4thought.tv

Just watched the broadcast and why don't the government take notice. It is what everyone (Ooop's mostly everyone) has been saying for decades Well said Baroness you would get my vote.

Is everyone entitled to welfare? In principle, yes, because everyone who claims benefits is resident in the UK for tax purposes and pays at least indirect taxes.

Should everyone work? Only if they're needed. Right now, 2.5 million people aren't.

Should people have children while on benefits? No. If they do, they shouldn't get benefits for them. If a nation refuses to find jobs for all its people, it doesn't deserve children anyway.

Finally someone with common sense speaks about this scandalous issue in the UK

This is so true, Why should we work to support someone who does not work or want to work. I think that if you don't work but claim benefits, you should have to shovel snow, clean parks all the sort of jobs, we need done. but are councils can't afford to do due to cuts.

Very important.
Work is our main source of virtue and self esteem.
Benefits are a racket run by the government

I 100% agree with this film. Yet we still plunge millions of pounds into paying for benefits. My pay has been frozen for 3 years whilst benefits continue to rise with the retail price index. How is this fair? There are fundamental flaws in the system which this government like all preceeding have failed to address. With unemployment on the rise the situation can only get worse for the honest taxpayer!

well said, at she has the gumption to speakout about what is really happening in britain today.

The question we were left with was "Should everybody work?" The answer is clearly "Yes". Unemployment benefits should only be paid in return for some positive contribution to society. Clean the streets, clear canals, remove chewing gum and graffiti; assist with patients or old people in hospitals. For at least 4 hours per day, 20 hours per week.

hi i think welfare should been given to people who are realy in need. I have a friend who never work, and still on dole for thepast 10 years that even before my daughter born.The government should do more to tackly those people.

I am on Job Seekers Allowance but completely support the view that benefits should be limited and earned. I've heard that schemes are being introduced to compel people on job seekers to effectively work for 40 hours a week (with community work or other types of work). Its about time that this was done. I've travelled a lot and seen other countries where benefits are time limited and you then have to work (and the government will provide something). I've met numerous people who have been forced to work rather than claim benefits and found that it really helped them and transformed their lives.

There are many people who genuinely need and deserve benefits and the system should really help them without giving others the option of a easy/lazy life

Baroness Shreela Flather, spoke with the sentiments of many hard working people I know. The next time the Government does a Mori pole on this matter they should make sure they ask the people who work, and not the feckless, this will enable a true result on a contentious matter.
It is extremely unfair as the Baroness quite rightly said about the 2 families living next door to eachother.
Maybe the Government should think of sterilisation, women should not have the right to multiple chid birth at the expense of the hard working public.

Benefits have become a lifestyle choice for those claiming. People should work for their benefits to give the Tax payer value for money. Food tokens should given rather than cash benefits forcing a healthier diet rather than our hard earned money being squandered on alcohol, tobacco,expensive mobile phones and the latest branded trainers. All of which as a taxpayer i cannot afford !!!

I disagree with everything this individual said. it's wrong for her to air views like this - it shouldn't be allowed. i feel offended.

1) not everyone is capable of work 2) the jobs do not exist 3) the UK's low wage economy depends had a large pool of available labour to keep wages minimal 4) Is Baroness Shreela Flather a registered member of the 'undeserving poor' propaganda machine?

That was a marvellous throwback to the days before the welfare state was put into place. I was surprised that the Baroness didn't harken back to the days of workhouses and prisons as a kind of answer to all the problems in our society. The arguements here were old hat for these modern times.

Does the welfare state make people idle. I would say no. What makes people idle is the fact that there are fewer jobs available currently and too many people going for them. This is not a sudden decline, it has been going on for many years, decades even.

Think back to the time when three million people were unemployed and the government of the day considered that a fair price to pay for economic advancement. Remember we are now still recovering from a world wide recession which is set to possibly get worse. Take into account that public sector jobs are being lost hand over fist, and that the growth of the economy is miniscule.

Perhaps the good Baroness could use her position to help those in need rather than bashing the very people who need aid the most.

Absolutely agree, this is a tough love lesson for Britain. I see so much wrong with the attitudes of people on state benefits.... The issues brought up make Britain out to be a weak nanny state, a soft touch to free-loading (so-called) asylum seekers. It is no wonder we have such dysfunction in our society, and the only people we see taking action on these issues are the wrong ones, the simple minded alarmist groups such as the EDL who do the British people absolutely no good at all, (just look at any of their videos).

Yet another cliched right-wing rant about welfare, this time from an unelected peer who lives in the coccooned knowledge that she will never be in a position to need benefits in her entire life.
I am deeply concerned about the one way traffic of media saturation on this subject. All four major channels appear to be in thrall to 'the strong shall prevail, the feckless shall falter' school of thought and I'm growing weary of how one sided and right-wing our media has become.
Where is the evidence that Britain's unemployment problems are linked to welfare dependency? There are countries in Europe with a far more generous benefit system than we have yet a far lower rate of unemployment. Strangely enough, these countries have also have a far higher living wage.
But we couldn't do anything as ludicrous as closing the ocean wide gulfin disparity between rich and poor could we? No, businesses want to scrap the minimum wage altogether. And we must do what big business wants, otherwise they'll pack their bags and relocate to Switzerland, Luxembourg or Timbucktu.

