Longpigsdad wrote:
I take it that it is the principle of how benefit cheats are caught rather than the fact they are caught that is the issue here?
Doh, just read Eoin's eloquent response after I wrote this and he pretty much covers it but anyway..
Partly, yes. But where I believe that it differs in principle from the other examples I mentioned is that people on benefits are so skint (£64/week) they are often forced to become "cheats" just to get by. The work/benefit balance is so precarious that it's almost discouraging to those who are trying to find work. Get a low paying job (there's not many high paying ones around if you're under educated, never mind low paying ones), you get housing benefit stopped, if you have kids you have to make arrangements for them etc etc. So getting a job creates a whole load of other problems. This measure, if it's set up in place, will cost a lot in terms of manpower & set up costs which will obviously have to be taken out of any relatively small proceeds that come from it. And if these people get caught they get prosecuted.
The mps were not in that situation and they took a whole lot more when they didn't *need* to. They get paid a decent salary yet collectively refused to confront the fact that their expenses system was being abused until they were forced to when the expenses documents were leaked. People on 70 grand + a year claiming for *irons* to claiming for 2 houses. Sure they're paying the money back but they *knowingly* abused the system and if not prosecuted like '"benefit cheats" will (because most of them weren't technically breaking the law) they should at *least* be fined and deselected - this *won't* happen. Don't you think these people have an obligation to properly right wrongs before going ahead with a policy like this?
Don't know if you've seen that programme that's been on a couple of weeks called Tower Block of Commons? Despite its ridiculous premise - mps go to live in a tower block for a week (like that's enough time to get a handle on the situation and start dealing with the problems of accumulated expenses & debt over a period of time when they can go back to their big houses afterwards), it's a good programme in that it details not only the typical lifestyles of those on benefits, but also gives an indication of how clueless mps can be when they're out of of their cosy surroundings. These people have *no* idea and given the scale of petty and grand abuse in Parliament I believe their outlook to be widespread. So, this policy, in my opinion, stinks.
Not all MPs are like this obviously - neither are all benefit cheats skivers & dodgers. So if there's going to be a blanket policy of punishment like the one proposed then it has to start being set on the people implementing it.
I'll end up writing an essay if I get into the bankers, corporations etc.