Work For Welfare

And just what the hell is wrong with this new welfare plan?

Under the plan, claimants thought to need "experience of the habits and routines of working life" could be put on 30-hour-a-week placements.

Anyone refusing to take part or failing to turn up on time could have their £65 Jobseekers' Allowance stopped for at least three months.

The Work Activity scheme is said to be designed to flush out claimants who have opted for a life on benefits or are doing undeclared jobs on the side.

So, people who may be taking out the piss out of the benefits systems are going to be expected to do some work in order to justify their ongoing benefits payments. What the hell is wrong with that? It is basically saying that those who want benefits should have to work for them. Like, say, the vast majority of poor sods in this country. How the hell can that be controversial?

Fortunately, the Archbishop of Cunterbury is waiting to tell us:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, expressed his concern, telling the BBC: "People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are - I think - driven further into a downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair, when the pressure is on in that way.

"People often are in this starting place, not because they're wicked, stupid or lazy, but because their circumstances are against them, they've failed to break through into something and to drive that spiral deeper - as I say - does feel a great problem."

Good ol' Rowan Williams - he always manages to make the separation of Church and State seem like not only a good idea, but absolutely fucking essential.

Fundamentally, I don't get his point. If people are genuinely trying to find work as part of a quest for a stable future, then surely the government helping them with a work placement is rather helpful. Yes, it may not be the sort of work they want or aspire to, but remarkably few people actually have a job they proactively want to do. And this scheme isn't even aimed at genuine jobseekers - rather, it is trying to deal with welfare careerists and benefit cheats - those people who really shouldn't be paid for doing fuck all. And this is the point; people working for money is the norm. The fact that some people live of the beneficence of the state should not given them immunity from the need to work to earn money.

Sure, this policy will give certain people a stark choice - work or not get money. But the vast majority of people in this country have that choice and choose the former each and every day. There is nothing - fucking nothing - controversial about saying people should have to work for a welfare cheque. If you are on welfare and don't want to work then that's fine - that's your choice. But don't be surprised when the state - or the British taxpayer, more accurately - makes the choice not to fund you anymore.

How to cut Benefit Fraud...

... in one easy step - make the benefits system far simpler. Cull the number of benefits people can claim without necessarily drastically cutting the amounts people receive. Make the whole system less complex and more transparent and guess what? It will be easier to spot fraud. And, also on the plus side, it will require fewer people to manage the system, meaning you can save money there as well.

The same for tax - you want to reduce tax evasion? Make the tax system simpler. You want to make it really easy? Introduce a single, flat tax rate. Guess what? It will also be easier to administer, so you'll require fewer people to do so, meaning you save money.

I know what you're thinking - this isn't rocket science. In fact, to most people, it should be blindingly fucking obvious. Then you hear about Cameron's proposal to offer a bounty to companies who help then find benefit cheats. Oh, do fuck off David. Make your system simpler. Make the massive bureaucracy fit for purpose. If you're not going to fundamentally change the nature of government in this country - and from all the available signs, Davey boy isn't - then at least make it a little bit less inefficient. Or at least make it a little bit less easy to commit fraud than through slipping through one of the numerous glaring gaps in the system.