A few days ago we had need to go to our local supermarket so that my wife could pick up some essential supplies for our evening meal. It had been a long hot day and I was tired and not really in the mood for fighting my way through the hordes of shoppers so I elected to remain in the car while my wife did the shopping.
By chance I had parked facing the bay full of disabled parking spaces. I would have to wait for about twenty minutes or so for my wife to return. After a minute or so a car pulled into one of the disabled bays and a young woman jumped out and ran into the store. She did not appear to be disabled in anyway but to be fair she did have a disabled sticker in her car window.
This woman started me thinking about the whole issue of disability and the fact that it seems that today, normal white people are probably discriminated against more than any other group. Now I’m not having a go at disabled or coloured people in any way, I know people in both groups and have the greatest respect for them.
After about five minutes the young woman re-appeared, still running, carrying a packet of cigarettes. She jumped into her car, put in reverse and drove away. Not very disabled I thought! Of course it is not my job to judge other is it?
Then to my surprise, another car pulled into the same bay. After a few moments another more elderly woman got out, locked the car and walked briskly into the supermarket. This made me focus more on what was happening in the disabled parking bay.
I got out of my car and walked over to a bench beside the bay where I could watch what was going on more closely. All the vehicles seemed to be displaying disability badges. Within a few minutes a gentleman, about 50’ish, pushed his trolley up to the back of a large BMW 4x4, and proceeded to load his shopping into the back. He left the trolled beside his car, got in and drove away.
“Well” I though, “he could have put the trolley back.” He did not seem to be disabled in any way either!
The time was moving on and I was expecting my wife to reappear. Another woman returned to her car, loaded it and got in and drove away. She did not look disabled either. I could not believe what I was seeing. The only movements in the disabled parking bay appeared to have perfectly healthy drivers.
After nearly thirty minutes had passed a rather old van appeared and drove slowly into one of the empty spaces. It was sporting a disabled badge just like the others. An old man struggled to get out of the driving seat and was having trouble standing up. I could not help myself - I quickly jumped up and walked the few feet to assist him. At last, someone who was genuinely disabled I thought.
He thanked me, but then added that it was not him who was disabled, but his wife in the wheelchair in the back of the van. He would not allow me to help him extract her via a hydraulic lift to the ground saying “When I can’t unload her, I’ll have to stop driving”. He then added “If it was just me I’d have parked in a normal space!” and chuckled.
We all laughed!
My wife then returned and as we drove away I wondered how many non disabled people who had disability badges for other members of their family always parked in a disabled bay when no disabled person was aboard! It is just not right!
“Jim!” my wife said, bringing me back to the moment, “You are naughty … fancy parking in a families only bay, next you’ll be parking in the disabled bay!”
Hmmm … Who am I to talk?
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Monday, July 05, 2010
Friday, July 02, 2010
Should Everyone Be Entitled to Benefits?
In the UK we are faced with a huge deficit which mounts to thousands of pounds for every man, woman and child in the country. Irrespective of how we got to this situation and irrespective of who might be to blame, we are all obligated to do our bit to help reduce that sum.
Now some people can afford to contribute more than others, while others really cannot afford to contribute anything. The new government says that we must get rid of waste and cut back on all services which are not essential. Whatever the arguments are and whoever puts them forward, many will not want to contribute and will continue to do the opposite and milk the system.
Why should people who have family income exceeding say £40,000 per annum receive Child Benefit or Family Tax credits, while there are many pensioners who live on less than £150 per week and get nothing!
I don’t wish to go into the rights and wrongs of this but instead I want to pick up on a point that the Chancellor made during his recent emergency budget speech.
He spoke about the issue of Child Benefit and whether it was right that all should receive it irrespective of their financial position. He said that restricting who received child benefit would result in a huge cost to setup and administer and therefore was not viable. Interestingly we still pay the huge operational costs of the administration of over 100 other benefits. Thousands of people get benefits that they are not really entitled to and thousands do not receive benefits they should get.
Is it not about time that we changed all this?
How about this for an idea?
Create a completely new benefit system to replace the existing worn out system. It would be simplified and centralised and would control and distributes all benefits to all people. Each person who wishes to participate would go online (or be assisted by a local benefit office) and complete a detailed benefit registration. Any medical report would be provided by the doctor, again online and a complete record built up of the applicant’s situation. Housing benefit would be paid depending upon how many children you have and where you live and subjected to a maximum amount per week. All other benefits could be taken into consideration.
