Worried your Pension will run short?

[Chas]

Ok Chas now we are talking,no just ranting.I accept your assertion that you are not a racist.

although I read just today how our benefits system has increased immigration in this country,

how dose the benefit system encourage illegal immigration? where did you read this?is it fact or opinion? I have been unemployed a few times & seem to remember even with everything in order & a reasonable command of English it was difficult to even find out my entitlements let alone claim money.ok that was a long time ago maybe things have changed.What hasn't changed is the miserable amount of money paid - during a recent visit to the UK I became involved in a discussion about benefits & pointed out to one those complaining loudly that what an married couple receive per week would not pay for what he spends on green fees & car valeting.The question surely is why people come here in the first place - many immigrants I speak to here plan to return to there own countries & would not have come if things had been different at home.As for trying to "work the system" my own experience in Spain as a immigrant trying to get even basic government paperwork processed has been Kafkaesque to say the least.What seems to be happening in some sections of the UK press , as usual ,is a simplification of a complex problem, whilst those responsible for the mess we are in get off scott-free & have got there noses back in the trough.As for Scroungers? here in Spain the WV group(profits in 2010 4200 million euros) have received a €200 million "research grant" to build the Audi A1 in Matorell at the same time the catalan authorities announce cuts in schools of %28 for such frivolities as heating & lighting.It's easy to blame those without a voice when things go wrong.

I read that in the daily press, you’ll have to make up your own mind as whether fact or opinion.
How does the system encourage illegal immigration? It doesn’t take a lot of thought to work that out, just imagine a poor, maybe unemployed ‘peasant’ getting a message from a friend who has already managed to sneak into the UK which says “Come over here boys they actually pay you not to work” in their position would you not be tempted? it's the system I blame, not the individual.
As for the difficulty of an illegal immigrant knowing what benefits are available, there are translators and advisors supplied by the authorities to do that for them. I can’t comment on your ‘Kafkaesque’ experiences in Spain, but here it’s supplied on a plate.
The “miserable amount of money” you mention is still free money which the tax payer supplies for what, in the case of married and child allowances, are lifestyle choices that claimants have made then get others to pay for. I think the whole benefit system needs drastic changes.
I have been unemployed twice in my working life, in the early 60’s and the late 90’s, both times I went out and found myself jobs, I never expected others to pay me for not working.
In the 60’s I was laid off because of a recession and got a job selling paraffin from the back of a lorry, and that was a stinking job, each night I went home reeking of paraffin, not nice.
In the 90’s the Royal Opera House closed for development and I went freelance and got various jobs in other theatres and a part-time job delivering and collecting cars for a local garage, and to my surprise I was better off financially than before I was made redundant, but of course there was no job security, and when the ROH re-opened they offered me a position (I was the first to be taken back) I jumped at it and stayed there until I retired. I mention all this because when I was out of work I got off my arse and went out and looked for some work, not like many these days.
I think this thread has gone on long enough now,
this is the last post I will make on this subject,
you can always PM me, I might reply.

 

[goodoldboy]

Just a point to note here GoodOldBoy, this you have posted here is what is known as opinion, not fact. Perhaps you should brush up on the exact meaning of each.

You can post your opinion wherever you like on this site as we are an open forum, what you can't do is tell someone that their opinion is wrong because yours is fact.

er hang on a minute am I missing something Tommo? did I tell chas that he was wrong - don't think so. all i did was recount my own experiences and yes gave my opinions.The sweeping generalisations given out by mainstream media in the UK seem to be brewing up a hell broth of resentment & hatred towards some of the most vulnerable in our society.Surely you can't believe that all claimants are feckless scroungers.What will happen to all the children of claimants if their benefit is cut? maybe we can round them all up,with the illegal immigrants & other undesirables and put them in camps whoops! is that my moustache i feel growing.As for shooting people tommo, i didn't start that one