The rule of law as laid down by a right-wing media censored and bankrolled by a financial sector with no bias or axe to grind whatsoever is basically this: Don't second guess the market. If you do, it's only one step further to Marx, Lenin and ultimately Hitler. We all know that.

I have just arrived home from working a 12 hour shift (worked in blocks of three or four shifts, day and night, weekends included), and saw this clip on the TV.
I VERY STRONGLY agree with the points made in this film. A'Cap' should be place on the amount of benifit tha a person or couple should recieve and stop payment for more than 2 children.
Several years ago I was left without a job as the company I worked for closed. No one recieved redundancy and I was told that I was entitled to NOTHING even though I have worked and paid Tax since I left school.
Stop these Freeloading parasites.

I have been living in British for five years.In Korea we have to learn hard and work hard even we have a mantle disability or physical disability. We don't just give a money away to anyone who has been out of jobs for more than a year. In fact we pay less tax so lazy people who doesn't want to work can not claim any benefit.I know a single mother who refuse to work. I know she goes out every other weekends for cloth shopping. All her family members has been on British welfare money and no one works. They really lived by hard working people's tax. Odd enough I asked her where she gets her extra shopping money? and she said with out shame her money for shopping is actually to buy a food for her baby. Why don't I work and get free house and free meal and free everything? obviously British taxpayer will pay for me too right? I hate waking up early and working late just like her. If welfare peoples who are like a parasite of tax payer's money and they live fine living in the middle of London city, living in the bigger and better house than mine, I think I would like to do that also.

Completely agree with the lady. The abuse of benefit system kills this country in all terms!!! In a few generations there will be no people to fund public benefits. With regards immigrants I am more concerned with EU migrants rather than non EU, specially Easter Europe and Baltic countries. They got too easy access to the country as well as to the benefits suggested.

So Britain in 2030 is Russian and Polish speaking with every one sitting at home and government searching for work migrants across the world to in order to get someone to collect the taxes from.

Totally agree with this Lady, I live in a modest Two Bed House, I am self employed and My partner has a good job. We looked at the Four Bed house next door before we purchased this house but it was out of Our price range. Six months later the Housing Association moved a non working family in, the lights are on all day, and we have to put up with His Drum and bass music until the early hours, If we complain and wish to sell the house we are required by law to declare we have had problem neighbors. These parasites have had it to easy for to long, I used to say live and let live, and considered myself a socialist, but we all have Our limits.

The Baroness is right on the mark. Benefits should be seen a temporary help and not as a career option. Try telling this to the professional layabout and you'll probably get the standard reply, "I'm entitled to it." What has made these people so special that they live off the backs of others. From state funded families to the cash being thrown at economic migrants, a lot who work cash in hand as well. When are the decision makers wake up to this sick joke. My wife has worked for twenty years and is now on maternity expecting our first. She can't get a bit of help for the more expensive items for the child. It was pointed out to her that if she left her job and went onto benefits it would be better for her and she would get money.

I totally agree with everything stated in this short film. I am the working family Baroness Shreela mentioned, with one child, a family who has always worked, paid taxes and never claimed benefits of any kind. I usually feel so powerless to voice my opinion about the issues that face us today but the welfare system has become so unjust someone needs to take action. I have always been brought up with strong social values but what good is that when other families openly abuse the welfare system and take away resources from those who actually need it. It is not a problem that has been blown out of proportion, I personally know many individuals and families that have or still are 'working the system' and it makes me feel sick.

This film really angers me. In every society there is going to be people that do want to work, and others that don't. In caveman times the only work that would be necessary would be 2-3 hours a day hunting / gathering (mostly gathering), and the rest would be leisure time.

Today we have the most amazing technology, but we don't use it to increase leisure time or make our life a little easier. What we do is complain when people don't work. Surely its a great thing that we've advanced so much that we can survive even with a percentage of the population doing nothing?

Instead of this ridiculous "work every day for the rest of your life" philosophy that we've adopted - lets be realistic. The less people work, and therefore the less work hours necessary, the more successful our society. Not vice versa!!

The only people who it serves well for more people to be working are the rich at the top of the pyramid, the more people working, the richer the consumers, so the more profits to be made.

Backwards world!

As an NHS dentist for 40 odd years I knew families with 3 generations who had never worked and each generation had more than 2.4 children each.Many of these patients demanded crowns and bridges and other expensive dental treatment which of course were free to them whereas many low paid working people had to have the tooth extracted.This always seemed very unfair to me and I totally agree with this 4Thought.

