[In the Drunk Tank]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Comparing to 2005 is a bit iffy really..considering we went through a huge recession

Obviously the bill will rise when more and more people are getting laid off and HAVE to claim benefits to live. Also, a massive proportion of benefits goes to people already in work..since we now have a load of 4 hour per week jobs and 0 hour contracts. This is why I tend to ignore the 'oh we have 100000 more people in work' stuff. Because most of the time, its not a 'real' job, simply a shuffling round and taking a few hours from existing staff to give to other people.

I absolutely disagree that anyone working fulltime (or near to fulltime) hours should have to claim benefits. I suspect if companies were made to pay a living wage (or the cost of living went down, whichever) the benefit bill would drop sharply.

Also, your chart includes pensions anyway, does it not? An looking at that, for the past 4 years or so, everythings been pretty steady

Could have picked any year really, just chose 2005 cos it seemed nice and round lol, the chart separates welfare and pensions (like this year there was £139b on pensions and £116.6 on welfare according to it)