General Chat

Thanks for that Daff, you should have credited the author though....doesn't the govt have stats on expenditure?

just a question before you all jump

Gill

Peter, even the defence budget is split up, and the Foreign military and Economic Aid comes out of that, by the looks of it!... some of it goes to NATO, I know... but do we pay into the UN as well? I'm sure we must! So all of that budget doesn't go into our own defence budget, per se.

What also interested me was the interest... we are in debt as a country... and the interest we pay on that debt comes out of our taxes....

Our interest debts are more than our *actual* defence budget, or our Protection (police?) and our transport...

And I do wonder what the *Other Spending* is about? It is a huge amount for it not to be itemised in the same way ... I presume the *Protection* is about the Police Budget?

Do you know, I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I have looked carefully at these sort of figures....... and I think they should be broken down far more, and much more transparent than this!!

I pay for this... and I want a much more detailed till receipt, I am afraid.

My sister is in fear of losing her job soon.... the NHS trust she works for has been told (by well paid managers) that a huge number of beds have to be scrapped.... and nurses to go along with that... and they are already scrabbling and bartering for beds. She works in the Acute Emergency Admissions ward!!


Sorry..... I have gone off topic.... I am going off to stew......
it is always the most needy who get it in the neck while the blinky fat cats get fatter and fatter and sit there pontificating to the rest of us!!

PS I am often too poorly to work, although sometimes I am absolutely fine... I haven't claimed benefits, but might need to soon! I am certain that I would fall in a gap, lol.... I would love to go back to work.
Love

Daff xxxx

It's a shame that the people most suited to run this country are currently working as taxi-drivers & barbers, plus a few posting on here.

Political office is the last refuge of the incompetent. Voters quickly forget what the canvassing candidate promised before the election.

I doubt if I will see any real changes in my lifetime.

Deanna
Have had the indipendent Dr out who was more worried about my dog than me, he didnt get me to do things like climb stairs which I have trouble with, just made me lie on sofa and move my legs, so his report was I was fit and healthy.

Trouble is my tribunal in a few weeks is for what I was like when I put in the claim which was October and I cant remember exactly how I was and the independant Dr did his report on what I was like in April so the system is stupid.
Have the welfare bloke going with me but not holding out much hope, FM is meant to be recognised now but a lot still think we are lazy little blighters who could do things, broke my heart at sports day when tiddler wanted to do the mums race with me and I couldnt do it, I challenge anyone to live with this for a day and then tell us we are capable of a lot more

Sorry Gill, my mistake. I do apologise if I have offended or looked as though I had plagiarised and tried to pass my googled find as my own work!! That was most certainly not my intention.

Slapped wrist acknowledged and accepted.

The author of this work was Christopher Chantrill and it was compiled for www.ukpublicspending.co.uk

I thought that I had acknowledged the source of the info simply by adding the link that I got the information from.... I also made it clear that I had needed to c & p it, and then alter the format slightly to make it easier for people to read.

Thank you for pointing it out to me, and thank you for pointing out that the government keep stats as well, I will go and google those.

Love

Daff xxx

dawn is that fybromalgia you got

In for a penny!

I have inflammatory arthritis....This started just over 18 moths ago. I moved to Scotland with my partner in October 06 to start a new life and for her to be closer to her family. Up until that point..I had worked in the same job for 18 years..without a single sick day taken in that time. My parner also worked for the same company. Thats where I meet her...and we have been together for just over 14 years of that time.
In coming to Scotland I hurt my hands while out shopping with my partner in Dec of 06. The damage brought on the arthristis in early 07. To those who do not have experience of arthritis, it can be INCREDIBLY! painful and disabling. This is when I sort medical help as my hands had not recovered from the damage in Dec the pain had become intolarable!.
Up until this point I had lived on my saving and had not made any claims for any benefits. But eventually my savings ran out and I could no longer afford my perscriptions and travel to the hospital for medical treatment.
My partner begain to cover my expenses, even though she was only part-time.
She could not keep this up forever..so eventually I had to make a claim for incapacity benefit. I didn't want to..but with my condition..I had no choice!. I had spent ALL my savings and held out for as long as I could with making any claims. But I had to have the medicents and treatment to stand any chance of getting my life back!
Things have improved since then..but I am still suffering joint problems..and now.. high blood pressure and depression.
I would love to get work..to have the same kind of life I had before the move...but getting it is another story.
Dipsite what the goverments says...no-one wants to employ folk who may not be 100%. I have not long turned 40...so age is now beginning to be against me also.
I'm not likely to get a job that pays good money with the problems I have....if able to get a job AT ALL!.
It would not be so bad if you knew you stood a chance of getting the jobs you may go for interviews for..but you know its against you..so why spend the time and money it takes looking for jobs..when you know.. you have little or no chance of getting. And to suffer the pain and dishearting feelings this will bring.

Its very easy for folks with good jobs...like govement officials to say "get of your arse and get a Job"...they are not me..and do not suffer my problems...theres alot more to it than just that.