Instead of whining about people who get a measly £55 a week or whatever the amount is, you should be more concerned about corrupt politicians and bankers getting millions of pounds in bonuses. They are to blame for the mess we're in, not poor people on benefits.

I have just seen today's 4thought while putting away my weekly shop and I am quite disgusted that, as a member of the house of lords, Baroness Shreela Flather has just stereotyped every single mother in this country as a benefit grabbing lay-about.
A thought for you Baroness:
I am a single mother to a two year old through no choice of my own. I returned to work when my son was only 2 weeks old to pay the endless stream of bills. Yes, I would be "better off" on benefits but I wasn't brought up that way and neither shall my son. I was taught "if you want it, then graft for it" and "if you can't afford then don't buy it".
It makes me so angry to hear comments made like that. It makes me ask myself why do i bother getting up at 6.30 every morning to go to work, to earn a wage that is equal to my childcare bill. To walk over a mile to work because I cannot afford to run a car?
Not every single mother is a money grabbing lay-about. I work and I'm proud of it. It's not single mothers that are the problem in this country. It's the soft government that invented this ridiculus benefits system that allow the work-shy to never lift a finger, and the grafters to never better themselves thats the problem. It's the fault of the government that refuses to look at and address the soaring cost of chidcare, of taxes, of energy bills, of fuel, of food and our ever deminishing income that's the problem.
Baroness, do not point the finger at us, the citizens of this country, and blame us for your errors when it is you and your collegues that are running (or ruining) this country with all it's ridiculus systems.

Sure living on benefits is a lifestyle choice for some people, but for others it's not how they expected or wanted their lives to turn out.

Baroness Flather is spot on. How can the Government allow this injustice to go on? I engage every day with these people who make it their CHOICE to live on benefits and it makes my blood boil! It goes some way to explaining the riots - we have created a culture where everyone thinks they have a right to whatever they like. Hard work isn't on some people's radars.

Well done Shreela Flather its About time we stand up and say no to this abuse to our hard earn taxes . My friend works in benefits offices he tells me there are three generation of benefits recipient in the same family and they all know what they are entitled too and what say to get it.

Her comments are baseless, no stats on Pakistani s, Bengalis etc.
Please provide proof to back your allegations.
My parents have not taken 1 penny from the UK for 50 years.
They have worked hard & so do their 2 children (what a surprise, not more!!!)

I agree that there needs to be a tightening of the benefits system.
However her comments seem to target particular minority communities that she does not like.
She is a hypocrite as she comes from a big family.
All the Pakistani's that I know work, so I am astounded with her comments- please back it up woman.
I think she just wants people to blame a particular group for taking benefits, which is unfair & incorrect.

The majority of the UK is on benefits so lets be clear.

Other ways of putting this question appear to include, 'should people be forcibly sterilised?' and 'should people take jobs so far away that they earn less than the cost of travel?'

Baroness Flather has hit the nail on the head, why should hard working people subsidise their lazy neighbours and, more importantly, why should any immigrant receive welfare without having paid any taxes? Child benefits should only be paid for two children and then only in food and clothing coupons, not cash.

Benefits should be available to people genuinely unable to work due to a medical condition, or for those who have lost their jobs. In the case of the latter, for a limited period only, until they find a job, or otherwise put something back in by doing voluntary work.

I have worked almost all my adult life, apart from a 6 week period of unemployment during which I did some voluntary work and maternity leave when I had my 2 children.

I would love to have another baby, but my husband and I can't afford to move to a larger house to accomadate another child or afford its upbringing.

My house, which I own, is an ex council house, which I bought at market value from the previous owners. My neighbour has had 6 kids, hasn't worked for 25 years and as her house is still maintained by the council, she has just had a new roof done and all the brickwork repointed. These are repairs that my husband and I could only dream of affording at present, despite the fact we're both in work.

I'll tell an house full of scroungers - the House of Lords - 21 GRAND a year just for clocking in and clocking out- People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I had no idea who this person was but listening to her views I thought, Conservative! Had to be. How predictable!

Baroness well said.... im a single mum with a partner and we both work, i work hours around my child.....call me blunt but why should i work to support someone elese someone elese's family?? when myself and partner work hard to support our own family?I understand that some people cant work and this is a fair point but there are alot of leaks in the system i dont agree with....

I am 24 years old and have been unemployed for over two years,
does this make me a bad person? On first thaught maby so but
consider this, i left school at 17 and went strait into the building trade
working as a labourer and eventualy by the age of 22
working on major sites like royal ascot and aintree racecourses
during this time i payed tax and plenty of it and in all farness i still
pay tax on everything i buy as v.a.t is applyed to most things.
So as a finall question am i entiteled to benifits?

Baroness Flather had the guts to spell out what our spineless politically correct dumb politicians wont speak about.Who suffers.. the hard working people paying taxes.Benefit should only be paid to people when they are badly in need, who have made contributions in the past and not to people who descend from other countries with 4 wives and 10 children, not wanting to work.Irony is that people live on benefits and still complain about the local culture, way of living.The answer is 'not everyone is entitled to benefit'.People to flock to this country not because of the lovely weather here or the British food, it is the benefit system which is open to abuse.

