Saturday 24 May 2014

Supporting the people who need welfare

There is a definite issue with the social support we give out to old age pensioners. Free bus passes, free TV licences, winter fuel allowance and free prescriptions. Some pensioners fully deserve these because of their low incomes but some can afford it.  Why can a person living in a million pound house get free bus passes and prescriptions. How do you set up a system which supports those who need it yet doesn't also give those who don't need?  I fully understand that to Means Test everyone will probably cost more in administration than it  saves. So how do we do it? How about taxing these things? If people who are paying tax were taxed on these benefits, bus passes,prescriptions and winter fuel allowance,then it's a simple matter of altering a tax code so that those paying the most tax get no benefit from the social payment.  Those paying no or little tax will get the whole or part of the amount due to them.  No need to means test since the tax office knows a persons income and can easily alter the amount taken away.  Savings will become automatic then and those who deserve it will get it.

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