Rachel Reeves

[Londonlisa2001]

Hi Wayne , I've gone onto the Guardian website around 6 times over the last 2 days. I can honestly say that It hasn't helped. I find the links very amateurish (think Sunday sport) and also not very left wing. The political stories that I have read there are much the same as I would find on BBC and Daily Mail outlets. I will have a look again tomorrow

If you want a more unbiased and in depth view of news ByLine Times is worth following. It’s free on twitter etc. I say more unbiased as some would regard it as being quite ‘lefty’, but that’s more in a social commentary sense rather than economically so. And it depends on their writer as well. They are pretty interesting sometimes.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

There are some really good points being made and some brilliant suggestions about potential options to improve things, but I think that in addition to raising more revenue we need to look at cutting expenditure too.

The benefits bill has exploded over the last few years, different components of benefit have seen the number of people who are claiming increasing massively and that is something which needs to be looked at because it’s unsustainable. I’m all for supporting those what are unable to work, but supporting those who can’t be asked to work or who are playing the system is a different matter.

Are the disability thresholds set at the correct levels, are the applications scrutinised sufficiently and the system need to be reviewed? Over and above that, the 16 hour rule needs to be reviewed and we need to incentivise people to work. It can’t be right that people are better off on benefits than those who are holding down full time jobs.

The entire system needs a root and branch review.

One thing that’s frequently overlooked in welfare discussions is how large the transfer of wealth is between the ‘state’ and private shareholders through the use of benefits.

A significant number of recipients of universal credit are actually in work (about 37%). Many are in full time work. The reality is that minimum wage jobs even ‘full time’ do not pay enough to allow people to live (depending on their other circumstances). So the state tops up.

Effectively it’s a transfer of benefits to increase company profits.