Education, health care and benefits are not free and never have been! I pay dearly every month via my taxes for these benefits. Thankfully, when my marriage broke down many years ago I was able to raise my children myself because of the benefits system, and not have to hand them over to childminders etc while I worked. Raising children IS a full time job and is the hardest job I've had. My children are grown up now and I work to put back what the state gave me back then! Mothers should be allowed to raise their children if they wish and not be forced to hand them over to other people and who knows, maybe society wouldn't have to deal with the level of behavioural problems it does today.

It is refreshing to hear a politician address, what must be the single biggest challenge to our economy & one which too many british governments seem afraid to tackle; probably due to them being afraid of losing votes!
I am a 38 year old professional, the son of a working class family who raised me with a strong work ethic & as such i have pretty much worked from the age of 12 (albeit paper rounds etc whilst at school!!).
I am a strong believer in the welfare state BUT only as a safety blanket when people need help & support; not as a life choice for people who have no inclination or willingness to work.
I have seen 1st hand people make the choice to use the welfare state as a permanent career choice & i struggle to understand how society/the system allows this. I know of one single parent who receives just short of £2200 in monthly benefits (if you include housing benefit etc), this person has never worked, never paid taxes, openly declares they will never work & chose to have 3 children as a means of gaining a council property & income.
In order to support this 1 family, it would require all of the tax & NI from an employed person earning approximately £85k per annum!!
With the baby boomers approaching retirement age, how will the the country support a £200 billion welfare bill with fewer than 50% of the population working?
Well done to Baroness Flather for having the courage to raise this issue, lets only hope the rest of our government come to their senses before we find ourselves a '3rd world' economy!!
We need to review the welfare state urgently!!

I have got two children, both my husband and I work full time erning 42K a year. After paying mortgage, car loan, child care and all the bills there is hardly enought to make ends meet...Holiday abroad is a luxury we havn't been able to efford for last few years.It makes me sick knowing that few doors down the road lives an african(perfectly healthy)couple with their three teenage children, none of them work, jet they own two expensive cars and go for holidays abroad four, five times a year...No, I don't think it's fair, benefits live you better off that even decent job.

This has only become an issue since corrupt bankers got away with causing a would wide rescission. Now there is no investment and growth to provide jobs. Now people are losing there jobs because of bankers and governments its not unemployed's fault. In the UK 6 million people are on benefits at the moment, at anyone time there are 1.5 million jobs you do the maths. Its the fault of bad bankers and bad politicians. Thank you for reading this little bit of truth. Because ignorance is bliss

I agree totally with Baroness Flather, and admire her for tackling a subject which is of concern to so many ordinary working people but ignored by successive governments. Benefits should be available for those who genuinely need them because they are unable to work or genuinely cannot find work - not as a means of funding a lifestyle choice. In the case of pensions, why should those who have earned them be made to work much longer for less so as to provide the same pensions for those who have made a lifestyle choice not to work and have made no contribution at all. Yes, it makes many of us very angry indeed as this is so unfair. Just as in Greece, however, political expediency gets in the way of common sense and fairness.

This has only become an issue since corrupt bankers got away with causing a would wide rescission. Now there is no investment and growth to provide jobs. Now people are losing there jobs because of bankers and governments its not unemployed's fault. In the UK 6 million people are on benefits at the moment, at anyone time there are 1.5 million jobs you do the maths. Its not the unemployed fault. Its the fault of bad bankers and bad politicians. Thank you for reading this little bit of truth. Because ignorance is bliss.

I could not agree more. Having children should be selfless, not selfish. In the light of overpopulation and the increased potential to retain wealth within smaller families (and smaller populations), I struggle to understand any justification for large families in the modern era. The point of the welfare system is not to provide people with large families, but to look after those who have been let down by families, the state, circumstance and luck,

I agree totally with baroness flather the benefit system is very unfair,im a single mum with 3 children i work long hours to keep my small business going only to see my taxes pay for the lazy and workshy to do whatever they want,its soul destroying to see people claiming more than i earn.i feel like im being punished for working and sometimes think what is the point.

According to the Guardian the Baroness attended the House of lords 21 times and claimed six thousand in expenses. This is not fair and proper and people shouldn't have to put up with it.

I have always believed that society should pay people to do nothing and as those on benefit are attacked I believe it even more.

When people are starving in a third world country we believe it is right to send money so they can eat. Therefore we should all believe it is right to give people money so they don’t starve. Society in Britain seems to have always looked after people who are poor and I believe it should do so today. In the nineteenth century the Poor Law was amended and set up a national system of Workhouses. Those who say we shouldn’t give benefit to people who haven’t got jobs need to address what these people will live on, but they don’t. Do these people want the workhouse to return? I remember seeing Len Goodman learn that one of his relatives committed suicide rather than go into a workhouse.

