So is darling trying to capture the workshy layabout vote?

[R1Geezer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk..._politics/8405028.stm
Here we are right up the pictures in debt, so what's the obvious solution? Increase the amount of free money we give to workshy layabouts! Cynical, even for Noo Labour?

[jake-the-peg]

Let's do some maths with the options

Take a civil servant earning an average wage of £30K - Osbourne sacks him in the process of "shrinking whitehall by a third"

He saves £30k

Only he doesn't - does he?

Because he'll be losing nearly a third of that in lost income tax and national insurance - he'll also probably have to pay job seekers allowance and other social services

Then that person will spend much less reducing the money being made by everyone from his local Newsagent to Tesco to the petrol stations etc.

The economy shrinks more.

He'd be lucky to save 30-50% of what he actually claims to save - the economy will shrink back into recession and things will get worse.

He claims this is to keep interest rates down to help the recovery - but interest rates are already at an all time low!

So why does Osbourne really want to do this - he's not actually as stupid as he seems he must know this.

Well small Government is an article of faith for Tories. This just gives him an excuse to wield the knife whilst blaming his inheritance - the fact that we will be catapulted into a deep recession can be blamed on others whilst he restructures.

There is a reason that none of the other European countries want to do this - everybody else is holding off until 2011 - The Tories alone want to start slashing now.

And if you're thinking "I'm all right I'm private sector" - ask yourself how many of your employer's customers are public sector and how they'll cope without them

[R1Geezer]

well thanks for that jake, what has it to do with darling increasing benefit payouts? Blue Geezer badge is yours, wear with pride!

[socket2008]

R Geezer I know plenty of 'workshy' people. The majority are not. One guy has applied for 400 jobs and only one email reply offering an interview (it was cancelled at the last minute). The father of an ex owned his own company but the recession ruined it. After 10 months unemployed he is now earning £6 an hour shifting boxes for royal mail in the run up to christmas.

I hope that if you find yourself out of work you will do me the honour of calling you a lazy slob even though you have applied for 400 jobs without reply.

[R1Geezer]

another BGB awarded! is anyone going to answer the question rather than bringing up irrelevancies?

[Ankou]

given the claim that workshy layaboiuts have never had it so good since noo labour, why would he need to capture them into his bat wings ?

[daffy654]

Child benefit and disability benefits are available to people in work,so no,he isn't courting the vote of the 'workshy layabouts'.

I'm in receipt of DLA and am not working,I also get child benefit for my disabled 12 year old son.....who also gets DLA. My fiance supports us solely on his measly 13kpa wage and without those disability benefits I would have to move out of our home with our son and claim income support.I am unable to work due to genetic lung disease,I can't walk more than a few yards and am hospitalised several times a year with breathing difficulties.I have applied for jobs and been to interviews only to be told I haven't got the job as there were more suitable candidates.I am not workshy or a layabout.

[Gromit]

Your link relates to Child Benefit and Disability benefit. Everybody (with children) get Child benefit, regardless of whether they are working , unemployed, rich or poor.

Probably your stupidest assertion for a long time Geezer.

[youngmafbog]

Except we all know Noo labour use disability benefit to disguise the true unemployment rate.

So perhaps not so daft eh Gromit?

[youngmafbog]

In short to answer your question, yes he is, together with the elderly (who are likely to vote). why else in these dire times reduce Bingo tax, I mean to what benefit.
The Bankers bonus is another joke. Done for one year and he knows full well that they will find a way round it, but hey it appeases the thick masses who dont have a clue how the City works so must be good.

Blatent electioneering.

[Gromit]

youngmafbog

That is Incapacity Benefit.

Disability Benefit is awarded to people who are registered 'disabled', (they have been examined by a doctor).

[jake-the-peg]

Geezer You can have a Jake-blue badge in return for predictably failing to get the point.

So let me spell it out - the point is that this is a tiny part of an overall budget - a budget where the point is to keep government spending money to keep the economy recovering.

Your provocative labling of those on disability benefit is an insult to thousands of disabled people in this country - including I'm sure many ex-servicemen.

I hope you feel proud of yourself

[anotheoldgit]

daffy654

We come on here most days, and either post questions or give answers, and in the process enter into serious, and sometimes aggressive argument, with others.

It is only when we read something that turns what had previously only been a anonymous user-name into an actual individual.

I refer of course to your recent post daffy, I know before you say it, that you do not want sympathy, but forgive me if I feel extremely sorry for your situation, and I can't imagine the problems that you have to contend with.

Please accept my very good wishes, and hope that you, your partner and your son, have a very nice Christmas, and may 2010 be a year of better health, improved prosperity, also an all-round improvement in your job prospects.

[R1Geezer]

I'm not having a go at genuine cases, I'm talking about those that the governement use to disguise the real figures.

[Gromit]

//I'm not having a go at genuine cases, I'm talking about those that the governement use to disguise the real figures.//

Cop out answer of the day. Disability payments and Incapacity payments are completely different, as I have already pointed out. Your unprovoked attack on disabled people is disgusting.

[R1Geezer]

spare me the hysteria Gromit, you all know what I'm talking about.

[Sandy-Wroe]

Very few work shy people will be bothered to vote for Labour or anyone else.

[Gromit]

We all know that Incapacity Benefit is not set to be increased.
We all know that all working people with children get Child Benefit.

If this is your best example of Labour buying votes, then it is laughable.

[ludwig]

He's trying to capture any vote he can. The point is it's a con - typical of what we've come to expect.
Put benefits up before the election and then leave the Tories to be forced to cut them again when they get in.

http://www.independen...fits-con-1837534.html

You wonder whether ANYTHING that politicians do is actually for any other purpose than to gain votes or wrong-foot the opposition or make themselves look good or further their own careers. Do any of them actually give a sh1te about anything outside their own little political bubble?

[daffy654]

Thank you AOG and Zeuhl for your kind words.