Lazy, scrounging bastards

A report this week highlighted by the Daily Telegraph reveals that the number of households in this country where no adult has ever worked has increased to the highest level since the Office of National Statistics started keeping records 16 years ago.

There are now a staggering 370,000 households in the UK where no-one has ever worked, so this raises some simple questions :

(1) Are these people actually unable to find work or is it simply that they don't feel the need to bother?

(2) Is our benefits culture so out of control that people actually better off staying at home?

(3) How did these people get a home to lounge around in when hard working people can't get a mortgage?

To find the answers, look at the statistics. The number of these households has doubled in the last 15 years. That's 15 years predominantly under a Labour government. A Labour government that believes in redistribution of wealth.

Look at the number of people who decided to come off disability benefit when they were told that they would have to be medically assessed.

Look at the ridiculous Human Rights legislation that promises so much to those that know how to exploit it.

Look at the recent case of Moira Pearce in Gillingham who is hawking herself round local charities begging for handouts because she can't support her 10 children by four different men in her four bed roomed house in Kent on the paltry £31,200 a year she gets in benefits.

Yes, there are people out there with problems that genuinely deserve a helping hand. People who are trying their best.

And then there are people like Moira...

Lazy, scrounging bastards

A report this week highlighted by the Daily Telegraph reveals that the number of households in this country where no adult has ever worked has increased to the highest level since the Office of National Statistics started keeping records 16 years ago.

There are now a staggering 370,000 households in the UK where no-one has ever worked, so this raises some simple questions :

(1) Are these people actually unable to find work or is it simply that they don't feel the need to bother?

(2) Is our benefits culture so out of control that people actually better off staying at home?

(3) How did these people get a home to lounge around in when hard working people can't get a mortgage?

To find the answers, look at the statistics. The number of these households has doubled in the last 15 years. That's 15 years predominantly under a Labour government. A Labour government that believes in redistribution of wealth.

Look at the number of people who decided to come off disability benefit when they were told that they would have to be medically assessed.

Look at the ridiculous Human Rights legislation that promises so much to those that know how to exploit it.

Look at the recent case of Moira Pearce in Gillingham who is hawking herself round local charities begging for handouts because she can't support her 10 children by four different men in her four bed roomed house in Kent on the paltry £31,200 a year she gets in benefits.

Yes, there are people out there with problems that genuinely deserve a helping hand. People who are trying their best.

And then there are people like Moira...

Scrounging bastards!

Personally, it came as no great surprise to me to find that 75% of people claiming sickness benefits are fit for work or drop their claim before facing strict new tests. This country has become a haven for people who stick out their hands, sit on their arses and are too bloody lazy to earn a living.

According to DWP figures, of the 2.6million people on incapacity benefit, a total of 1.9million could work. A further 17 per cent were found to be able to work at some point with the right support. Nine out of 10 were capable of employment.

The government has implemented its plan to test claimants to ensure that the claims they are making are genuine. 39% of the people it tested were deemed fit for work, so they stopped their benefit. Unfortunately, this now means that these scrounging bastards now get Jobseekers Allowance instead - but at least that's not opened ended!

More disturbingly, a further 39% withdrew their claims before starting or completing the evaluation process. You can draw your own conclusions from that one...

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “The new incapacity benefit assessment is a much tougher test and is designed to save the Government money. It is therefore unsurprising that more disabled people have been declared fit for work. These figures certainly don’t suggest that thousands of disabled people are suddenly ‘trying it on’.”

You're quite Mr Barber. There's no 'suddenly' about it!

And the thing that makes me maddest about these scroungers is that there are people out there with genuine problems who need and deserve to be helped - and they are going to be tarred with the same brush and find it harder to get that help. The welfare state is fine in principal, but abuse like this just makes a mockery of it.

(You can read more about this subject in the Express by clicking here)

Scrounging bastards!

Personally, it came as no great surprise to me to find that 75% of people claiming sickness benefits are fit for work or drop their claim before facing strict new tests. This country has become a haven for people who stick out their hands, sit on their arses and are too bloody lazy to earn a living.

According to DWP figures, of the 2.6million people on incapacity benefit, a total of 1.9million could work. A further 17 per cent were found to be able to work at some point with the right support. Nine out of 10 were capable of employment.

The government has implemented its plan to test claimants to ensure that the claims they are making are genuine. 39% of the people it tested were deemed fit for work, so they stopped their benefit. Unfortunately, this now means that these scrounging bastards now get Jobseekers Allowance instead - but at least that's not opened ended!

More disturbingly, a further 39% withdrew their claims before starting or completing the evaluation process. You can draw your own conclusions from that one...

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “The new incapacity benefit assessment is a much tougher test and is designed to save the Government money. It is therefore unsurprising that more disabled people have been declared fit for work. These figures certainly don’t suggest that thousands of disabled people are suddenly ‘trying it on’.”

You're quite Mr Barber. There's no 'suddenly' about it!

And the thing that makes me maddest about these scroungers is that there are people out there with genuine problems who need and deserve to be helped - and they are going to be tarred with the same brush and find it harder to get that help. The welfare state is fine in principal, but abuse like this just makes a mockery of it.