In the 1970’s our government gave up on full employment once unemployment rose over one million. Therefore if there are not enough jobs for everyone what happens to those who can’t get a job? Therefore if people wished to stop paying people to do nothing then jobs need to be created for them to do. Having a large pool of unemployed helps to control inflation; when we had full employment inflation got out of control.

The basic pension is higher than the basic amount of Job seekers allowance therefore it costs less to pay someone of work age to be unemployed than pay someone a retirement pension. The government has decided to increase the size of the workforce by increasing the age at which people retire. If the government wanted to reduce the number unemployed it would keep the retirement age unchanged.

Baroness Flather makes a valid point that people who are working but struggling don’t think it is fair that those unemployed to have more children that those working can afford. However if the state didn’t pay more money for each child a person has then it would need to take the children into care which would cost more. This needs to be explained.

There is an idea that everyone could be guaranteed a job, especially if someone has been unemployed long term and I think this is a great idea. The problems with this are finding the meaningful work for people to do, funding the salaries, ensuring that people on the scheme are better off financially, and ensuring that it doesn’t become a scheme to subsidise employment.

To those who ask, “why work hard” I say because work is beneficial for your well-being and that you should be better off in work than on benefit (unless of course you are single because the government benefit reforms are not going to make work pay for this group they will still be allowed to be worse off in employment than on benefit) and that with more money you should have a better quality of life.

Yes I agree with the Baroness. My late father worked manually until retirement at 66 following removal of one kidney in his late thirties and multiple severe life threatening conditions and spent all his holiday entitlements in hospital. At the same time my mother was also seriously ill and I became their main support and carer as well as working full time and bringing up my own family. My health gradually broke down culminating with a major cancer operation 8 years ago followed by 9 months chemo during which time I continued my caring role on any good days. During all these years I received one years carers allowance which ceased once I was 60 and drew my own state pension. Attendance allowance for mother following father's death 8 years ago was the first benefit received. It grieves me to recall how difficult times were for us when I now witness people on benefits claiming not being able to work due to some trumped up illness like a bad back while pursuing hobbies and illicit work which prove otherwise. I believe people such as my parents deserved help but when it can become a lifestyle choice it is no wonder the country is in a mess.

The numbers are enough proof that she's right:

All primary and secondary healthcare (medicines, operations, doctors, equipment): £100bn.

All welfare payments: £200bn.

A politician originally from a third word country with third world views and opinions.......

I agree with Baroness Shreela Flather, not everone is entitled to welfare. One of the problems are one parent familys; how did they come one parents? they broke their promises to one another, they broke their wedding vows and must bear some responsibility. They should not expect the state to pick up the bill for their unfaithfulness. Fathers in such cases should support their wives and children finachilly. The Bible says "If you don't work neither shall you eat" Everyone should be responsible for themselves. Only those in hardship with no fault of their own should be supported.

If you take an animal out of the wild and domesticate it with regular measured meals and perhaps get it to work for you, you cannot just throw it back into wild and expect it to fend for itself. It will have lost the knowledge how to do so and if it survives it may just come back to eat you. As a civilized society we have rejected poverty and starvation on our streets so now we need to find the way forward and not try to turn the clock back.

Now that we have rejected using poverty and starvation as our means to motivate and control our citizens we need to look to other ways to include indiviuals and get them to earn their keep. I am confident we need to look at enroling them into groups which are big enough to support diversity and offer stabilty but small enough to allow personal recognition and identity. Traditonally Employers have provided this social function but this obviously cannot support the mass, faceless unemployed.

This role is not something employers ever wanted and increasingly it has been forced upon them. When they fail to be totally philanthropic they are despised and attached with even greater regulation to the point this country, and much of Europe is now hotile to employers. I was recently talking to a small businessman working at the weekend because he had full order books for the next six months. I asked him why he didn't employ help and he said he didn't want the responsibility and would rather turn work away. Anotehr was starting out as a Sole Trader and was horrified at the hoops he has to jump through.

We need to unburden business of this social role and allow them to focus on producing products and services. This would leave us without a solution for both the Employed and the Unemployed. I believe Employment Agencies should be asked to fill this gap. The Agencies would could be Private, Government or Cooperatives but everyone would belong to an Agency. Everyone would be paid so nobody would be unemployed. The Agency would find everyone work; at below cost if necessary. When work was very scarce people could be given job share, work shadowing or training. However with Labour available at below cost and entrepreneurs protected from total ruination, I supect the economy would respond quickly to produce jobs.

The fuller implications of this approach are discudded on the Campaign for Labour Market Reform website at www.clamr.org.uk

RIGHT...Let's get something very clear here! The current government are very capable financially of reducing the approx three million jobseekers currently out of work right now. They would do this by providing free job sector retraining. But no the government choose not to, Instead they waste our taxpayers money on foreign aid and EU contributions.
You don’t need a math's degree to work this out, just a bit of common sense. Something that David Cameron is lacking of, as is his government.

