Has Britain gone soft? Way back years ago the welfare state was set up with the best intentions...to get a War torn Britain back on it's feet. Now it seems as if the Welfare state keeps people who want to stay that way, helpless . Of course there are people out there who need a hand. I left home at 17 (family breakdown) and was assisted by the State with Housing Benefit (£40 per week) and Income Support (£37.50 a week) of which £20 a week was deducted because I declared my earnings from a Saturday job! This money meant I was happy living independently and managed to complete my A levels so I could go to University and became a teacher. So many people however, realise quickly that they do not have to take responsibility for their actions as they know they will be supported financially however irresponsible they may be. It is these people who need to be filtered out of the system, before this laziness and lack of repect becomes completely endemic.

Im a single working mum, and am very surprised at how i get penalised for the fact that i left school did various evening classes so i could go and get a above average paid job. I now loose out of most of the benefits that other single mums get because ive got of my arse and sorted myself to a position to earn money to keep myself and my child.
Surely i should be rewarded for this not penalised.
Oh and yes I do seriously believe that Britain has gone softer than a marshmellow. When i drop my child of at school in the mornings and see the majority of mums just standing around smoking and chatting without a care in the world - it just makes me think - well they can do it - so perhaps I should not bother and just go on benefits like them. Perhaps they should be made to earn their benefits some way, i dont know cleaning looking after the old and a ban should be put on smoking other than in your own home.
Finally we receive now nd again small bonuses at work why am i then loosing basically 3rd of it in tax, and then the tax credit i do get is reduced as the bonus will increase my earning, I loose tax twice - most unfair - perhaps we should all just jack it in and become "ponses of the state".
At the age of 26 i was looking to move out from my parents and was actually told by an

Yes this Country is getting soft. I work very hard and I pay my Taxes and everything else. I got with my Girlfriend and her 2 year old sone 6 years ago. SDhe was living in a 3 bed house and getting benifits to live on. (She was doing well for herself by doing nothing) Then when we got serious I took her child on as my own and we bought a house together. Now I would like a child of my own but I cannot afford it due to the initial struggles of the cost of living as a Tax paying young family. I would seriously be better off if I was living a coucil house on the doll but I think I have something that is lacking with a lot of Modern day Britain and that is PRIDE. I don't mind people getting what they deserve for example I think we need to look after the elderly a lot better but people who haven't paid taxes should get a lot less help so it makes them get off of their @sses and work!!

Firstly lets get to the crooks of the matter our glorious Government has no money to give away and therefore should not do so, the government does not give you a pension when you reach 65 ,they give you back what you have involuntarily paid in which is your money, obviously less what they have frittered away on ludicrous schemes, the influx of foreigners tells us there is a problem if these European parasites didn't benefit they wouldn't be here, and lets add one can not gain unless another another loses.

If you apply to go to Canada you have to prove social responsibility, have no criminal record and should have a skill which would benefit Canada a system which if imposed over here would create a vacuum as uneducated moronic thieves were ejected from the green and pleasant land.

One local authority in our wonderful country gave over a block of forty flats to a group of 40 families, asylum seakers in fear for the lives families who would have been shot if they had returned, here you go chaps heres a flat have some money, free hospital treatment plus plus plus within 12 month 26 of the families principal males had been prosecuted for crimes ranging from burglary to shop lifting, dont we have enough crooks thugs and criminals without importing more.

council employee to go and get myself pregnant to which i responded - i dont understand i can afford to pay you rent and your telling me to put myslef in a position where i cannot pay rent - does not make sense. so i rented privately and then managed to afford to purchase my own place.
What sort of country would advise the people to go and get themselves pregnant - and to top it all once i had had my child - a good 10 years later, my doctor then even told me to have another one.
Confused - yes i am very.

Urgent message for Ann Widecombe watch your self my dear old philpot like to spread his seeds about, I am not disgusted in the blood sucking leach Philpot he's no worse than a Solicitor or a Barrister to me they rob everyone with impunity, I would however like to see old Philpot taken out and casterated but I would also like to see Solicitors Barristers and such like (Judges) casterated as well, yes the country has gone soft genuine people dont get what there entitled to from our system you have to be a leach like Philpot to get everything for nothing, Philpot pays for nothing we pay it for him, because some crass do gooding fool says he can have and is entitled to, does anyones blood not boil when you open your wage packet on friday and see what you've been stopped because some state scrounging bum in the pub is drinking with the money you've worked hard for.

