery store and I remember seeing these people coming in with food stamps, and when I would help carry out their groceries, they were driving EXPENSIVE cars. There has to be a better way of doing things.

I think welfare, affirmative action(depending on how it is used), and the loose immigration laws is a conspiracy to control social, political and economic mobility of the middle class.

There are three main things that need to be said in response to accusations that benefits foster dependency.

The first is that welfare does not substantially affect unemployment. It’s not benefits: it’s the economy. In the depressions of the 1870s and the 1920s, people didn’t work because the economy was depressed. Many critics blamed the Poor Laws, in much the same terms as people blame the welfare state now.

This was obviously wrong, partly because the Poor Law offered abysmally low levels of support, but mainly because whenjobs became available, people took them. Social security remained available throughout the post-war period.

If increasing long term unemployment has anything to do with welfare, one would need to explain why it grew only thirty years after the system was introduced, and did so when benefits for unemployed people became relatively less rather than more generous.

Long-term unemployment mushroomed because of the collapse of traditional patterns of employment, particularly in manufacturing industry, and not because of welfare.

The second response is that the problems are created by systems focused on the poor. In so far as there are inducements to dependency,they are produced by systems that require people to be poor as a condition of receiving benefit.

If benefits are conditional on low income, a person whose income increases either loses the benefit, or has it withdrawn. This is the “poverty trap”: the highest marginal rates of tax in Britain are experienced by poor people, because of the combined effect of tax and benefit withdrawal. These problems do not occur with universal benefits like Child Benefit.

The third response, and in some ways the most important, is that the general argument doesn’t apply anyway. Welfare does not foster dependency. There are some people who do stay dependent for very long periods – pensioners are the main example – but the vast majority of claimants do not stay on benefit for the long haul. It is not impossible for people to stay on benefit for a very long time; it is just rather unlikely.

People can cheat benefits so easily it's scary. Also there was a case I read in England were the man wasn't bothering to find work because apparently if he did find work he wouldn't be earning enough to support the family. His wife was popping kids out as if it was going out of fashion *never* used birth control!! They had something like 12 kids and a couple of grandkids!!! And to think are money goes towards paying for lazy people like this!!!!

In Fact it is very hard to "cheat benefits". Many checks have to be gone through before a benefit is awarded, and checks are made all the time while the benefit is being paid.

It is a tabloid myth that makes it seem that everyone on benefits are "cheating", "won't work because they will earn less", or that women are "popping out kids like they are going out of fashion."

The problem is not that a small minority make false benefit claims, but that when they are caught, the penalty is not sufficient.

Welfare should only be distrubeted to people that are handicapped.

The whole system imo is abused...people that are on disability yet they can go camping, four wheeling, paint their house, etc,.... While I know a man that has only one arm and he refuses to take any handouts, works as a cashier and takes odd jobs raking leaves and the like. I don't even need to get on this subject.

As someone in that boat, I can adamently claim that this is not the case

yari you got valid point...however if say you were in same place as those would you be happy With Ur remark?....old,sick,unhelped and single parent are them...not just common ppl as you think.

Some need it and some abuse it . . . an age old debate!

There have been those who tried to overhaul the system to better suit the needs of those in need. But there are always cracks and loopholes where the system can be faulty.

I have kinda mixed feelings about welfare. I work for the local Health Dept. here and I see both sides all the time. I've seen the family where both mom and dad are working 2 jobs each and still not making it. Then I've seen the family where mom has had kid after kid and is expecting every thing to be handed to her. I just wish there was a way to keep the abusers out.

I am pro Welfare, when used properly.
People who commit welfare fraud are some of the lowest of the low.

ya know what is even worse than people who use welfare...and I mean use as in...abuse it...

the blue collar worker who makes too much to get any help and isn't rich enough to pay for all their own benefits

wow. I agree.


wow. half full, half empty.

I would say it: "I am against welfare, except for when it's necessary"

but it amounts to the same thing?

People who commit welfare fraud, and people who abuse capitalism are the lowest of the low.

I just get this sense that "the two sides" are really on the same side, want the same things, just the expression is vastly different. Everyone hates the Users, but we seem to Cater to them!

There are very few people on welfare who commit welfare fraud -- all of you are talking about it like it's the majority.

Most people do very much need it, otherwise they would be on the streets. You should be happy to live in a society where you can have some help should you ever need it. And welfare is no fortune -- for most people it's barely enough to pay even the lowest of rents.