I agree entirely with Baroness Flather Enterprise is being replaced by apathy and its enterprise in the end that pays for everything Some peaple are victims of circumstance and should be helped whilst others take from the system without contributing anything to our society We all benefit when individuals are rewarded for their endeavours

Of course it's interesting to note - and I hope later films this week will point this out - that tax avoidance in the UK is ten times the benefits bill.

At last someone saying what everyone I know and talk to says, common sense does prevail. Thank you so much Baroness, I think Cameron should move out of 10 Downing Street and you should move in. I know people who had as many children as they could afford to keep, why should we pay people for having them, I do not even agree with child benefit (only on a means tested basis). We should not pay people for sitting around or saying why work I get more on benefits. We should not give it to foreigners who have not paid into the system, until they have been here some considerable time, we are the only country who does this. Disillusioned Charlotte

People on benefits their whole lives? In the last decade before the recession, long-term JSA claimants of 5+ years fell from 50,000 to below 5,000. Every other out of work benefit either peaked or fell too. So where is the evidence to support the claim that there is a widespread problem of people living on benefits for decades?

Too true have worked hard all my life 40-60hrs for 25years getting laughed at by the benefit class, signing on for a 3 month period when i had no work.
The start of this year i had 3 weeks work in 4 months so was touch and go but still did not sign on. On Lbc they talk about the poor, t'is me not them all i do is work and pay can afford Dentist Ect
Jp 4front

I cannot believe the stupid & ridiculous comments this woman has made.
My parents are Pakistani, they are educated & have never taken a penny of the benefits in this Country. I am married to an English man & I love this Country. I am in full time employment & so are my 2 siblings!
How dare she say all are the same! Statistics speak for themselves - which by the way she has not provided.
Her comments are base less & more of a hatred for people that come from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Somalia (Funny how these are all Muslim Countries!!)

So many other colours & cultures are having far more children than Pakistani's etc! Get your facts right.

Every able body should be working for a wage, and those less abled then find them something to suit. Why should anyone be getting something for nothing. If this problem is not properly addressed the divide that has already begun is going to get greater. Without doubt there will be an unhealthy them and us, with them being considered the scrounging scum feeding of the tax payer.

Benefits - for some of us not simply the last resort, as suggested by your closing voice-over, but the ONLY choice.

I've been ill all my life, and unable to work for 25 years. Now a pensioner, I still need my DLA. Were I to lose that - and the benefits that depend on it - I simply could not survive financially.Which means I could not survive, period.

And yes, I do have my exit strategy already planned and in place. Have done for some time.

I agree with the comment about children, I only have one child as I feel I wouldn't be able to afford to have anymore and still have a good standard of living. I have known instances of people being on child tax credits and get £12,000 per year, this is just wrong!

I believe that the NHS and free education are a fantastic non negotiable source for this country, and growing up with a single monther on and off state benefits, im not sure what i believe. if you cant work for x amount of reasons, then yes, by all means, they should recieve some sort of government help. but if you are a well bodied person then the only time you should ever recieved "dole" money is is you prove that you are willing to get a job.
I recently went into my local job center where i overheard a 20-something year old Man shouting in rage because the lady who worked there offered him a job that was 2 miles from his home. "how am i meant to get there? by bus? your having a laugh mate" he was shouting, which just proves that jobs are out there, people just arent willing to take them. I am a 17 year old girl, with no college qualifications, but i have 7 gcse's in my pocket. I spent 1 and a half months looking for a job, and i now have 2 part time jobs and im getting people phone me up often offering me jobs. i went out and handed over 200 cv's in my local area. If you dont want a job, welfare is an easy life, you get your rent paid, money o the table, and who knows... pop out a few children you can get thousands in dependancy money.....

Sue March's film upset me.

As a tax payer, facing cuts in my local authority, and facing real cuts in my salary, Sue claims that some people will consider suicide if their "benefits" were cut. Is this an acceptable position to take with taxpayers?

I am forced to cut my own spending so that I can continue to provide for my family. It's shocking to think that while many of us fight hard to continue paying taxes to pay benefits...that anyone on benefits are thinking of taking such extreme positions. That's just disgusting.

I don't agree with the severity of the cuts, however it seems clear to me that the social contract between tax payers and those in receipt of benefits needs to change. I mean no disrespect, however people on benefits need to wake up and acknowledge that behind that "benefits" are people...hard working British people who honourably work and pay the taxes that pay those benefits. I don't expect personal gratitude, however I do expect a greater degree of understanding and thought beyond the selfish.

On my soap box. I accept there are people, due to their very serious physical/mental/medical conditions require assistance throughout their lifetime. I am happy for my taxes to contribute to their benefits. There are however those who face mobility issues but their "brain" is 100%. There are others still who are on benefits sue to technicalities, again who's "brains" are 100%. For the vast majority of people on benefits whose "brains" are 100%, benefits should be provided for a defined period to include mandatory re-skilling, funded placements leading to full employment. At the end of that defined period benefits can continue only in an apprentice scheme or placement.

