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benefits cash card
tellywatcher73
Posts: 4,181 Forum Member
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Just saw in the news, they are now trying to bring in a benefits cash card that can only be used for certain things. Having to claim benefits not quite humiliating enough, now everybody has to know you're claiming when you buy food or clothes. I realise not everyone spends money wisely but will this not just stigmatise people?
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I can honestly say that I don't personally know anyone on benefits that can afford booze and/or expensive holidays, ciggies yes in some cases. Problem is everyone is tarred with the same brush.
But some people on benefits do not want to work.
Maybe this will impel them to get a job.:)
That's what I would hope - if I had to live on benefits, I wouldn't care how the income reached me as long as it did reach me.
Totally agree but many do and these are the ones that are being wrongly penalised imo.
The government are trying to weed out the fraudsters, which is a good thing in my opinion.
That was my first initial thought until i realised it would only really be major shops that took it as in Tesco, etc. Your local corner shop wont which means a 6 mile or so trek for someone like me if i was on benefits to get a pint of milk etc if i ran out. How would i get bus money?
Not a clever idea to be honest. I do think a portion of it should be on card to make sure people buy electric and gas.
Of course it is but genuine claimants are being made to feel they're scrounging and that's wrong in my eyes.
There you go, this Govt is so out of touch probably never thought of simple everyday things like that...how many of them have empty pockets.
my husband is in the building trade and when it collapsed we had to claim benefits for the first time. I can assure, there was no money for any of the things you mention. It was humiliating for him to have to go to claim benefits so if you added a benefits card to that I don't know what it would have done to him. yes, there are people who are happy to sit on benefits but there are also those who are forced onto them through no fault of their own. It would be those ones that would be humiliated at having to use this card.
The building trade has not collapsed, trust me, there is plenty of work out there for builders.
I hope there'll always be a certain amount of cash available too, though.
I mean, if a person is prepared to live on own-brand baked-beans and toast for a couple of months so they can save enough money to be able to replace the graphic card on their PC or get a new xbox game or whatever, what's the problem?
If stuff like this becomes the only way to spend benefits it'll be other people who actually benefit cos claimants will be forced to use the cards to buy stuff and then sell it again to raise a small amount of cash.
I didn't say he wasn't working now did I? At the time, in our area, it was very hard to find work. My point wasn't really about the condition of the building trade, more that we were forced to claim benefits for the first time in over twenty years.
Certainly seems to have collapsed around here.
There's a big plot of land just outside town which has been topsoiled and had ground-drains installed in preparation for building a new housing estate but work stopped a year or so ago cos the company seems to have run out of cash.
The real scroungers will find a way to defraud no matter what system is brought into effect. It's the genuine claimants that I feel for.
I don't think they are out of touch - long term claiming has to be dealt with and there's no way of dealing with it without someone feeling hard done by - think yourself lucky we live in a society that hands anything out at all. My son and daughter have jobs, always have had (even when few jobs about, my daughter and son have worked veg picking to earn their own money and car washing as well - granted they claimed income supplement (both have two children)) and it galls them that their neighbours on benefits, have the wide, flatscreen telly, brand name clothes and go on holiday every year that others have to work damned hard to get. If this move redresses the balance that working isn't always a good option, then I'm all in favour of it.
Exactly.
Like I said I don't personally know anyone on benefits having a "cushy" life style (although I appreciate there probably are many abusing the system). My daughter has never claimed a benefit in her life but she's lucky, many her age haven't had a job through no fault of their own. If the system was fairer in assessing people then fair enough but it isn't - you've only got to look how ESA appeals (chronically ill/disabled) are going to appreciate that genuine claimants are slipping through the net and no-one seems to give a damn.
The mind just boggles as to how thick as sh1t those in parliament truly are, it even makes for credible reading when you hear such things as Freemasonry/Illuminati/NWO etc and wonder just who the hell these people in power are supposed to be serving.
Where's Elizabeth Fry when you need her.
Themselves methinks.
I would suggest their neighbours benefits weren't their only source of income if they could afford all that! I doubt if the benefits card would have any adverse effect on those kinds of people but for people who don't want to be on benefits it would compound their misery that they can't even be trusted to spend it wisely.
it took me 4 months to save up for a 21' LCD TV monitor which also doubles as a PC monitor. 4 months to save up for something anyone in employment can buy and recieve within 4 days, anyone who claims being on benefits has it 'easy' is living down the rabbit hole. Simple things such as buying a new t-shirt or smart trousers goes out the window.