(You can read more about this subject in the Express by clicking here)

The €10,000 donkey

I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Eric.

Yes, I do know that Eric is a donkey. In fact he's a Greek donkey. And it's not his real name, but he looked like an Eric to me and the name kinda stuck.

Eric lives in a field behind the apartment we rented in Ithaca. He's very friendly and he gets upset if you don't talk to him. A bit like Mrs D except she lives in a house...

Anyway, the point of this is that there is a donkey crisis in Greece. Apparently, there is a shortage. Partly this is due to the number of brides demanding that they ride to church on a donkey just like the girl in Mammi Mia. Honestly.

The other side to the problem is that Greek donkey milk is highly prized. Remember, Cleopatra used to bathe in it. Its milk has been used since antiquity as a cure of ailments, a substitute for breast milk and as an anti-ageing skin salve.

So the Greek government has hatched a plan. For every donkey you keep, they will pay you €10,000 a year. That's a lot of carrots in any currency. So Eric's owners get a big fat fee for him to stand in his field and beg off the passers by.

As benefits go, even Gordon never thought of this one...

The €10,000 donkey

I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Eric.

Yes, I do know that Eric is a donkey. In fact he's a Greek donkey. And it's not his real name, but he looked like an Eric to me and the name kinda stuck.

Eric lives in a field behind the apartment we rented in Ithaca. He's very friendly and he gets upset if you don't talk to him. A bit like Mrs D except she lives in a house...

Anyway, the point of this is that there is a donkey crisis in Greece. Apparently, there is a shortage. Partly this is due to the number of brides demanding that they ride to church on a donkey just like the girl in Mammi Mia. Honestly.

The other side to the problem is that Greek donkey milk is highly prized. Remember, Cleopatra used to bathe in it. Its milk has been used since antiquity as a cure of ailments, a substitute for breast milk and as an anti-ageing skin salve.

So the Greek government has hatched a plan. For every donkey you keep, they will pay you €10,000 a year. That's a lot of carrots in any currency. So Eric's owners get a big fat fee for him to stand in his field and beg off the passers by.

As benefits go, even Gordon never thought of this one...

A Nun's Vow of Poverty

OK. It's Sunday, so time for my regular look at the workings of religion - and, believe me, this one is a real piss boiler...

According to the Daily Telegraph, "A Benedictine nun who faces an impoverished retirement is challenging the Government's refusal to give benefits to members of religious orders.

Sister Mary Scott, 74, and one other nun run the Oulton Abbey community near Stone in Staffordshire, where they manage a small nursing home and playgroup, but she is getting too old to keep working.

Sister Mary has never been paid, so never paid National Insurance, and what money she makes goes on food and clothes.

A Government regulation excludes 'members of religious orders who are fully maintained by their order' from pension credits, but her lawyers argue that the abbey is not supported by the Benedictine order which has no central hierarchy. She has been given permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Her barrister, Stephen Knafler QC, said poverty was an 'endemic' problem facing the country's 5,000 remaining nuns and 1,400 monks, most now past retirement age."

Well of course it is, you stupid bugger! It's endemic because they take a vow of poverty! Although clearly in the light of the scandal of child molestation by priests, religious vows count for fuck all these days!

And another thing, if she has "never been paid", where did she get the money from to spend on "food and clothes"?

You two faced, hypocritical bastards! I hope that this is all going down in St Peter's ledger ready for your day of judgement. You make me sick, the lot of you!

A Nun's Vow of Poverty

OK. It's Sunday, so time for my regular look at the workings of religion - and, believe me, this one is a real piss boiler...

According to the Daily Telegraph, "A Benedictine nun who faces an impoverished retirement is challenging the Government's refusal to give benefits to members of religious orders.

Sister Mary Scott, 74, and one other nun run the Oulton Abbey community near Stone in Staffordshire, where they manage a small nursing home and playgroup, but she is getting too old to keep working.

Sister Mary has never been paid, so never paid National Insurance, and what money she makes goes on food and clothes.

A Government regulation excludes 'members of religious orders who are fully maintained by their order' from pension credits, but her lawyers argue that the abbey is not supported by the Benedictine order which has no central hierarchy. She has been given permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Her barrister, Stephen Knafler QC, said poverty was an 'endemic' problem facing the country's 5,000 remaining nuns and 1,400 monks, most now past retirement age."

Well of course it is, you stupid bugger! It's endemic because they take a vow of poverty! Although clearly in the light of the scandal of child molestation by priests, religious vows count for fuck all these days!

And another thing, if she has "never been paid", where did she get the money from to spend on "food and clothes"?

You two faced, hypocritical bastards! I hope that this is all going down in St Peter's ledger ready for your day of judgement. You make me sick, the lot of you!

Taking in easy, init?

Your host is once more in musical mode, celebrating the promissed Coagulation Government's crackdown on benefits.

Here's a little something for the weekend that I recorded with the Eagles. Enjoy!

Taking in easy, init?

Your host is once more in musical mode, celebrating the promissed Coagulation Government's crackdown on benefits.

Here's a little something for the weekend that I recorded with the Eagles. Enjoy!