with regards to the main posts replying to mine by andy and mr beard - gentlemen, i absolutely love both of your posts and there are some great points made.
andy i agree being bi polar, depressed, stressed or suffering anxiety isnt pleasant and can make life difficult, even unbearable at times. indeed, there are many people in this country who suffer with some of those and carry on working or get help and get on with their lives as soon as they can.
i am sure there are many of us thanks to our at times mundane lives where we often seem to get sh!t upon from a great height and suffer injustice and hardship, we feel like sh!t and just want the whole world to p!ss off. and in equal measure there are days we have more bounce than zebedee and the simple or little things bring us great joy and make us smile (like our football team actually winning, yaaaay).
many people manage to work with many ailments, illnesses and conditions without claiming off the state.why should so many be able to live off the state when there is next to nothing wrong with them or something very trivial. loads of people have had sh!t lives, sh!t up-bringings and have had sh!t things happen to them and they still manage to push on and work or make something of their lives.
many of us have got p!ssed up, sometimes more than we should have, dare i say it there are more people out there taking drugs than a shy humble country boy like myself ever imagined, but most of us carry on and work and contribute to society whilst supporting ourselves.
i love the idea of instead of giving benefits in cash it should all be done on a special
benefits card which can only be used on essentials and to pay bills etc. that is an absolute must. i would love to see many of their faces if that comes in.
i have been ranting to my poor old missus at times when i read about amounts of housing benefit, housing shortages, housing associations, council houses, people saying they are entitled to bigger houses because of how many kids they have and also tenants staying in houses that have 3 or 4 rooms and they only need 1 or 2.
i have been saying similar to mr beards idea for a while about new purpose built flats.
it might not be a popular idea but new tower block estates are the only way to combat housing shortages and cut the benefit bill.
simple idea- build the new flats on the outskirts of town etc,
make them decent enough for purpose - because the old type estates were sh!t to start with which is part of the cause of social unrest and crime riddled estates. the flats could be nicely laid out and there could be communal gardens and a decent playground for the kids.
make the flats all different sizes to suit the sizes of those irresponsible families who keep having too many children even though they cant pay to support them. up to 5 or 6 bedrooms if necessary.
anybody that would normally qualify for housing benefit will not get their rent paid anymore, they must take a flat that is offered to them. no money will be paid out in benefit and there will be no rent to pay. they will get the flat, but must still endevour to try and support themselves by finding a job or risk losing the benefits and flat they have.all those who live off the state by having children will not be allowed to once all the children are 18.
any criminal or anti-social activity by a tenant or their children will not be tolerated.and the flat you are given must be kept in immaculate condition.
3 strikes and you are out. homeless and no benefits. bye bye, sayonara, arrivederci, adidos, au revoir, do widzenia, so long, ta ta, see ya- get the f*** out.
before everyone starts saying oh housing estates, tower blocks we cant have any more of them, crime, theft, drugs, social unrest, like i said the old estates were sh!tholes and bred decay and deprivation from the start.treat people like animals and they will behave like animals.
to prevent problems - similar again to mr beards suggestion, some decent security teams, big burly bastards to patrol the grounds to prevent or stop any crime and antisocial behaviour. deterrent and antidote (job creation right there). if needs be the money saved by the government from not having to fork out housing benefit can go on extra police who then might be able to spare a few good men to perform some of the duties police are supposed to do - such as patrol and sort out areas where there is potential for crime (more job creation).
also the government could afford to employ inspectors to keep a check on the flats and make sure nothing untoward is going on and the flats are being well kept and maintained (more job creation).
before anyone says hang on we cant afford this - well the outlay to begin with will be expensive. how much did the olympics cost again? how much did an nhs computer system that failed cost? how much do we give away each year in foreign aid?
it will cost a fair bit to build these new tower blocks, but it will be worth it. if there are 1 million housing benefit claimants then there needs to be about 1 million flats built. this would create jobs in the building industry for a long time giving them much needed work.
there will be the expensive outlay and costs to build, but after that not much and no more housing benefit bill! The old social housing that is left could then be sold off at an affordable price to get hard working people on the property ladder or at least help bring the rental market down to a realistic affordable rate.
i have done a little bit of research on the net today and found out how much the government has been shelling out on different benefits -
housing benefit per year = £16.94 billion. that will be saved every year by doing the above idea- minus the cost of running the security, inspection, maintenance and bureaucracy/paper work/red tape involved, which will be peanuts in comparison.
housing benefit is the second highest benefit bill after the state pension which = £74.22billion a year.
disability living allowance = £12.57 billion
tax credits/child benefit = £12.22 billion
jobseekers = £4.91 billion
nothing will change in this country until we force those in charge to listen to the real majority and what normal average everday people who are the real backbone of this country actually think.
like andy said protesting and forcefully putting our point across may be the only way. the french seem to do it a lot when they are p!ssed off and it works for them.
i just about remember when the late thatcher era brought in the poll tax and there were protest marches and near riots and people got there way. the poll tax got abolished.
indeed, again, just seen on our local news about social housing a woman bleating there arent enough social houses available big enough for her and her brood, she feels she needs at least 4 bedrooms. stop having so many f***ing children if you cant afford to support yourself and them!
a bloke on disability is moaning because he has a 3 bedroom place and 1 room is spare therefore under new rules his housing benefit is going to be cut because he has a spare room. the whole point of that rule is to get people living in a house that is of a size they dont need, to move out.
just to hammer home my point, give housing benefit qualifiers a government built flat that is the correct size for them and that is a potential saving of £16.94 billion a year. you will always have those who will stay in their flat for life, just like they do now with social housing, but you will always get those also who sort themselves out, better themselves, get jobs, dont qualify and eventually get their own place.
recently there have been a few high profile figures including the arch bishop of canterbury whining on saying the recent proposed benefit cuts are immoral and will cause poverty.
well what the f*** are we supposed to do, things cannot go on the way they are!
aaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh
really grits my sh!t.
) is stood in their way. No more jumping the housing queue, take room or stay with your parents.
) and being an all round ugly f*cker". So in mitigation these excuses make it acceptable to go around nicking things and breaking into peoples homes taking things other people have worked for and he is seeking help for his problems. TOUGH SHIT! TOO LATE!! I GET HAMMERED WHEN I GET DEPRESSED BUT DON'T GO COMMITTING OFFENCES YOU TOTAL WASTERS!!! SORT YOURSELVES OUT OR TAKE A BLOODY O/D AND LET THE REST OF US TRY AND STRUGGLE ON WITH OUR LIVES TOO BUT WITHOUT IDIOTS LIKE YOU LOT TO MAKE THINGS HARDER!!!! 