Most areas DO have programs to help people on welfare or employment assistance get jobs. These are not all people who don't want to work. Sometimes circumstances can be difficult, and no one here is in a position to judge.

Maybe abuse is more widespread in the US than it it elsewhere. I see many teenagers with children that will flat ought say that they don't have to finish school because their momma don't have to work and she git along just fine. The have no intention of trying to make something of themselves, because they know that the govenment is going to house, feed, cloth and provide medical. They've seen it all their lives and know how to work the system.

read my comment carefully....
i dont agree with those who abuse it.

Although I was never in a situation quite so extreme...I do remember when I was looking for a job I absolutely refused to go on the dole...the idea of stealing money out of the pockets of other taxpayers absolutely sickened me.

I'd rather have a job...any job...than be on wellfare. It's a matter of self respect, and pride, in being able to say I'm doing an honest day's work.

I don't hate the users of welfare, I dislike the people who abuse the welfare system and break the law.

semantics Mr. Ed. Your Abuser is my User.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=user

user

n 2: a person who uses something or someone selfishly or unethically

This is the point I trying was make of "abuse"...thankies michelle

it really isn't abuse, it's more.....laziness if you ask me

Laziness is the bottom line problem behind most every wrong with the way things work now. It goes beyond welfare; people have developed an attitude of entitlement instead of realizing acomplishments should take effort. It starts with people like the Paris Hilton's of the world and goes on down.

I totaly agree, and see it around me everyday, it makes me mad. Australia have the right approach.

Whatever happened to survival of the fittest?

I don't have a problem with those who are truly trying to better their lives and need help, but let me give you an example of what I do have a problem with:

My husband's youngest sister is married with two children. Every person in my state paid for her babies, she is on ACHSS. Her husband is a fulltime student who is living off of his grandfather's trust fund. They own a brand new house. They have two very nice cars, one they paid cash for that cost 9K. They receive food stamps, that my tax dollars pay for. She refuses to work because of her migraines while she is pregnant and she doesn't want to put her babies in daycare. He doesn't work because he is going to school for a better life.

You know what? Glad you are going to school, but you should have thought about it BEFORE having babies on welfare.

Get off you butt, get a job. If you want an education, work for it, don't make me pay for it. Both my husband and I work to support our kids and our house payment and I am tired of high taxes to support people like these two who pop babies out like they are kittens because everyone else is paying for them.

Now, there are people out there that are trying hard to make a living and need help. We need to help those people. I am VERY thankful for what I have (which is not much) and I can honestly say I worked my *bleep* off for it. I don't enjoy working long days, I am fortunate to work out of my home so I can be here for my kids, but I would like to be nothing more at the present time than a full-time mommy. When my kids are older, that is a different story, I have plans. But I refuse to stand in line for a hand out when I know I am capable enough and intelligent enough to pay my way through life.

Money given to corporations costs you and I more. Not only that, but many who are on welfare do have jobs, they have to rely on medicaid and medicare because their miserly employers don't offer healthcare insurance. Private gain=public cost every time.

We do? I doubt that, highly.

Growing up in West Virginia, I saw the generational welfare families. They were lazy and had no ambition. My mom barely made above minimum wage and raised my brother and me. She refused to take any charity at all. So I think my disgust of those on welfare has a well founded basis.

New Jersey is a great state if you do not wanna get off your butt. When I go to Camden, which in fact is one of the smallest cities, with one of the highest crime rates in the country. The amount people who suck off the state is pathetic. Even members of my own tribe who are fully capable of working are "career" welfare recipients who know how to play this state's system to the nines. My own first cousin has been through 5 battered womens shelters (when she wasn't battered) and has been going on 15 years on welfare even though she is healthy as a horse. Then you have the 35'000 illegal mexicans with false immigration papers who you see in best buy spending their entire furniture voucher on a giant plasma TV. Welfare clothing and furniture vouchers should only be allowed in Kmart. Not for $200 shirts or $300 shoes or giant TVs
AAAARRGGHH! I do not wanna even get started on this. People wonder why I stay in the Pines..............


