Tuesday 17 March 2015

Surprise truth: making people poorer doesn't reduce the benefits bill


One of the biggest bees in the Tories' collective bonnet (it's surprisingly easy to picture them in bonnets, like Little Lord Fauntleroys) is the benefits bill. They feel very strongly that too many people are getting too much money from the state but their answer to this isn't to look at why the benefits bill is so high, their answer is just to cut it.

The tories' demented stuck record constant claims that their "long term economic plan" is working because more people are in work than ever and unemployment has fallen struggles under scrutiny. Just because less people are claiming unemployment benefit, that doesn't mean fewer people are out of work. They're probably just horribly ashamed and why wouldn't they be? The TV, newspapers and politicians all tell them they should be. Employment statistics also don't show how many hours people are working or how much they're being paid. If the "long term economic plan" is working, how come 500,000 more people are now claiming housing benefit than under the last government? Forgive me if I'm being thick but that would be a massive increase in the benefits bill, wouldn't it? And surely if the tories' claims were true, there should be fewer people claiming housing benefit?

The tory figures and the truth, as usual, doesn't add up.

No comments:

Post a Comment