How do you actually get £50k in benefits btw?

Have 10 kids and a feckless partner 😀

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9296570/Outrageous-case-of-family-who-receive-50000-on-benefits.html

This may be the first time ever I agree with Polly.

You read Polly Toynbee’s column aracer ? Why ?

How do you actually get £50k in benefits btw?

Have 10 kids and a feckless partner

So ‘not easily’ would be the honest answer. And as there are very few families of 12 obviously not a huge problem, or one which causes any sort of significant drain on the system. A non-issue in other words.

when people start starving to death on the streets, who’s going to pay for all those free burials?

Findus?

Personally I don’t think I’d carry to term, give birth, and raise a child 10 times for a measly £50000 a year!

(well OK fair enough there would be other challenges than the remuneration… But that’s not an easy option in my book)

So limiting benefits would effectively limit how many kids people could have?

What about if (as in that article) you only actually had three yourself, and fell in love with someone who had more? The state would then be stopping you from marrying who you wanted to.

Also if you had a good family income, had lots of kids then one partner died or ran off, that would be pretty harsh too, no?

The reality of the cuts are already hitting people. I hate to think of the long term impact.

I work for a charity supporting the homeless and vulnerable. Heard a story last week of one guy who walked a 25 mile round trip in the snow to one of our centres as his benefits had been cut and he had no food.

Yes a minority do cheat the system but a lot of folk suffering (and who will do in future) have unfortunately fallen on hard times.

I don’t think I’d carry to term, give birth, and raise a child 10 times

In this particular case, which was very obviously chosen because it is exceptional, the 10 children were from 2 different marriages and 2 different mothers, so presumably not planned that way.

Ooooh £50k tax free and the staggering contribution of 10 kids to feed now and procreate when they are older. Their parents must be very proud 🙁

Their parents must be very proud 🙁

I’m very proud that I live in a society which doesn’t punish children for the mistakes their parents made.

Although probably not for much longer.

As already mentioned, if we stopped subsidising private companies though tax credits (2nd biggest cost of the welfare bill after pensions) then there’d be more an enough money to keep all the scrounges and immigants (sic) in their 50k a year palatial mansions.

The amount of intelligent (supposedly ) people that fall for the right wing dogma in the press is scary.

The amount of intelligent (supposedly ) people that fall for the right wing dogma in the press is scary.

What surprises me is that a whole political party fell for it then were voted into power by millions who voted for them who had also fell for it.

Quite frankly the power of the Daily Mail is astonishing. Given that everyone is born and raised left wing who’d have though they could trick so many people. Still it is a good job there a few independent thinking left wingers to guide us to the true path.

Very amusing jonba but are you really denying that the majority of the press in the uk is right wing, and that they put out misleading rubbish on a regular basis?

Quite sure the Guardian does too but it has a much smaller readership, and stirs up anger against the rich and powerful, rather constantly attacking the most vulnerable in society.

If the population of the UK was really as right wing as the press then the Tories would win every election. In fact the Tory papers mainly just represent the south of England and London.

Also isn’t 50k benefits for 12 people only £347 per person per month. Including housing costs. Hardly living in luxury is it.

This would cost more to implement than it would save.

Not really, just make them taxable.

Very amusing jonba but are you really denying that the majority of the press in the uk is right wing, and that they put out misleading rubbish on a regular basis?

No not at all and I do think that a genuinely (disappointing) number of people do believe what they read absolutely but it gets tedious to hear the Daily Mail style comments on here again and again.

At a guess I would say the BBC is most peoples primary source of news and that has a left wing bias.

I’m a scientist by training and I often despair at the quality of scientific journalism in the mainstream press. I would suggest this is common for all area. Journalists push their own agenda and in many cases seek to be controversial to get their article read. An example would be the article at the start of this thread which has received more hits due to the debate that it triggers. Often they will talk about controversial topics despite having no real knowledge of them.

The situation we find ourselves in is difficult. To blame the “greedy bankers” is as weak as blaming the “benefit scroungers”.

I don’t have the answer, I wouldn’t trust anyone who said they did. The whole tax and benefit system needs reform. Some people will lose others will gain. I don’t think we should be scared of making changes on the off chance that some people lose out. To pick up on cases of people who will lose out

Also isn’t 50k benefits for 12 people only £347 per person per month. Including housing costs. Hardly living in luxury is it.

if they are statistical anomalies. Both sides will pick up on a small number of cases to highlight the catastrophic failure in the others plans.

Things never seem to pan out as the doom mongers would have us believe.

To blame the “greedy bankers” is as weak as blaming the “benefit scroungers”.

To be fair, no benefit scrounger caused a worldwide crash entering it’s fifth year, with no sign of getting any better.

To blame the “greedy bankers” is as weak as blaming the “benefit scroungers”.

As a scientist, you should not have made that statement. There is plenty of evidence relating to the fiscal impact of both groups. Examine it.

How many posting on here have experience of being on benefits?

I worked from the age of 16 to 42 before being made redundant with an hours notice.
I was out of work for 7 months, existing on £63 a week.
If i hadn’t had the foresight to take out mortgage protection insurance i would have lost my house as well.
As it was, i had to wait several months for my redundancy payout and found myself running the heating for no more than 2 hours a day in the midst of the 2009/10 winter. I managed to pay my bills but it was bloody tight, you had to count every single penny, a bottle of cheap wine was a luxury i couldn’t often afford and a night out was a thing of memory.

It’s not a time i reflect on fondly.