http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11258108


So the hundreds of thousands of former public sector workers about to lose their jobs are doing it out of lifestyle choice?

In some parts of the country the unemployment rate is so high that people have simply given up. Cutting benefits will not make those jobs appear if they are not about. It just shows how out of touch they are. There may be some who decide not to work and rely on benefits but they are probably a smaller number than the government would probably admit.

I have mixed feelings about this as I come form a small town where not working, or having children at at young age and not working, or working on the side for a few quid whilst claiming benefits are lifestyle choices. I could even include some of my own family members in that including at least one who claimed disability allowance for years even though he was fit to work. When I lived in the same town I never had a problem finding work - manual labour, shop work, factory work, etc before I went off to uni.

Yes I agree that it is difficult. There are people who could work but do not or do work on the side for extra money. They probably watch Shameless as a documentary or training video. Then there are people who would genuinely like a job but they have either been out of work too long to be employable or have become disheartened. The coalitions talk of taking peoples councils houses away will not motivate them any more. The problem for many is that the cost of living is so much higher when you work that you are in a poverty trap. There simply is not enough affordable accommodation for the low paid so that they can work and still provide a roof over their head. When the governments moan about housing benefits they forget that the majority of the high claims are benefiting wealthy private landlords. If governments for the last 30 years had not engineered a huge property bubble then housing prices would be within the range of first time buyers and rents would be affordable, along with lower housing benefit claims.

Watched a debate on BBC1 last night. One film they showed was about a low paid security worker who lived in London. His housing benefit would be adjusted because of the cuts, and because of this he could no longer afford to live in LOndon near his work. So he’s be out of a house and out of a job, being forced to relocate somewhere more affordable.

The tone of the people advocating the cuts can be summed up thus: “tough”. It seems OK that the rich can circumnavigate the tax system, but when an asian man working to support his family has the props kicked from under him, they aren‘t interested.

When I see stories like this, I feel that this has got less about cutting the deficit, but is more about the Tories punishing the electorate for not voting them in for 13 years.

If they actually targeted the tax avoiders they could actually raise a lot more than they plan to cut this year and still reduce the deficit.

The attacks on welfare are completely political. If they grew the economy the deficit will come down just as fast. This is all so that they can shrink the state to cut inheritance taxes for the rich.