Social Security Department

How do you feel about folk claiming social security from the state?

I know that a lot of people feel that anyone who claims social security are using the system and having an easy ride while others work their butts off paying taxes to keep these people in covering and sustenance.

How do you feel?

Should people work for their social security cheque?

There are pro’s and cons to this debate. I personally think that every fit and able human being on this earth should give something back to the community.

A family is a good place to start this conversation. Mum, dad, gran, kids, and the dog. Maybe even a lodger? We all know that it’s not fair if only one person in that family is keeping everything running. An average family normally have at least one of the parents bringing in a wage in order to pay the rent. The other parent will have the dinner on the table. Or maybe they both work and take it in turns. The children have their chores, keep their rooms tidy, maybe the granny walks the dog.

Do you see my point though?

So why shouldn't it be the same on a much larger scale.

It’s a strange world we live in. Half of us are staving while the other half is living on handouts in the form of a social security cheque from the government.

But, and there’s a big but, although I feel everyone ought to pull their weight, I feel scared to go down that route literally because of the consequences that could arise. One of those being that we could end up with a large population of people working for peanuts, and employers taking on candidates that are using the social security services just because they can pay them less.

We already see that from the people that come to the UK from Eastern Europe. They will do jobs at a rate that the English will not do, hence the English end up with out work.

This would probably happen on a much larger scale.

There may be a way around this, so if you can think of one please leave a comment below.

If people who claim social security were made to work for their cheque, how could we stop corruption from rearing its ugly head?

I think that people using the social security services could do jobs in the community that are presently not being looked after, like visiting elderly people, seeing if they need anything doing, like shopping or mowing their lawn. But again, this isn't simple. We can’t have just anyone calling on all our vulnerable people, we would then need to do CRB checks etc, which starts to cost time and money.

So how to solve this problem is very difficult indeed.

Many of us resent paying taxes for a generation who are happy to get something for doing nothing. That’s without going down the road of people working on the black market.

What do we do?

Do we have a nanny state, and a lot of people working for under the minimum wage, or do we continue in the manner that we are in?

If only people were honest.

If only the people that claim were all genuine.

I think we would find a lot less claimants if that were the case.

Even if a person were to just work one or two days a week it would help. At least they would be giving something back. I don’t think it’s fair that some of us work and the other half don’t at all.

But I also think its outrageous that we have politicians (who we feel should be the most trustworthy of citizens as they look after our well being) claiming illegally on expenses in the UK. So who is doing the most harm? The nineteen year old lad that has never worked, or the middle class ‘Lord’ who thinks he can claim up to £14,000 for overnight stays in London that never actually happened?

Is this a debate with no answer?

One thing I do know is this?

When my mother was a young girl, if you didn't work, you didn't eat. There was no such thing as the social security services.

Do we really ever want to go back to that?

No of course not.

So hey, lets not abuse our social security office then.

Lets cherish it, we don’t know if we’ll need it ourselves one day!!

Copyright © 2011 Lesley Sherwood