Britain hates success - Why Broken Britain

Why did we ever struggle to make something of ourselves?

We started off with nothing, no qualifications, no money, (no family money either)!

Apart from the urge to improve our situation and that of our children, there was an element of pride that we were capable of survival. While our peers were spending all their dole/social security on cigarettes, drinking, clothes etc. we were busy saving our social security for items of computer equipment to start a business and feeding the children on good wholesome food (yes, it is possible on the dole).

We have always saved every month, even if it means that we have less than 2oz of meat in a meal each or put a jumper on instead of the heating, or only have a treat that costs pennies if we could afford it - This may seem extreme to the average British person (in the last thirty years) but its what most of the world does i.e. plan for all eventualities, take responsibility for yourself.

We have indeed improved our situation, we have our own small house ( with a very small mortgage easily payable should we come out of well paid work), we have few clothes or furnishings because we pay for everything cash, no credit (again, in case we come out of work).

We have paid into some saving schemes and pensions (easily payable if we come out of work) that will pay us buttons when (if) we ever can retire. We have rarely been on holidays etc. But we're not complaining, we are happy that we are two independent adults who have managed to provide for ourselves and our children. On occasions we have been on joint salaries of £120,000 apparently we are super rich fat cats. No one would be interested that we slept on the floor on blankets for two years because we couldn't afford a bed or that we still have mainly second hand furniture because we still live within our means.

But what of our children? Well, they did OK in school, but because we lived within our means they never went on the fabulous school trips. Now that we are on very excellent money they have to pay for university, their friends whose parents were "on the sick" or on benefits and who were always boasting about how much money they got for birthdays etc. swaggering about in expensive clothes with expensive presents are now getting assistance to go to further education. Some of them got paid to stay on at school while my children went to minimum wage jobs. How do you explain to a ten year old why we work long hours but their friends unemployed parents don't have to? How does this encourage them to seek gainful employment?

This country sucks, this government does not value pride, self motivation, self help, hard working ambitious people.

This week, I hear of more hair brain government initiatives, more recently giving laptops to "poor" families (Brown has said he will pledge £300m of investment to help poorer families who might not otherwise be able to afford it) and getting more "deprived" kids into top professions, or making people "with money" pay £20,000 on retirement to look after them should they fall ill. All the people I know on benefits (and I know alot) have computers already, they have sky TV etc. It's only the workers who are struggling to make ends meet in this country. Anyone with sense or the means would leave this country.


At this moment in time we fall into the category of "affluent", but we wont even get a full state pension between us when (if we can) retire because we have opted out now and then of national insurance contributions (again, to save money while running a business). This government does not want the people to be independent and the more independent we become the more we are punished by taxes, and our children are penalised as soon as we start to earn enough to live.

The people of Britain need to re adjust their expectations, I saw a program where a woman was complaining about where she lived and how little money she was given on benefits, I don't know how she kept a straight face when all around her were the signs of affluent living, she had a flat screen TV, computer, fancy looking furniture, curtains, gadgets, it was all there! Surely this is the problem with our country, people in employment rightly aspires to have more than someone out of work but the only way a working person can achieve this standard of living is by using credit I also know lots of long term unemployed people (some family, one hasn't had a legitimate job in thirty five years and looking forward to "retirement"), they think we are crackers (they don't complain about their situation but), we have been asked why we bother working, they wouldn't work, they'd have to start off on low wages (like we did) and who knows if they could improve themselves, in the meantime, they'd have to pay their own rent and dental and optician and prescriptions and they'd still be on benefits (child tax and working credit) - income support for rent, school meals, and council tax would reduce or stop too. So theres no advantage in working, but there is a benefit to not working, they will be paid for in retirement - and are tax credits an incentive to work? This is from the horses mouth "not really, you still have to deal with low life petty officials who treat you crap and you feel like your being monitored and it's a worry not being able to afford rent and stuff like that"

Tax on income, tax on savings, tax on purchasing and finally when you die they tax the same money that has already been taxed and deprive your children of it. This is the socialist ideal, not to improve everyone's situation, but to make us all poor! Death taxes serve to make everyone poor.

