“If people re-associate with the world of work, suddenly they come alive again. Work will overcome depression and stress a lot more than people sitting at home watching daytime television.” – David Blunkett, Secretary of State, Department of Work & Pensions.
While sitting down to a morning of Trisha might not help you out of your depression, SchNEWS reckons that neither will doing a shit McJob. According to Blunkett the welfare benefits system in the UK is ‘crackers’. But in the world’s fourth largest economy, the
thing that’s crackers is that the sick and disabled can be made to live on as little as £57.65 per week. Neo Labour thinks that such a large wad of cash only helps to encourage people to sit on their arses; after all in a country where the average wage is £431, it must be a doddle to get by on less than sixty quid a week. Now the plan is to take away a third of a claimant’s Incapacity Benefit as a sanction if they don’t attend ‘work focused interviews’…..
….With his £133,997 salary, David Blunkett clearly understands the plight of the poor. MPs about to vote for benefit cuts have awarded themselves another 3% increase in pay. And on behalf of their colleagues in big business, ministers have just created a new tax cut for self-invested personal pensions’. From next April, high-earners will be able to cash in on an effective 40% ‘discount’ on second homes. Higher-rate taxpayers will be able to set the cost of these properties against their tax bills. In future, a higher-rate taxpayer buying a £100,000 property through the scheme would receive a £23,000 refund personally and a further £28,000 refund into the pension fund, making a total rebate of £51,000. That’s 17 times the cost of one, annual, Incapacity Benefit claim.
Lots more at www.schnews.org.uk.