Housing Benefit Mythologies

Sat 16 Aug 2008, 17:25

Malcolm, if you're agreeing with me, I'm not quite sure I understand exactly how. Can you clarify?

Roger (and Mandy): My point is about prejudices and misapprehensions which I felt were apparent in Roger's original comment on the quarry thread regarding single mothers getting pregnant in order to acquire housing benefits.

If you read the link to the article I provided, you'll see fairly clearly that there is no substantiation to this myth and yet otherwise intelligent individuals to still seem to harbour under it.

Likewise, that old slander about asylum seekers taking advantage of the soft touch British system. In fact Britain only permits some 3% of the world's desperate refugees, a little under the average for an EU country. In fact, the Republic of Ireland takes in a larger percentage of asylum seekers per capita than Britain.

And asylum seekers don't just come to Britain, they go to any nation that subscribes to the UN Convention on Refugees (1947) and where they might find respite from torture or death.

It's true I don't rate the tabloids, but the 'true press' you think I rate in this instance is the UN monitor on the dispersal of refugees, the governmental body officially charged with keeping track of refugee numbers and movements in every country.

Would it surprise you to know, for instance, that Denmark has taken in a larger number of Iraqi asylum seekers than either Britain or the US, in spite of their having instigated the war that caused over two million refugees in the first place?

I'm sorry if these documented facts get in the way of your impressions; but far from being a soft touch, Britain has the highest recorded incidence of assaults and violence against asylum seekers than any other country in Europe.

The fact that you would immediately associate asylum seekers with criminal activity or conning the system without any substantial evidence to support this prejudice, merely proves my point.

Statistically, more native born male British subjects are prosecuted by the police for benefit crimes than either pregnant single women or asylum seekers (who by the way aren't entitled to any benefits nor are permitted to work until their application has been accepted and are kept in prison like facilities until such time).