Bob Blackman, the new Conservative MP for Harrow East and former leader of Brent Council, raised his side's tone a bit during yesterday's World At One discussion. Though stressing the resentment some in work feel towards jobless claimants, he also spoke about the massive bureaucracy housing benefit generates and acknowledged the stark disincentive the threat of its withdrawal represents to people taking employment: "If they get a job, that benefit is withdrawn straight away. It's a huge mountain [to climb] before anyone gets a job that justifies doing that." That's the madness of the London poverty trap.
via guardian.co.uk
Wow a Tory MP who seems to understand at least part of the problem. In London it could take months before people see their housing benefits money and can then pay their landlords (that's one of the reasons why private landlords don't always want people on benefits). If you do even a few days of badly paid temporary work you would lose your entitlement to your benefits and would have to start a new claim when you are out of work again. People don't accept temporary work as they will have to spend hours reclaiming everything from scratch and might run out of money for basic needs and have problems with their landlords before they see their benefits again. If benefits were more flexible more people would try temporary work (which might lead to permanent work and who knows) and less people would work cash in hand (the so called benefits fraudsters). People try to make the best of the system they have and the benefits system is seriously flawed. I remember hearing these complaints nearly twenty years ago when I was working in pubs. And not much has changed since.
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