He couldn't handle the 8am starts and hard work and he wanted a cushy job with 12 weeks holiday and the freedom to go to major sporting events paid for by the taxpayer and to fiddle his expenses and abuse the Police.
Luckily we found him the perfect job ........ Member of Parliament

Haha what a tool. I honestly wonder what percentage of people on social welfare programs are like that. I'm guessing rather low, but I have known one or two personally.

Disgusting.

I think it's an actor calling in..

We currently have a propaganda campaign in the UK to convince the public that anybody who gets money in welfare benefits is a lazy scrounger who can't be bothered to get out of bed. It's quite offensive to a lot of people but I think the govt think they are being subtle and clever, it's a bit embarrassing.
Obviously it is a precursor to cutting benefits for the 'scroungers'.

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Forcing welfare recipients to only spend the money on a required list just means they buy them and resell them for money for what they want.

Another example of rich privileged people out of touch with the real world thinking up political solutions based on conversations they have had with other rich people at cheese and wine parties, I think we deserve more but then if we keep electing these morons maybe we don't.

Go nigee!

Is there any left leaning bandwagon you haven't jumped on lately, Nigee?

The government have been criticized a lot by the public in recent years for creating an environment in which benefits have increased at a faster rate than wages, and have to take action for the sake of fairness. As the UK has so many benefits in a painfully complicated system trying to reform it will effect a hell of a lot of people. Naturally the government are trying their upmost to make sure those least deserving (such as the prat on the radio) take the hardest hit, but it's impossible not to impact upon a lot of others.

Thankfully the zero tax rate for the first few thousand (rising to the first £10,000 soon) earned will offset a lot of the negative impact, and the new simpler and fairer benefit system will ultimately make life better for those struggling to work their way up.

@ Octavious - the issue of "benefits rising faster than wages" is a problem with WAGES, not a problem with benefits. Traditionally benefits have risen in line with inflation. That's fair and sensible as it ensures that the actual value of the benefit payments remains the same and is not eroded by inflation. It's the failure of wage rates to keep pace with inflation that's the problem - if wages were also rising by at least the rate of inflation, the fact that benefits were doing so would not be such a big political issue.

So what you actually need to ask is "why aren't wages rising in line with inflation"? One of the main answers to that question can be found in the public sector pay freeze which is a key part of the government's vicious attack on public sector workers. Osbourne, Cameron and Duncan Smith have deliberately attempted (with some success) to encourage friction between working people and those on benefits, in order to distract the public from the fact that it's their government which is causing so much of the pain people are experiencing.

That sounds like a Press Release straight from Conservative HQ.
I'm not anti-economic reality, I agree that cuts need to be made to balance the books. I just find the snide comments of the privileged belittling people who don't or can't work offensive and morally repugnant. There is such a thing as caring Conservatism, the current govt cabinet is made of spineless Liberals and arrogant toffs. Humility, especially when in positions of great power, never hurt anybody.

That was to Octavious, right Nigee?

@Jamie

Is there still a pulic sector pay freeze going on? I work in the public sector and our pay freeze stopped some time ago.

You're largely right that one of the problems is with wages not rising fast enough, but that doesn't stop the perception, and indeed the reality, of unfairness. It also doesn't stop our current benefit system being painfully unweildy, full of holes, and not fit for purpose. Economic problems or not they should be reformed. And economic problems mean they must be cut.

@ Nigee

It is depressing that the left hides behind class insults rather than attempting to push forward viable alternatives. I suspect that the cheif reason for this is that they have no viable alternative, and if elected I'm willing to bet most coalition policies will be kept.

The left has no party that will be elected, new labour is not representative of the left, in anyway, at all.

@ Octavious: I work in local government and haven't had a cost-of-living increase for two years.

I would again contend that there is no "unfairness" whatsoever in the concept of benefits rising in line with inflation. Other things are indeed wrong with the system, it's over-complexity certainly being wrong with them. But you seem to be specifically arguing that keeping benefits in line with inflation is "unfair" - why is it unfair?

@ Jamie

When the wages of the vast majority is falling in real terms, for benefits not to is unfair. It makes working relatively less beneficial, which is fundamentally wrong. The UK is somewhat poorer than we convinced ourselves was the case a few years back, and we must tighten our belts accordingly.

@ Octavious: "When the wages of the vast majority is falling in real terms, for benefits not to is unfair."

Wrong. Address the cause of the fall in wages.

If benefits exist to ensure that all have acceptable living conditions then there a very few circumstances that justify them to fall in real terms - our current circumstance is not one of those. There are many cases of people being taken off benefits that deserve them and other failings of the benefits system; why make it harsher and less helpful when it is already lacking in quality?

@ Jamie

A cause of the fall in wages is that companies with not enough to do are keeping people employed instead of firing them, and there's only so much money to go round. Another cause is the government not being able to afford to pay for traditional wage increases in the public sector. Another problem is that in the boom period a lot of people were being paid far more than they really should have been, and an adjustment is being made.

Things will improve as the economy improves. In the short term the benefit bill must be cut, and to make the cuts as fair as possible the benefit system must be reformed.

@ Octavious
In times of austerity that we have now with zero growth and budget deficits the politicians should all be looking to cut costs and not just create budgets based on growth that is never going to happen. There should not be huge differences in what any political party is trying to do, left or right.
However, if we are to make cuts in any services I want to see it done by career professionals in that industry, not by self-serving career politicians who in the midst of this financial crisis vote for income tax reductions for the richest in our society, it is absolutely perverse and financially irresponsible to do such a crazy thing, it sends out all of the wrong signals.
I can't knock the Tories as they are doing exactly what I expect of them, looking after their own. The Liberals are the people who have sold their souls and I think come the next election the British public will pass judgement on the role the Liberal Party have played in this economic disaster. The Tories will suffer at the hands of their own right wing who don't like gays or Liberals or Europeans or foreigners, the Tories loss will be the UKIPs gain.
If Labour get a realistic policy on immigration and win back working class support from the BNP they should end up with a working majority, even with Ed Milliband as leader.