SCROUNGERS WON'T WORK FOR LESS THAN £30K - 30th Dec 2008 2:43am
THOUSANDS of Brits are refusing to look for a job because they can rake in more than £30,000 a year in benefits.
An amazing 20,000 households collect more than that figure and a whopping 140,000 families claim over £20,000 a year.
And it means some will not even consider hunting for work because it’s so much easier to sit back and let the state support them.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling branded the figures “shameful”.
He added: “I think most hard-working people will find it astonishing.
“To have a situation where so many households are getting such great sums of money from a welfare state just serves to undermine the vast majority of people who work hard for their money.
“It creates a shameful situation where people can live a life on benefits. It really is time the Government got a grip on Britain’s benefits culture.”
The Conservatives said many families – like telly’s Royle Family – collecting handouts were better off than those with somebody in work.
It’s a kick in the teeth for British workers, half of whom take home less than £20,000.
The shock figures come weeks after it emerged that even shamed kidnap mum Karen Matthews was collecting more than £400 a week in tax-free benefits before she faked her daughter Shannon’s disappearance.
Half of all full-time women workers earn less than £21,424 a year. And one in ten full-time workers earns less than £13,613 a year before taxes.
Britain’s total benefits bill is now £61billion a year.
Whitehall poured scorn on the figures last night, claiming the numbers were mainly families with disabled adults or children.
A spokesman for Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said the Government was bringing in new rules to make life on benefit less easy.
He said: “This is classic Tory hypocrisy. It’s time Chris Grayling got serious on welfare reform,” he added.
An amazing 20,000 households collect more than that figure and a whopping 140,000 families claim over £20,000 a year.
And it means some will not even consider hunting for work because it’s so much easier to sit back and let the state support them.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling branded the figures “shameful”.
He added: “I think most hard-working people will find it astonishing.
“To have a situation where so many households are getting such great sums of money from a welfare state just serves to undermine the vast majority of people who work hard for their money.
“It creates a shameful situation where people can live a life on benefits. It really is time the Government got a grip on Britain’s benefits culture.”
The Conservatives said many families – like telly’s Royle Family – collecting handouts were better off than those with somebody in work.
It’s a kick in the teeth for British workers, half of whom take home less than £20,000.
The shock figures come weeks after it emerged that even shamed kidnap mum Karen Matthews was collecting more than £400 a week in tax-free benefits before she faked her daughter Shannon’s disappearance.
Half of all full-time women workers earn less than £21,424 a year. And one in ten full-time workers earns less than £13,613 a year before taxes.
Britain’s total benefits bill is now £61billion a year.
Whitehall poured scorn on the figures last night, claiming the numbers were mainly families with disabled adults or children.
A spokesman for Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said the Government was bringing in new rules to make life on benefit less easy.
He said: “This is classic Tory hypocrisy. It’s time Chris Grayling got serious on welfare reform,” he added.
