Who is real scrounger?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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I have just been reading an account of life as a "postman" in one of the private mail services that are now poised to take over Royal Mail.

Now bear in mind that many of the points that the writer made about minimum wages and "zero hours" contracts – you are not given any guarantee of how much work, if any, you will get in any week – are common now across many employers.

I will also assume for a moment that you, the reader, are untroubled by both the privatisation of Royal Mail, and the fact that jobs in Royal Mail that offer reasonable pay and a pension are to be replaced by casual, poorly paid workers.

However, as taxpayers should we not be troubled by the amount of money we are having to pay out in benefits to workers whose employers won't pay them a living wage although it seems they can afford to pay top managers millions while avoiding corporation tax?
While there may well be concern over the cost of public sector pensions, what about the cost to taxpayers of keeping the current private sector employees in their old age now that many no longer have any worthwhile pension provision?

To say nothing of the fact that declining rates of owner occupation and rising rents mean that the taxpayer ends up lining the pocket of private landlords through Housing Benefit.

If I were to paraphrase a well-known saying "who then is the benefit scrounger". Might it just be that these days it isn't a few of the unemployed but many employers?

John Boxall

Grange Road

Frome

[UnhappyGremlin]

True.
But can't believe the Government would have thought of this, and if they have, they'd still ignore it, as the futures problems won't be theirs.

[pcb]

Converting public money in to private money. Soon it will be too expensive to give workers occupational pensions. So in the future private companies can charge huge premiums for the basic pension. Simple just like the NHS it will be covertly privatised and we will end up with an americanised health care system. Plus it is a Conservative led government what did you expect?