Once this had been done, the applicant would be informed about the level of benefit they are entitled to, if any. The amount due would credited to their bank account each week or month. More importantly each claimant would receive a plastic card with their photo and basic details on. This card would have a star rating of 1 to 3 stars and depending upon the rating would indicate what additional benefits they could get. For example if they have three stars they get free travel on public transport at any time and they might get prescription charges paid in full. If they have a two star card, then they get these things at 50% discount, or a one star at 25% discount.
The advantage of such a scheme is that there is better control; individuals get what they are entitled to without having to make dozens of different claims and fill out dozens of different forms, many with the same information. Tax and earnings information should be reported weekly or monthly instead of annually and the details kept against the person records.
Yes you might think this is complex, but look at the current DVLC vehicle licensing system, you can do it all online and they already know if you have a valid driving license, motor insurance and MOT certificate if required.
I always thought that the ID card system was a great idea, after all - anyone who does not have anything to hide should have no objection to such a system. We live in a complex world and whether we like it or not there has to be some controls. People who argue that it is not right that our personal details be recorded are actually living in cloud cuckoo land.
Our information is recorded everywhere!
Why not have a system where the information is kept centrally and the relevant information is made available only to those who are licensed to see it. Even things like our fingerprints, DNA and photographs should be recorded for every person in the country. It would help reduce crime dramatically!
Yes I know that people would abuse the system, avoid being on the database and try and forge information, but this already happens in a huge way with all the various database and systems currently being used.
What do you think?
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Now some people can afford to contribute more than others, while others really cannot afford to contribute anything. The new government says that we must get rid of waste and cut back on all services which are not essential. Whatever the arguments are and whoever puts them forward, many will not want to contribute and will continue to do the opposite and milk the system.
Why should people who have family income exceeding say £40,000 per annum receive Child Benefit or Family Tax credits, while there are many pensioners who live on less than £150 per week and get nothing!
I don’t wish to go into the rights and wrongs of this but instead I want to pick up on a point that the Chancellor made during his recent emergency budget speech.
He spoke about the issue of Child Benefit and whether it was right that all should receive it irrespective of their financial position. He said that restricting who received child benefit would result in a huge cost to setup and administer and therefore was not viable. Interestingly we still pay the huge operational costs of the administration of over 100 other benefits. Thousands of people get benefits that they are not really entitled to and thousands do not receive benefits they should get.
Is it not about time that we changed all this?
How about this for an idea?
Create a completely new benefit system to replace the existing worn out system. It would be simplified and centralised and would control and distributes all benefits to all people. Each person who wishes to participate would go online (or be assisted by a local benefit office) and complete a detailed benefit registration. Any medical report would be provided by the doctor, again online and a complete record built up of the applicant’s situation. Housing benefit would be paid depending upon how many children you have and where you live and subjected to a maximum amount per week. All other benefits could be taken into consideration.
Once this had been done, the applicant would be informed about the level of benefit they are entitled to, if any. The amount due would credited to their bank account each week or month. More importantly each claimant would receive a plastic card with their photo and basic details on. This card would have a star rating of 1 to 3 stars and depending upon the rating would indicate what additional benefits they could get. For example if they have three stars they get free travel on public transport at any time and they might get prescription charges paid in full. If they have a two star card, then they get these things at 50% discount, or a one star at 25% discount.
The advantage of such a scheme is that there is better control; individuals get what they are entitled to without having to make dozens of different claims and fill out dozens of different forms, many with the same information. Tax and earnings information should be reported weekly or monthly instead of annually and the details kept against the person records.
Yes you might think this is complex, but look at the current DVLC vehicle licensing system, you can do it all online and they already know if you have a valid driving license, motor insurance and MOT certificate if required.
I always thought that the ID card system was a great idea, after all - anyone who does not have anything to hide should have no objection to such a system. We live in a complex world and whether we like it or not there has to be some controls. People who argue that it is not right that our personal details be recorded are actually living in cloud cuckoo land.
Our information is recorded everywhere!
Why not have a system where the information is kept centrally and the relevant information is made available only to those who are licensed to see it. Even things like our fingerprints, DNA and photographs should be recorded for every person in the country. It would help reduce crime dramatically!
Yes I know that people would abuse the system, avoid being on the database and try and forge information, but this already happens in a huge way with all the various database and systems currently being used.
What do you think?
+
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