Stop persecuting people who claim benefits. It's selfish and inconsiderate. Most people who have these prejudicial narrow-minded views are basing them on assumptions in any case. We all pay tax, even benefit claimants. The benefit system is a life line for many people who cannot work or are prevented from working through illness, age, caring for dependants/incapacitated or discrimination. All benefits are means tested and many have conditions attached. In fact many claimants work or volunteer. If paying income tax towards benefits is stressing you out.. stop working, claim benefits and you'll feel much happier. Let somebody who has to claim benefits have your job!! I am more concerned about the obscene wages gap, weird work-related bonuses and inequality. Addressing these topics would reduce the amount of money spent on benefits.

This Lady is spot on with her comments, those of us who have worked all our lives and paid our taxes feel aggrieved that people who have multitudes of children in order to claim benefit from the state then use this a a reason for not working, using the excuse that they would not earn as much money from working as they are able to claim from the benefit system. Something terribly wrong here! and the sad thing is that nothing ever changes as we keep paying out to those who know how to use & abuse the system.

In the past two months I have received notification of:

A 20% & 7% increase in my electricity & gas bills respectively, paid via a meter.
A £6.93 pw rise in my rent and a £7.82 pw decrease in my Housing Benefit as my partner moved out to take care of her elderly parents.
A £79 pm reduction in my Income Support for the same reason.
An extra £2.13 pm for the housing association caretaker.
A 50p per journey rise for using a disabled taxi service to go to & from hospital. (I have a free Bus pass but the local council plan to remove that in 2012.)

Add in a 30% rise in food prices in the last year.

It doesn't sound like much, right?

RPI amounted to an increase of £1.45 pm on my Disability Living Allowance (not Incapacity Benefit) and £2.46 pm on my Income Support. The Government is now trying to reduce this to 2.5% then 0%.

I worked for 28 years before I had to stop in high paid jobs paying a fair whack in tax. I didn't ask to get sick. There are millions of people just like me who would rather not have to claim these benefits but need them to survive.

Some of the commenters on this thread might want to take a moment and imagine what it's like to have your life change in this way. After all, it could happen to anyone and can only take a moment.

In addition, the Baroness got her figures woefully wrong. The true cost of benefit fraud and error can be found here: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd2/index.php?page=fraud_error

OK Channel 4. My last comment wasn't posted.. like buttons have been checked out.. screen shots have been downloaded.. complaint is on the way to Ofcom. This kind of contrived persecution must be stopped.

Erm... I would just like to point out to all those who are saying everyone, including those who are in some way sick or disabled, should be working, that UK unemployment total hit its highest in 17 years last month.

Everyone CAN'T work!

• 114,000 more people unemployed between June and August 2011
• Jobless rate hits 8.1%
• Jobseeker's allowance claims rise to 1.6m in September
• Youth unemployment rises to 991,000

Now, just tell me, if you were an employer, who would you employ? Someone who is sick and disabled and has been unable to work for many years? Or someone who has just come out of the job market and is healthy and able?

So, please stop suggesting that everyone can work. Even if they were physically or mentally able to, and wanted to (which most actually do!) - no-one will employ them.

The baroness spoke the truth far too many people see welfare as a career choice. This is further exacerbated by many immigrants arriving in this country to take full advantage of our welfare system! Why Great Britain because we are the soft touches!

What a fantastic Broadcast! You would surely get my vote too!

We are an economy in crisis yet the government still think that many families are entitled to benefits ...... if they are going to dish out frebees then i think benefit claimers shoud pay tax from it i visit so many homes wherebenefit claimers have got all the latest electronic gadgets, top of tha range 42inch plasma tv's and branded clothing yet we struggle to pay our mortgages and not to mention the huge amount of tax and national insurance that is taken from our wages...... if the crieria was strictor for claiments i believe less people would claim why should we pay tax and national insurance for benefit claimers to sit on theire bottoms all day smoking cigarettes or pot!!! its just too easy these days......I also know from experience that even getting in touch with the benefit fraud teamm they have little control over catching out benefit fradsters as they always seem to be one step ahead..... annual GP medical examnations i feel should be an essential part of the benefit system agreeing to claiments but i dont anything will ever change i have no faith in our government what so ever .........

Pauline off the league of gentleman says the unemployed are like pens, if they wont work you shake them, if they still wont work you throw them away. That is the attitude of the conservatives and its wrong. "public interest is the rule. but 90 percent of the public are idiots. so those idiots get catered to" I hope I dont get four years in prison for typing this. The law may say I am insisting a riot/revolution....

I fully understand where this person coming from I myself believe's by not signing on will drive you to go out there and find work trying to run my own business contracting at the moment and I have gone month's without making any money there is a Jamaican saying....

