Sunday, 6 January 2013

Stop Generalising blame

Enough is enough, I am fed up of hearing the news that makes out every one on benefits is a scrounger. It isn't helpful, apart from being very prejudice and blatant discrimination, it can actually cause the genuine ill, a lot sicker.

I up to last year was a tax payer, who at times worked up to 3 jobs and paid more than my fair share of taxes. So much so I nine times out of ten didn't hastily await April to claw as much as I could, instead I waited till the tax office found it out for themselves and sent me a cheque. I live on benefits, because at the moment I am not well enough to work, according not to me, but a doctor, a specialist and a physiotherapist. That said I pray in the near future to be able to return to at least part time work and return to the world of tax payers. Yet with the current up rough over benefits I am meant to feel like I am a second class citizen.

What is worse is it isn't just affecting people like me, whose bodies have just failed them, it is affecting the likes of the wounded solders, who after serving their country, come home missing limbs or worse, and are not only discharged from the armed forces, but again left in a situation where they need our welfare state. Yet like everyone else they are also among those labelled scroungers.

I will be the first to admit that something ought to be done for the people who abuse the system and seem to think they are owed all the luxuries in the world. I for one can't  understand how a man with a history of back injuries, who hasn't worked a day in 12 years can justify the state paying for the 15 children he has with his two wives. If an procreate to that extent , he can work! As a sufferer of a back injury I truly don't know how he could even manage the act, I struggle to walk and sit let alone anything else. Don't get me wrong, every person is entitled to have a life, but  not to take the piss.

In reality I will probably return to work sooner than should, because I like to have my own money, not hand out, that is just who I am. But I truly believe that you mustn't generalise the situation. Yes, there are people out there who are just sponging off the state rather than work, but for everyone of them is a person who deserves the help. Unfortunately there is a mind set that is breed from a young age, that seems to think, you leave school with little to no education, have a family young and expect it all to be paid for. I know for a fact there were girls in my school in the 1980's doing just that. All to get a home of their own. There the problem lies, we allow people to leave school with that belief. If it was made that unless in extreme cases, you could not get benefit till you were at least 18, and having passed high school education, that problem would be reduced. If you also made it that you couldn't have housing benefit until you were 21 and had already paid taxes for at least 3 years, then the expectation of accommodation would be also removed.

When I say extreme cases, I really do mean that, yes children who were in children's homes, would need extra help, as will the disabled. Also injured armed forced service personnel should have different rules. But I don't know about anyone else, but I have noticed an increase in claimants in direct relations to the increased number of these claims companies for accidental injuries. I could have sued the NHS amongst others for my bad health, but what is the point, it will only rob the NHS of already lacking funds. There is a big difference between an accident and malpractice, and mine was an accident.

Take for instance a sprained ankle from tripping on a paving stone. Sure it is an inconvenience, but at worse you are off work for 6 weeks with sick pay. Is it not better to just notify the relevant authorities to repair said pavement and any others you may have noticed, thus preventing accidents, rather than suing them for thousands which will then prevent other work being done?

At the end of the day a person is entitled to have a quality of life, not make a profit from it at the expense of all others. So all I ask is when you enter into the debate about the benefits, remember it is the same benefit for the solder as it for the faker, the same money paid to the blind/deaf/even dying person as to the person with a torn ankle muscle from playing the fool. Please don't label us all with the same tag.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with everything you have said in this blog sharon... like yourself i have paid in taxes but got made redundant last year. I claim carers allowance and a bit of income support and i, like you, think that there should be something done about them who abuse the system as they make a bad name for the genuine claimants.. 11 years ago i claimed jsa afetr graduating from uni and was pushed every where in 4 months of claiming (even drving jobs and i cant drive) I worked for a charity and we had many volunteers one tho amazed me she was claiming jsa from the age of 18 and was at this point 31 never went for an interview only for college courses that she didnt complete then the jobcentre put her on a scheme with the charity she stayed to do voluntary and claimed jsa tho everytime she was arranged an interview she never went somehow she got away with it. Then we had a lady who claimed jsa was 6 months from retiring and jobcentre sent her on two jobschemes... wheres the sense in that i ask

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Please feel free to leave a comment or add to this. Its only my thoughts on life. I just raise the questions in my mind.