We are being "groomed" to accept government handouts and encouraged into the benefit system so we can be controlled more easily. Ask yourself why a couple should be encouraged to claim benefits (child tax credits, working tax credits and child minding vouchers) with a joint income of upto £35,000. £35,000 should be enough money to keep an average family! Yet, because of the high level of taxes, it's still hard. Even on twice that money, it's difficult to put a meaningful amount of money away to plan for retirement unless you assume people have constant employment from the age of sixteen on a super wage - but that is not a very typical situation and hasn't ever been! An average family on benefits has an equivalent income of
A couple claiming job seekers allowance will get more than £50 per week, that doesn't sound much does it? Well, thats a disposable income of £5200, on top of that they get their rent paid, add a few children (£1726) and your laughing, free school meals (includes breakfast in some cases), free school uniforms, reduced price access to Broken Britain. To someone who has been in employment the figures seem very low and it might seem difficult to survive on them but, from experience I can tell you that when you don't have all the associated costs of going out to work and you have all the time in the world to dream up ways of making money go further - its plenty. As a single parent (for more than two years) and on benefits, I was allowed to work for a small amount and was able to run a car, send two children to cello and french lessons, eat well and eat out regularly, of course I couldn't put money away long term. The real cost of unemployment, for me anyway, was lack of self esteem and honestly that is waring off!

I don't think think we should take all the money off rich people, that would serve no purpose - what do rich people do with money, well, they spend it, they spend it on employing people and they spend it on buying things, that means more tax revenue. Its very simplistic and appealing to "the hard done by gene" to proliferate this Robin Hood mentality "take from the rich and give to the poor" - Rich people are in a minority and they are mobile, if tax doesn't suit them, they will move - If/when I become rich I will leave Britain. It's better to encourage money earners/spinners to stay. if more people have more money in their pocket, they will create employment for others through spending more and employing more people.

I don't think we should cut benefits particularly. I went on benefits intentionally, long enough to get myself together and get myself trained (I don't mean on a government courses), if I didn't have that assistance I might have ended up unemployed longer or on low wages longer and thats no good. Did you know that many of the long term unemployed don't have to attend a benefits office more than twice a year - we should bring back weekly signing, in the past, the unemployed would be asked to state and sign on a weekly basis that they were looking for work, benefit office officials were obnoxious and this alone would deter many would be skivers It's a laugh to have job seeker professionals, who's purpose is to help unemployed people back to work, they haven't got a clue, they have only ever worked for the government which is not typical of industry as a whole. I know someone who took out redundancy insurance and had to sign on in order to fulfill the claim criteria (they didn't have any entitlement to money) The guy had the potential to earn £1000 per day in the IT industry but the jobseeker employee wanted to send him on an IT awareness course for mature people. Needless to say the insurance company didn't pay out (what a waste of money that was, but thats another story) and the guy was back in employment within three months, no thanks to the government employment agency.
I sat down with a long term unemployed friend to talk them through what they needed to do to start their own business as a sole trader. I'll call him Bob. Bob wanted to explore the possibility of setting up a mobile burger baror something similar with some money he had won, (Bob was never going to turn up at a shop six days a week to stack shelves for the rest of his life but has considered all sorts of other ideas to get out of the benefit system) - we looked at lots of ideas, narrowed it down to a few goers but even though I offered to "do the books" till Bob felt familiar with it, it was too scary having to generate the immediate and regular weekly rent he would have to pay. He would probably be entitled to assistance but (the point was, he wanted to get off benefits) and he didn't want to "upset the apple cart" by messing his landlady around or potentially having to re apply for rent and benefits if all went wrong - not to mention all the red tape we found was associated with these kinds of businesses. Since then he has continued to take benefits, though he doesn't need the money (only the rent) as he lives out of food bins as supplied by large shops. He still has to draw his money every week so as to not appear suspicious

We need to change the tax/work model: People who work should be rewarded by at least being able to PROVIDE FOR THEMSELVES instead of being robbed at every turn. That means raising the tax threshold to a living wage and getting rid of expensive (to administrate) tax credits. It should be understood that a lot of people like us (this has been true for many years) change jobs and circumstances frequently and may well be on "affluent" wages one month/year and low wages the next - especially when engaged in the task of bettering themselves. Why are my offspring being taxed, they don't even earn enough to make their own way in the world unless they pool their resources or live off their parents.

The changes in the tax system by the labour party serve to divide and rule: They make people feel bitter about other people having or getting more. They want to get everyone onto benefits (child tax creits and tax credits) so they can dictate how much you take home and what you are doing and soon, what you are buying!


We are in a quandary now, do we just spend all of our savings (that would not last more than a few years without a regular income) have fun now and get assistance later or do we carry on as usual, save money and then dwindle it away when/if we retire on basics and get penalised for it (and taxed again if we take part time jobs).