20,000 receive benefits worth more than the average salary

[Sweetpea]

Twenty thousand families are living on benefits worth more than £30,000 a year, shocking figures reveal.



The extent of welfare dependency under Labour was laid bare as it emerged that many of the unemployed are pocketing more than the average working wage.
The revelation threatens to overshadow the publication later today of a Government-backed blueprint to reduce the numbers claiming incapacity benefit.
There are 70,000 households in Britain claiming benefits in excess of £25,000 a year, according to the figures, obtained by the Conservatives from a Parliamentary answer.
Of these, 20,000 take home more than £30,000 a year - the average wage in the UK. The statistics cover workers who are on benefits, as well as the unemployed. Chris Grayling, the Conservatives' work and pensions spokesman, said: "These figures reveal the true nature of benefit dependency in Britain. It's hardly surprising the Government is failing to get people back into work.

20,000 families receive benefits worth more than the average salary | the Daily Mail


Well, I think we all knew this. Too many claim benefit that should not get it in my view:

Those that should not get benefit:

• Immigrants/migrants/asylum seekers. Immigrants should not be allowed in unless they have work to go to.
• Single men, fit for work. If there's no work, then set them work with a suitable wage, such as litter clearing litter or picking crops.
• Single women with no dependants. Same as above.

Young women that get pregnant to get council accommodation are another bug bear, but what do you do about them?

The average wage is 625 per week???

BLOODY HEL!

What's the prices like there now?

[Sweetpea]

Expensive!

[jaysay]

I don't know where they get these figures from, certainly ain't east lancs

[easyg]

Originally Posted by von Clausewitz

The average wage is 625 per week???

BLOODY HEL!

What's the prices like there now?

Like sweets said Von, expensive. I have noticed it in the last six months. I am quite reasonable well paid, but as the months go by, I have noticed that I have less and less disposable income, where I could save a considerable amount each month, if it carries on with prices going up, I will be back to where I was thirty years ago i.e. living from week to week.
Being aged 57, that is not a nice thought.

So. Is it that the bru is too high, or that the wages are crap?

[Sweetpea]

Wages from people like Tesco, who are huge employers, are totally dire. Barely reaching the minimum wage.

Ahhh THAT'S the trouble with "minimum wage". Employers automatically treat it as the MAXIMUM wage.

[Sweetpea]

What are the current rates of the national minimum wage?


There are three levels of minimum wage, and the rates from 1st October 2007 are:

• £5.52 per hour for workers aged 22 years and older
• A development rate of £4.60 per hour for workers aged 18-21 inclusive
• £3.40 per hour for all workers under the age of 18, who are no longer of compulsory school age.

Development Rate

The development rate for workers age 22 and over was abolished for pay reference periods starting on or after 1 October 2006. From that date, all workers aged 22 and over who qualify for the national minimum wage will be entitled to the main rate of national minimum wage. This applies even where the worker was previously in receipt of the development rate for those aged 22 and over and had been receiving that rate for less than 6 months.


HM Revenue & Customs:National Minimum Wage

[terrywit]

minium wage is nothing more than to boost the amount of NI contributions

as for 30k for the work shy, stumpy McCartney four yrs old child is only getting 35k a year