Far too giving with benefits
I am sure many States pensioners would love to be on £300 per week having worked all their lives and paid in for their pensions.
She also said there were young lads taking benefits because they would not work for £7.50 per hour.
That tells me we are being just far too generous with our benefit systems.
Some youngsters make themselves unemployable through aggressive tattoos, piercings etc., which make them look like extras from a horror movie and totally unsuitable for many customer-facing employment opportunities.
I fully accept that there are many people with tattoos and piercings who do work hard and are no drain on the taxpayer.
I am also aware of many single parents who really struggle to live but still work hard to survive without claiming benefits.
My suggestion is, everyone on unemployment benefit should have to report every day at 9am in a fit-for-work and sober condition.
They can then go off, but they have to report back at 4pm, also in a fit-for-work and sober condition.
No reporting back, no cash.
That would stop some beneficiaries spending their cash in the pubs while the rest of us are busy working.
Don't forget, the long-term unemployed are not contributing anything toward either health care or their own old-age pensions, so they are a triple drain on those of us who do work.
I recently had a conversation with someone who had worked all his life, never claimed a day unemployed and who went to SSD for some help towards dental treatment.
He was turned down flat, but if he was a resident of Les Nicolles, that would have been given to him free.
Can that be right?
I can already hear the deputies saying, 'We are here to make policy, not to micro-manage departments'.
Well, I am sorry, deputies, we voted you in to get things done, to right wrongs and do the right thing for Guernsey.
The benefit system is clearly in need of a sort-out and perhaps a skilled team with some clout needs to be parachuted in to Social Services to get things put right.
TREVOR HOCKEY,
Trev's Motorcycles.
