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This place is full of people who like to ask questions or demand links or proof for everything but when it comes to answering a moral question just from their own thoughts they run a mile.
Anyone who thinks there aren’t thousands in Wales alone screwing the benefits system, must live in cloud cuckoo land.
I have spent a good % of my life working at a carpenter for local councils / housing associations, I have met alot of people who play the system, it used to get me down in my younger years, i used to work with blokes who were genuinely struggling with money, yet they were working 45 hours a week ( inc a Saturday morning )
The time i realised the system wasnt perfect was in 1999, the launch day of the sega dreamcast, I was working on the Billy Banks in penarth for a few weeks doing refurbs ( despite rumours of the council going to move everyone out and redevelop the site ) my main workmate ( we worked from the same van ) was married with a young boy, interest rates were high and he was hurting, we had arranged to fit a new kitchen on one of the flats and arrived at 8.30 and knocked on the door, the guy had been up all night playing on the new sega dreamcast, he had got it at midnight and had played on it all night, got the console and 6 launch games, was playing it on a fairly big flat screen TV, the guy was decent enough when we got chatting, he had never worked a stitch in his life, he wasnt a drug dealer or a burglar, he just played the system, had a 2 kids ( who shared a room ), all the while my mate was caught in neg equity and couldnt sell his house, but couldnt afford his house, i would often pay for breakfast a few time a week, he would then pay me what he owed on Friday and then the whole process would start again
I found it easier when I realised the system was broken at times, but if i worked hard and got my head down, I would enjoy the rewards, I guess thats why i am proud of what Ive achieved in life ( The haters on here see it as bragging or flash, but its not, its just pride )
Later in my working life, i was working for a local housing association, i had moved in with my GF ( now wife ) and we were doing up a bungalow, we were both working and didnt have alot of spare money, a night out was rare, but it was honest graft
This story is about young girl in the Office ( she had just left school ) , her dad had worked for this company for about 10 years for cash, he was a " multi-trade " as he called himself ( i called him a labourer when we worked together, i was running the empty property refurb contract for them, a bit of a working foreman ) I used to chat to his daughter a fair bit, imagine my surprise when i asked her what her plans were for the future, he answer was " Get pregnant and get a housing association house, if i time it right i will get one of the new ones they are planning to build " , she went onto explain her grandparents never worked, he mum has never worked, her dad works for cash ( so he could claim benefits ) , so that was her plan, it was a serious plan, as it happens, she had a affair with the office manager and had his baby, which was win win, house and the dad would help out with money
The blame for 95% of all the things that are failing in Wales - transport, schools, healthcare, social care, child poverty - can be laid at the door of the governing body ie. the Labour-led Assembly. After twenty-odd years, it's no good blaming austerity, or the Tory government in London. These problems are all down to pure laziness, ineptitude, and a lack of competition in the Senedd. The Assembly is full of second-rate half-wits that couldn't make it at Whitehall, but instead, they're here in Wales, where no matter what they do, they'll always get elected, and they're never going to be held to account. You only have to read this thread, to see that even after all this time, a lot of people still don't blame them for anything. How do they keep getting away with it?
You don't think the huge scale closure of manufacturing industry in Wales under the tories in the eighties and nineties , ravaging the economy had anything to do with the current problems ?
You don't think the decision to hive out social care to private companies , Conservative policy is anything to do with it ?
The trains were privatised by the conservatives ......is that the fault of the labour led Welsh assembly ?
The benefits system , keeping the poor , poor ........controlled by Westminster........led by the conservatives most of the time ..........is that the fault of the labour led Welsh assembly ?
You don't like the labour led Welsh assembly
Would you prefer a conservative led one ?
I wouldn't and the good people of Wales don't either
Welsh industry was closing down way before the 80s. That old chestnut just does not hold up to any kind of scrutiny.
More mines were closed by Labour in the 1960s than under Thatcher in the 80s.
The issue for Wales is that Labour have convinced the Welsh all of their ills are a result of Thatcher and the Tories.
Wales suffered worse unemployment and economic contraction in 2008 under Brown than at any time under Thatcher.
Not sure how you got I am suggesting that from my story
I have worked on Council / Housing Assoc properties for many years, i have a real world insight into the people who are playing the system, the Disabled, the Chronic illness, the just simply plain lazy, when you are working fitting a kitchen, hanging a door etc etc, people chat, they are normally fairly honest and are open to to tell you the issues they have, the system players are more often than not are proud and love to tell you what they are upto ( afterall Im the mug who is working and they are sat at home watching Jerry Springer, who at the time was the morning viewing choice of the non-working class ), some have excuses, some have sad stories, a very tiny % had dreams to move forwards with life
So the vast majority of people it seems are playing the system according to your experience
Which is of course limited to you
Because whilst you have fitted doors I have in the past helped people get housing and I didn't meet any that sat around watching Jerry springer
So thats my experience
What percentage had dreams to move forward in life ? Can you give us a figure and how you arrived at it ?
People have a very negative view of council housing and housing association dwellers but they are there for a reason , ill health , disability , low income , relationship breakdown to name but a few
Its usually people outside of that group that throw the stones , maybe its jealousy
I think the line of poverty has changed. As someone who went to school on the Gurnos estate and had friends who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, who’s parents couldn’t give them a hot bath, some of whom couldn’t even be bothered to walk them to school at 5/6 years old, it’s a different world from the 80s. 70s and 60s probably worse. At least now there’s food banks in place and better support networks for the vulnerable.
Try to make sure that "deserving cases" got the money that was due to them. However, I would have a problem deciding what a deserving case was and certainly wouldn't trust a Government to come up with a fair definition as to what constitutes a "feckless" individual - based on the prevailing mood of fear and mistrust these days, it wouldn't be a fair one.