Social Security Versus The People

When I first stood back in 2008, one of the two things I was campaigning against was the Income Tax Department's wilful disregard for the Income Tax law.

Well, thanks in no small part, I'm sure, to a then-Deputy Gorst, the Income Tax Department mended its ways and started obeying the law.

Since then, that deputy has gone on to become Chief Minister and it would appear that the Income Tax Department has thought that he would be too busy to notice if they went back to the law-breaking ways. And they're right.

The really bad news is that other departments have see the Income Tax Department getting away with it and have followed suit. One of these departments is Social Security.

They break the law by independently re-calculating income. They do it so that the figure is higher so you pay more social security and receive less benefits. However, if the figure that they get differs in any way from the figure calculated by the Income Tax Department, then they're guilty of trying to defraud the public.

Let me tell you about Paul. He was a gardener and handyman who diligently paid his social security throughout his entire working life which was about 40 years. Then he got cancer and became too ill to continue working. So he turned to the Social Department for the help he had paid for only to receive a letter telling him that they had re-calculated his income and he was £2 over the limit and he wasn't going to receive a penny

I'd like to ask the minister in charge and all the civil servants involved

How did it make you feel stealing from a dying man?

Did you feel good?

Did it make you feel powerful?

Did you pat your selves on the back because you'd "saved" the department so much money?

How did it feel to turn the cornerstone of a civilised society into an abomination?

Well, I hate to disappoint you but it didn't make much of a difference to Paul because he died a few months later. But that's another story for another evening

So I'd like to end by leaving you with two questions to think about:

1. How many more people are currently living with hardship this very second because the social security department is denying them the support that they are legally entitled to and have paid for?
2. How come I know about this and the 11 standing members wanting to be senator don't? Is it because they don't want to know because this is all about ordinary people and it's not to do with finance or construction?