?"If you want good, nose a fe run." "That mean, if you're working in the U.K. or if you are working anywhere, and then by multitude of rain, flood or winter, you lie down in bed because you don't want to have a runny nose - you're going to starve. So if you want to get any good out deh, you have to go out deh and get that runny nose. You have to be in the cold. So your nose a fe run."

I think the good Baroness should tell us about her time on benefits and how she survived on little-to-no money while not even getting the courtesy of replies to her constant job applications and having everyone on the TV telling her that she's feckless and morally defective.

While she's doing it, she could explain why being a damn good student for three years and doing some serious volunteering during that time, doesn't even net me a basic office job.

Because, as a Baroness on some serious state benefits herself, she sounds like she's talking from a position of serious privilege and distance, not of experience.

One or two people have been very busy on the dislike button. Too much time on your hands ? I put my reply on after work !!!!

HUH Baroness....that is typical upper class! You haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. I'm currently on housing benefit and job seekers allowance while I hunt down a job and I worked for a solid 15 years before making my first benefits claim. I'm very grateful that I have this support from the government over wise I'd be homeless. So Baroness Shreela Flather please keep your un-educated thoughts to yourself.

Our hard earned money is also paying for people on benefits to stay connected to the internet too. How good is that ? I'll bet it's used more for facebook than job hunting. They've never had it so good. Get a job, there's plenty out there but you have to actually get out to look for them. C'mon NOW ! lazy.

Read in the Sunday Papers Peers can claim a tax-free attendance allowance of £300 per day. OK some days they earn it, but it seems fairly lavish to me. If a person is expected to feed themselves for a week on £55 or £65, a daily rate could use £9.29 as a starting point and add a concessionary travel pass to that.
Most places I've worked have required VAT receipts to meet legitimate business expenses, which I've been expected to meet out of my own pocket initially.
It is a privilege to be made a peer, it's not a job or a career.

53 pounds a week, now tell me do you think I'm going to have a wonderful life living off that, no I'm not. People that demonize welfare receivers I believe are irresponsible at best and evil at worse, I have been on job seekers quite a few times and have spoken to a lot of other people on benefits and they would all prefer to be working and it is quite an emotional blow when you loose your job to then be bullied by people saying your a scrounger when really your trying to get buy and I will tell you this I have to cut back on everything when on benefits, use of electricity the food I buy the clothes I clean, personal hygiene etc so don't ever tell me these people have it good cause that is a lie, also the minimum wage is not much better and remember this guys the lower the minunm wage the lower higher wages can be kept too. Blaming benefits seekers is disgusting and using the poor as a scapegoat and as always blinding us from the truth that the reason the economy goes bad is not cause of these people but because of a fraudulent banking system google fractional reserve banking and you will see it is the wealthy and the rich which are messing this economy up not the poor. a little side in 2008-2009 more money was lost to apparent workplace bullying then benefit fraud.... the governments own figures.......

Baroness, just a simple correction. An asylum seeker is someone who is fleeing persecution and does not not receive benefits. They receive cash support. £36.62 per week for a single person over 18. And they aren't allowed to work. So when you talk of Somali asylum-seekers being undeserving of benefits, it is a myth you speak of. Asylum-seekers deserve support in a humane support.

Common sense is not so common.

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

Absolutely right.

People will always push the boundaries but it takes the mickey for people to pay all their lives for people who can';t be bothered to work, so live off benefits.

People should receive enough to live on when they have recently lost their job but the amount should diminish if they fail to take on work that is offered. Better a toilet attendant than a burden on society.

I've worked, at the very least part-time, since I was 13 and full time since I left education. I have spent a few months on benefoits, but always been looking for work and have taken what I could. Despite being IT qualified, I have often worked in pubs and kitchens.

No-one owes anyone a life, but on the other hand, when someone really can't get back into work for whatever reason then they need support to be better able to do so.

Single mothers always take a lambasting when it comes to benefits but many of them claim to tide them over and these stories are not heard. I'm 17 and I have a twin. we live with our single mum. She has never claimed benefits in her life and was made redundant form her Legal HR post two years ago. My mum is not a lazy single mother and does all the work she can find to support us.

The single mothers that do grab the headlines are the ones often, not always, with inadequate education to lift themselves out of the hole. We need to address the education issue and make sure it is good quality and received by all.

Correct in every detail, well said. Just look at the Eastern Europeans who are in the UK finding work for themselves greatfully doing the jobs that the lazy welfare grabbing Brits can't be bothered to do. Its no longer a safety net for those who want to work, its a way of life for those that don't.

plenty of thumbs down to this one, what a shocker! if the shoe fits wear it.

Completely agree, benefits should be there to get people back on their feet when they fall on hard times not facilitate them to live off of everyone else.

I think we also need to concentrate on all the employers who throw people out of work at the first sign of illness, many people are willing to work but it's the employers who don't want them.

she says every thing right