Lapi'che

I completely agree with what has been said so far, my husband works at a job that he hates to bring a wage in each week, i'm lucky that he brings in enough of a wage so i can study and take care of our two children, we have never claimed any benefits. i would be to ashamed to, and i hate the fact that when i take my kids to school in the mornings, i hear some of the other mothers who have a few kids hanging round their ankles, discussing where they are going abroad for their holidays, when me and my husband can't afford to take our kids on a proper holiday, you hear them complaining about how their benefits are late being payed, and complaining about housing and anything they can think of, and we make ends meet even though it's a struggle, just so they can have free housing ,medical and everything else when they are more than able to work. it makes me so angry

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?

Lauren, the majority of immigrants, that I've had the pleasure of knowing, are thrilled to get ANY sort of work and don't want handouts. I have no problem with people that need a few months to get back on their feet. My own sister, with a small child, needed assistance after her divorce, even though she worked two jobs. She now makes a VERY good living and that is what the system was designed to do.

I know the innocent children have to be fed and clothed, but those same innocent children have grown up and learned from their parents that they don't have to do a d***ed thing but have babies to get by. In my opinion, that is child abuse and they should not be allowed to keep those children under those circumstances. In fact, if it were up to me they would be sterilized and not continue to perpetuate those standards to their offspring!

Michelle, had you read my post more carefully, you would have seen that I didn't necessarily disagree with you! My point was that we have to turn to other ways to deal with this problem, and in other area's. ie: Change the way we educate and parent children, and deal with social problems sensibly, before people get to the age and state where they think that welfare is a panacea; but at this stage, what you are advocating, (taking children away from parents...) will do more harm to the children, (innocent victims) than it will to the parents, not to mention the cost to the tax-payer; and why penalise the children because of their parent's lack of education and principles?

There is an answer...I don't claim to know what it is right now, but radical solutions won't help.

I was ranting with you!

I know one of the heads of HUD, which offers low cost home ownership (for the people that don't know) and they have a great program. The people have to help build the house, take a money management class, pass drug tests and at least have a full time job. In the past ten years, in Chattanooga, they have only had to repossess two houses out of thousands.

I still stand by the fact that if people are having kids to get money from the government they should be sterilized and/or the kids taken away. It would send a clear message to the kids that it is not to be a way of life. That in itself would teach the next generation and therefore lower the tax burden in the future. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the people that are on welfare are drug addicts. If you are getting governments benefits, in my opinion, you should be subject to drug testing. If your sitting on your butt all day getting high you should be cut off.

Worthless parents create worthless children therefor perpetuating the problem.

I have vaguely heard of this program, and it sounds great; from what you say it is making great progress in helping those less fortunate!



Too radical...lets all find a compromise....



I'll meet you more than halfway on that one...lol




Not worthless Michelle...no-one is completely worthless; uneducated yes, lacking in morals and principals, misguided miscreants even...but never worthless.

well said lauren

I believe we could work together on this...

I have become a tad bitter in my old age.

lol We're both looking towards the same end...just from different angles; thats not a bad thing, at least we haven't gone to war on it!

Have you ever spoke to a single mom who needs Medicaid, food stamps, assisted daycare, funding for better education. If not don't say you pay for everyone who is capable of working can't do better. It is help. Of course people abuse it. But I applaud the tax payers and the medicaid that paid for my child's birth, the hospital visits and the visits to the doctr while pregnant. I applaud the system for helping me better myself as a human who can't always buy grocerys. I cannot help but say that I really feel some need this asstiance. If you feel that you are doing a diservice then just think about my daughter whose mouth you feed at her county paid daycare and the money that helped me bring her into this world.

That's perfectly fine, hun...as long as you have a plan, so that it doesn't become a way of life for you and your child. That's what the system is for.

Yeah but yall act as if some are deliberately trying to be on welfare. It is not as easy as you think. I can't get on it anymore. I was on it from when I was pregnant and a yr after and then I had insurance through her dad. It helps many people. I would be very upset if someone who said I abused it. It is not something so easily obtained.

If I did I would ask why she got knocked up in the first place. I'm sure the mob applauds those they extort money from also. I guess they have mouths to feed also so thats justification.

Holy poo, that is absolutely BARBARIC!!! Starve the kids because Mom and Dad are useless????? Absolutely not! I have seen many cases of abuse of the system, but not everyone is guilty of this!

what a nice and caring person....

Sorry, but if you're not a citizen, you have no right to money from the tax payers. Our taxes are supposed to take care of citizens. If this sounds cold hearted, too bad. If you want to help out noncitizens donate to a charity.