The individual according to dry-as-dust economists is a rational being and, having weighted up all the options, makes a lifestyle choice.
Now bankers may not have proved to be the best of role models but benefit recipients are only doing what they have been told to - by economists, bankers, the meeja and Tory MPs.

MPs `Living Allowances

No, please! Not another woman scorned. Stiff-upper lip time - just like Nick Herbert!

Delilah

Pretty simple to calculate. A couple will get £105.45 p/wk JSA,£50.00 p/week child tax credit for each child, £20.30 child benefit for first child and £13.40 for each additional. Taking a family of 2 adults and 4 kids renting in Glasgow they will receive approx £8000 per year in housing benfit and council tax benefit ( that's a conservative estimate and in London it will be significantly higher). That brings a total of just over £27000 in benefit equiavalent to a salary of approx 36-37000 per year. If anyone in the family has even a very minor disability and receives the lowest rate of DLA, a benefit you can get the lowest rate for if you have asthma, you can add another approx £3000 a year to that figure.

Many many people could never hope to have that level of income in work and are very happy to be on benefit. Why look for a job when you can get nearly 40k a year on benefit and live in a nice area you could not afford in work, as some do? I work with people who have kids, are on the max of their pay scale, and do not have that level of income. The idea that families with kids on JSA are in dreadful poverty is simply not true. The special treatment they receive that people in work can only dream about needs to stop and thankfully it will soon.

Sorry, i meant knowledge

Here is a real exclusive summary on the real injustice by the DWP:
The civil courts routinely legitimise and give legality to most of the DSWP's illegalities against the claimants.

What Act of Parliament in the Statute Book is it that 'Fleet Street', the BBC and other "mainstream" news media outlets in the UK "think of" [as in “observe”, “abide by”] when they suppress the fact that the county courts in England and Wales are the real law-breakers when it comes to routinely rubber stamping wanton illegal attacks on the target portions of the population?
How else to understand why the "mainstream" news media maintains a permanent censorship on the suppression, denial and distortion of justice against the poor, the vulnerable and the disenfranchised by and in the courts of law in England and Wales?

Not one of you able to say why people on benefit should get paid for child after child when everyone else has to cut their cloth accordingly? What is wrong with applying the same rules to those on benefits that apply to those in work? Why should those on benefit be able to live in affluent areas they could never dream of living in if they were in work? When i looked for a flat i had to go somewhere i could afford, why should the same not apply to them? I want someone to tell me why that is not profoundly fair and reasonable.

Of course you don't believe me as i expect you are all comfortably off libtards who have no real clue as to what is going on other than what you read in the Guardian, which, by the way, prints just as much shite as the daily mail.

I actually believe in benefits and do not think people on them are scroungers but families with 3 kids getting the equivalent of a 40k a yr salary ( and more depending where they live) is not on as it is grotesquely unfair on people who work. And dont try to tell me its a small number as many families have 3 kids. The welfare state is totally out of control with massive increases in spending even in boom times. It is perfectly reasonable to tell people on benefit that they can only get up to the average salary. In fact ist more as the average salary is 26k before tax whereas the cap is 26k. I know people who work and would give their right arm to have that level of income

I think if people saw the real sums being paid to claimants they would be bloody outraged. There was an article in the daily record earlier this yr, a left leaning tabloid, about a woman who claimed she was, and i quote, "destitute". She had 6 or 7 kids and had never worked in her life. She was receiving 50k a year in benefits. Its clear that the left have a very different idea from the rest of us as to what constitutes destitution but as usual your arrogance knows no bounds. 75% of people can't all be wrong. The cap is happening, is fair, and is massively popular. You have lost this argument.

I tend to be suspicious when someone claims - "I suspect I know more about benefits than you lot seeing as I have worked for the Department for work and pensions for 20 years and used to process claims to a variety of benefits on a daily basis" and then goes on to make sweeping assertions about benefits claimants and indulging us with the usual myth dissemination such as "If you chose to have 5 or 6 kids, don't work and expect the state to keep paying for them, tough. Enough is enough." etc. These are simply lies. Less than 0.5% of claimants have large families like this. So I don't just accept what someone says on the basis of a potentially false claim to have worked for the DWP for 2 decades. At least Sarah Teather - despite being a LibDem - was a Children's Minister and is aware of the impact on children of the swingeing HB cuts. Good for her even if she only was the error of her ways too late.

I suspect I know more about benefits than you lot seeing as I have worked for the Department for work and pensions for 20 years and used to process claims to a variety of benefits on a daily basis. I would ask this,someone in work has to look for a house in an area he/she can afford based on salary. Why should people on beenfits not have to do the same and be able in some cases to live in areas they could never afford if in work?

Why should people on beenfits get paid for every child they have when people in work have to cut their cloth and limit children based on their salary? Both these things are unfair and have to stop.

There are approx 60 thousand families who receive over the equivalent of a 32k a year salary in benefits each year, many of whom are very happy with that and have no intention of looking for work as benfits pay more than they could ever hope to get.

The benefits cap will restore parity with those going out and working hard, it will also encourage people to look for work.

i had a conversation on facebook with someone last night who receives the equivalent of a 32k a year salary in benfits for her and her 3 kids. She was complaining that she was hard done by. I kid you not. what does she want? Enough benefit that would equate to a salary on which she would pay high rate income tax! Outrageous.

The problem with the left is you dont seem to realise that many people do very well indeed from benefits. It is an utter lie to suggest thay are all poor. I should know as i pay them. Benefits are important but they are there to support you, NOT give you the same or better lifestyle than those in work. The left are utterly out of touch on this issue which is why approx 75% of all voters agree with the cap.

@Fraziel1,
Obviously, you have no clues at all about benefits.
All the benefits are capped exept rent in private.
These coalition is not capping or regulating how much a private owner should charge rent is because they look after themself.
Tell me who can afford to have a house, flat,appartment to rent privately?
I suggest to look at Westminster, you will found your answer.
I am talking here with facts.
Just to remind you of Mr Huhne little name ( Mr 8 houses).

She is an idiot. Rightly sacked , clueless and utterly out of touch with reality but then she is a liberal. Hopefully she will lose her seat at the next election. The benefits cap is , imo, possibly the fairest most badly needed legislation I can think of. It will ensure parity with people who work and ensure that people do not get more on benefit than they could get in work. The left need to understand that many families with children on benefit are not on paltry incomes. They do ok. benefit is there as a support not to give you the same standardof living as those in work. If you chose to have 5 or 6 kids,don't work and expect the state to keep paying for them, tough. Enough is enough. People in work have to cut their cloth accordingly and now so do they.