when my husband lost his job, he was unemployed for 3 years, we didn't recieve any benefit because they said we were getting child's tax credits, i was working, earning £500 a month. we had no help with housing payments, and had to remortgage twice with self assement in order to keep our home. now we are mortgaged up to the hilt, and although my husband is now working, we cannot afford to live due to our high mortgage. when he was unemployed we contacted our creditors, who reduced our debts, but also made sure we had a default put on each account, which makes us have to pay very high interest in everything including mortgage payments. why, when this was no fault of our own, did we get penalised because i was still working, although we had a budget of about £50 a week for shopping, that was with 5 children and two adults. i believe from all the taxes we paid, that we should of been entitled to some help, at least some mortgage relief at that difficult time. and now we are both working, we can't afford to live. it makes me fumming, to think of all those who have not worked, and get their houses paid for and you see them smoking and drinking. how do they afford that? i can't afford to take my children out to anywhere that costs money. i work hard as a carer, and i would like nothing more than to be a full time mother to my children, i now have to do nights, in order to see my children and be with them as much as i can. it shouldn't be like this. if we had been given the help we needed and we generally did need it, then we wouldn't be living every day wondering where the next penny is coming from.

Here we go again, if you earn a decent living ( by which i mean you work for a living ) you are penalised, the whole work ethic has gone, you need to work to earn!

Many people do not 'fall' onto the mercy of the welfare state, it is often a calculated 'option' they choose to take. Healthy people capable of full time employment calculate their losses should they work over 16 hours a week. The soft state tops up the remainder in the form of benefits.

This country robs the strugglers to pay the layabouts.

i agree with every 1 it is like an incentive in britain 4 young girls to go and get pregnant!! because they will be given somewhere to live eventualy and get there rent etc paid for them if they are single parents,where as people who work 4 a living dnt have a chance in hell of getting a council property to live in because we are not classed as a high risk!just coz we want to do something good with are lives and gain something out of it, so we are then forced to rent privately or try to get on the housing ladder,its the people in the middle who get the short end of the stick because we not only work we pay for the lazy buggers who just dont want to work!

The reason this country has no money and there aren't enough council houses to go round, is because we are keeping too many foreigners!!!
IF THEY COME OVER HERE THEY SHOULD WORK FOR THEIR LIVING!
Both my partner and I work full-time and we can't afford any luxuries!!
Like Jennifer Ringstead, when I was umemployed we had to live on credit cards and remortgage our home and now we are living in a mountain of debt! I can't afford a private pension.
I drive an old banger!
I see people in council houses who dont work with nearly new cars!! They go abroad on holiday!
IT'S SO UNFAIR!

YES YES YES, this country HAS gone soft. My husband works 16 hours a day, 300+ miles way from home, only getting back to us once a fortnight. Why does he work so far away... simply because we could not afford to buy a property closer to his work.Does he bring home a massive wage ... Well is £450/£500 a week massive for all those hours? I dont think so.... I work, albeit only 14 hours a week, but the money is vital. We took custardey of my granddaughter when she was 2, she is now 8, after long drawn out court battles and are still paying the bill. Neither of her parents work or pay towards the keep of this little girl, we pride ourselves on provideing her with a stable happy safe home, and that as far as her friends are aware we are her mummy and daddy. However both of her birth parents have married and have further children, which through our taxes we are supporting. the most galling thing of all is, the father of this little girl stopped us from moving to the area we really wanted to live in (all 3 of us that is not just my husband and my self) because it was "too far" for him to vist as it would cost to much and he couldnt afford it as he was on the dole.... Did it accur to him to get a job??? Dont be silly. If he did that he "would loose his benefits"... silly me... i thought the whole idea of getting a job was to get off benefits. Have WE got it wrong? Should my husband and I stop work, sit on the dole and play computer games all day?
I am sick of seeing people in nearly new cars in council houses with new computers, camcorders and the rest who dont work. We struggle for every penny and what do we have in comparason,

YES YES YES

Yes,britain is too soft, and I know it chokes those of us who work hard, to know we support these wasters. But, really, they are just totally pointless, parasites, a waste of space and they DO know it! However smug they might seem, deep down they know how worthless their lives are; there's just no substitute for a productive life and a decent level of self-respect. So please remind yourselves how fantastic you are, how much you contribute to the world you live in and what a fine example you are setting your children. Don't be tempted to reduce yourself to their pathetic level for a second!