Comments on: Welfare Reform: Still stuck in old ways of thinking

By: | The Robin Hood Tax

| The Robin Hood Tax — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:43:18 +0000

[...] had year after year of welfare reform from governments. Over thirty years, benefit levels have been halved relative to wages, while the number of hoops [...]

By: Fighting the structural causes of involuntary idleness (also by Robin Hood Tax) | pratichesociali

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:36:19 +0000

[...] media, to society, we need to reclaim the concept of idleness from those who have been driving welfare reform for a decade and more. For too long, it has been seen through the prism of individual failing, [...]

By: Nygel Miller

Nygel Miller — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:05:17 +0000

I feel that there is enough resources in the world that We all should have .

By: Doubting Thomas

Doubting Thomas — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:19:12 +0000

Moussa,
I have to wonder if the very fact that Oxfam has a “policy officer for sustainable livelihoods in the UK poverty programme” suggests that its mission has crept enormously from the days when it was focussed on helping the starving of Africa. It now dabbles in just about every social-policy area that enables it to advocate more state intervention, redistribution and central planning. The losers in all this have been Oxfam’s core constituency, the poor in the developing world.
To take just one quote out of your linked blog-post:

By: Moussa Haddad

Moussa Haddad — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:34:38 +0000

Hi Nygel,
You might be interested in looking into the European Anti Poverty Network’s campaign for Adequate Minimum Income schemes, to which Oxfam has signed up.
You can check it out at: http://www.eapn.eu/content/view/16/34/lang,en/

By: NYGEL MILLER

NYGEL MILLER — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:17:43 +0000

For those who do have a job, there is a minimum income – guaranteed by the Minimum Wage.
For those on Benefits, there is inequality of benefit levels – and there needs to also be a MINIMUM BENEFIT. Because Benefits are naturally lower than Wages, a MINIMUM BENEFIT is essential to avoid starvation and malnutrition – and ALL Benefit recipients must be exempt from things they can’t afford to pay for- such as the T.V. License and Council Tax. People would then not be prosecuted for failing to pay bills they shouldn’t be liable for – because there is no way they CAN pay. Also there needs to be an end to AGEISM in only helping with heating costs , (via colld weather payments) – because only people over 60 are eligible. And really, if the Government are to be deemed plausible at all in helping with fuel costs to those on fixed incomes – i.e.benefits – those people should have ALL their heating and also HOT WATER costs paid by the Government, because their inadequate Benefits leave UNABLE to pay themselves!