I'd gladly swap places with them if I could have my heath back.
Yes I know there are those who abuse the system..but for those..like me who so want our lifes back..this kind of things makes me mad.
Seems to me like they are after cheap labour. Make the stats look good for the goverment.
If they expect me to work for my incapacity benefit...then I want REAL money..a wage. I'm no-ones slave.

Man ..I could go on and on and on and on and on.

PS. I do not get any other benefits....just incapacity..no rent payed,,not bills payed..nothing!

Paul I'm sorry to hear about your problem, and you are right... only those with good health and good jobs.... etc etc.
And just like you , my son gets a small invalidity.... nothing else. Good luck mate.

Dawn I have PM'd you.
Deanna X

With the no smoking rule and pubs and clubs and resrurants closeing down, With the petrol price being so high and companys of all kinds closing down. With the cost of liveing so high and going up all the time and wages remaining at the same lavel they was a year ago, Yes we have mass unemployment in this country, and yes we have a lot of people on benefit of all kinds. How else is a man or women to look after his/her family when honestly looking for work that is just not out there? The goverment should be doing more for it's people and not makeing them live on any kind of breadline. Just my view.
They may have been voted in but can be just as easyly voted out.

Paul I understand perfectly.. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, so sometimes it is better than others... every time I have a flare up, it takes a little longer to die down, and leaves it just a bit more hurty than before. I have it in my hands, wrists, shoulders hips and feet/ankles.

I don't claim benefits either, although I believe I could... I have only just realised this, I didn't think I could as my husband works.

I would love to go back to work, even knowing I could never do what I did before, and loved doing.

I do hope you and Dawnie, and others get the benefits you so clearly need.

Love

Daff xxx

I think you've hit the nail on the head Paul with the bit about Government statistics..........." they" invented Incapacity Benefit in the first place to shorten the amount of people claiming unemployment benefit !

I spent 18 months signing on ( was able to say on those forms that I'm disabled ? ).......actively seeking a none existent job.........what a farce.

I hope your situation improves Paul and wish you luck :)

I gave up work when our son was born, with the intention of returning when he started school. Several women at the baby clinic had no intention of going back to work but claimed benefit as soon as they were able. They thought I was stupid because I didn't but that would have been dishonest.

Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that people are claiming benefits or getting allowances they don't really need.

My GP has suggested in the past that I apply for DLA because my hands aren't going to get any better and there is a lot that I can't do any more. However, it doesn't really stop me working at the job I do and I am still working part time. OH has a fairly well-paid job so, to me, it would seem wrong to claim a benefit I don't really need.

Both my parents had good pensions, yet they got free travel and free prescriptions when they could easily have afforded to pay.

Child benefit is universal but not every family needs it. It seems ridiculous to me that the likes of Victoria Beckham can claim it. If I'm honest we could have managed without it.

More and more people are living on state pensions and state benefits and there are fewer and fewer people working to pay for them. Benefits, free prescriptions etc should only go to those whose income is below a certain level.

It's a scandal if those living off the state can afford better cars and holidays (as reported here) than those in work.

Gwynne

Thing about this is, They Leak Documents,Make Announcements in Parliament,Set up a "Quango" to sort it out,and,"Bu---r All" Gets done,In the meantime the people who need and should get help are listed along with the Workshy and Idlers.**M**.

Joan

yes it is

d x

No daff

I asked if the govt had it's own stats..............

.......if you can find them then well done coz I can't get past the household income.

and as for the chap that did that report I only meant it as to point out who compiled the source at the end of the table.

No offence was meant, but taken wrongly as usual.

I think it is about time that Child Benefit was means tested - think of the millions the government would save every year!

I knew one woman who was getting CB for her 3 children and said herself that she didnt need the money - so she opened saving accounts for each of them and paid it into them, so they had a little nest egg when they left school!

I expect even the likes of Cherie Blair got it when her youngest was born.

lol Gill, that makes two of us then!

I have hunted high and low for the Government breakdown/stats... it is there, but all engulfed in so many pages and pages of rhetoric, that I had real difficulty ploughing my way through. It wasn't in a table format anywhere that I could find, and it was surrounded by loads and loads of statistics and percentages... I do wish I had paid more attention to my maths at school.

The Budget speech doesn't make it any clearer either... the easiest to understand is the link I put up, and that does show all areas... some others only give a breakdown of their own budget, ie, Health, Education, and not all of it.

I will pay more attention in future.

Thank you for this thread Peter, it has got my little grey cells really stretching today!

Love to everyone

Daff xxx

I absolutely agree with that...............no-one who is genuine would mind, it must be the best way to save money in the long term.

I am told that, at the moment, the cost of trying to get rid of the false claims exceeds the amount of potential benefits saved.

In addition, it is not considered 'worthwhile', for the same reason, to claw-back many of the benefits fraudulently claimed.

i agree with that kitty hun xxx