Benefit Scroungers - What Can We Do?

I live in one of the UK’s richer areas and I have become used to hearing about the dreadful benefit scroungers and bloody poor people causing all this global economy crap, but on a recent visit to my family who live in one of the poorest areas of Wales I was staggered to hear the same old myths being peddled there too.

My family live in the Rhondda Cynon in South Wales. An area of high unemployment and lower than National Average Wages.

In the 1980’s the area was brought to its knees when the coal mines were closed and thousands of jobs were lost. There were no efforts made to provide these people with new employment opportunities and the “generations of benefit claimants” culture was spawned.

After dinner and having a nice chat with my elderly disabled aunt (who receives a carer allowance which is paid to my cousins to help look after her. Uh-Oh!) the conversation turned to the economy and the cuts.

My aunt stated that “the problem is all those who don’t want to work, the ones who are playing the system”.

I think my jaw dropped a little bit – yes, the problem with the UK economy is surely the 2-3% of all claimants playing the system, (TUC statistics 2011) not the banks, not the greedy big businesses intent on paying as little into the society as it can possibly get away with…no, it’s those bloody scroungers getting benefits.

I pointed out the £1.7bn is lost to benefit fraud per year pales in comparison with the whopping £20bn in unclaimed benefits.

I then pointed out that while the poor are fighting one another over the scraps, the rich just keep on getting richer and – to my eyes – ever more arrogant. Let’s have a little look at the deferment for taxation on Private Jets as an example of the sheer arrogance and “two fingers up” attitude of the ConDem government.

In George Osbourne’s Autumn Statement he announced that private jets will be exempt from the airline passenger tax (which comes into force in April 2012) until 2013. This essentially means that families flying to Spain for a week’s holiday will be paying the increased tax, but a person who owns a Learjet won’t have to worry about that pesky little payment for a further year.

A treasury spokesperson said:

"One of the things businesses say is that they need more time when we make changes to adapt to the transition"

Yes, it does take a bit time to get used to a change in tax, I sympathise – but wait! Hang ON! Shall we have a look at the changes being made to welfare payments for those people who are terminally ill? You know – actually dying?

Back in September, before the Welfare Reform Bill had even completed its parliamentary stages the DWP sent thousands of letters to ESA claimants warning them of changes to their payments. Changes such as – you’re not getting anything if you have been claiming ESA for 12 months. Full Stop. The End.

I don’t notice much of a “need more time when we make changes to adapt to the transition” in that letter. If you’ve been ill and on ESA for 12 months in April 2012, and the government have their way then that will be it. Finished. No more money for you – you disgusting cancer patient scrounger.

So back to the family chat. As my loved ones spluttered, I frothed. I frothed beautifully if I do say so myself. I told them about the slave labour which is the Workfare programme  leading my uncle to ask, “What? They work for Tesco – who pays their wages?”

The answer came: “The taxpayer!”

I told them about freezing of the basic and 30 hour elements of the WTC for three years – while inflation keeps going up. So that’s working families attacked – not the “benefit scroungers”.

One of my cousin’s friends (let’s call her Jane) has a daughter who was born prematurely and suffers with a terrible lung disease. During the general election she campaigned pretty hard for the Conservatives. I asked her at the time why on earth she was going to vote for a party that were likely to cut the benefits she received. She told me that she thought the tories would sort out the scroungers which would mean she would get more benefits herself, as she can prove that her daughter is very, very ill and that she simply cannot work as the little girl needs constant care.

I asked my cousin how Jane is and she’s already lost £400.00 per month as her daughter failed the testing criteria. Her hospital admissions have dropped you see, and so because Jane has managed to get her daughter’s condition to be more stable, this has resulted in a loss of income which is completely crippling the family financially.

My cousin told me that Jane had confided that a small part of her wonders if it would be better if she just let her little girl get sicker just so that everyone in the family can eat.

Seriously. What the actual FUCK?

I digress. As I frothed away, I realised that my family (who are not ignorant people by the way) were completely unaware of most of the cuts and proposed cuts – they were shocked at the attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.

Why? Well, I think that most of what is happening is under the radar. The opposition are losing the media battle (big surprise) and while the Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Sun are talking about the benefit thieves and glossing over the reality they’re doing the government a huge favour.

Think about it, newspaper owners (Murdoch, Dacre, Desmond for example) have a vested interest in keeping the rich rich, and they clearly couldn’t give a toss about the people who actually spend their money on the toilet paper they call journalism.








By a Guest Frother 


What can you do? 

You can challenge people who talk about the scroungers – chucking the fact in about the 1.7bn lost to fraud compared with the 20bn unclaimed.

You can stop buying or clicking online any newspaper which peddles these lies and distortions.

You can read the rest of this blog, you can sign the petitions, you can write to your MP.

You can Froth.