23-01-12, 04:40 PM
Need to be careful about who's excluded from this £26K cap - and that's the problem.
At first sight it seems obvious that no one should get the equivalent of £33K on benefits but consider this:
I'm a well-off middle-class self-funded "economcally inactive" engineer with a wife and 2 kids- one of whom is autistic* - we get a total of £1000 a month. That's about £12K a year comprising
£250 DLA , £500 ESA (cos he's over 18) and £230 Carers allowance paid to the wife.
I don't claim any benefits but because I see lot of 'special needs' families I know how the "other half" lives.
1 of these "other half" is a family with 2 Autistic kids and 2 other kids who are in social housing and who can't work because of care commitments. I expect their benefits including housing benefit and jobseekers/ESA and child benefit are WAY north of £26K.
Now, you could argue that because the parents are obviously 'barking mad' they should never have had 4 kids but he fact is that they DO have 4 kids and are unable to support them - what would you do??
On the other hand I have seen plenty of kids who are simply "a bit odd" or "a bit thick" who's parents have cunningly exploited weak-willed social service and benefits staff and are claiming a load of benefits that they shouldn't be getting.
The problem is, as it has been since the days of the "work house" : How do you discriminate between the "Deserving Poor" and the "Undeserving Poor"?
* I mean properly Autistic and needing 24 hr care, not one of these 'slightly shy' "aspergers" kids with a personality problem.
At first sight it seems obvious that no one should get the equivalent of £33K on benefits but consider this:
I'm a well-off middle-class self-funded "economcally inactive" engineer with a wife and 2 kids- one of whom is autistic* - we get a total of £1000 a month. That's about £12K a year comprising
£250 DLA , £500 ESA (cos he's over 18) and £230 Carers allowance paid to the wife.
I don't claim any benefits but because I see lot of 'special needs' families I know how the "other half" lives.
1 of these "other half" is a family with 2 Autistic kids and 2 other kids who are in social housing and who can't work because of care commitments. I expect their benefits including housing benefit and jobseekers/ESA and child benefit are WAY north of £26K.
Now, you could argue that because the parents are obviously 'barking mad' they should never have had 4 kids but he fact is that they DO have 4 kids and are unable to support them - what would you do??
On the other hand I have seen plenty of kids who are simply "a bit odd" or "a bit thick" who's parents have cunningly exploited weak-willed social service and benefits staff and are claiming a load of benefits that they shouldn't be getting.
The problem is, as it has been since the days of the "work house" : How do you discriminate between the "Deserving Poor" and the "Undeserving Poor"?
* I mean properly Autistic and needing 24 hr care, not one of these 'slightly shy' "aspergers" kids with a personality problem.