£35 MILLION!!!! I work hard and pay a lot of taxes. I save for my retirement. I pay for my own house, currently nearly £1000 per month. I then have bills etc on top. I pay for prescriptions. I pay for school dinners. WHAT A MUG I AM. My wife and I have seriously discussed giving up work and claiming benefits. We would be no worse off and have free time all day every day. We are in well paid jobs, bringing in about £50000 a year between us. Why should we bother? Claimants should be made to conduct unpaid work in the community. Everybody would benefit.

So with almost a thousand pound a week in your pocket you would advocate that the sick, disabled, seasonal workers and senior citizens are sent to the workhouse on a daily basis, no wonder this country is in the state it is in with selfish, self centered people like you, perhaps you should become a councillor thinking only of your selves at least you would be among friends

Castle crusadar has got the wrong end of the stick. Obviously there are some people who should be looked after because they have no other means of support. What I am talking about are the situations where there is no obvious reason for the lack of employment apart from laziness. There is crap about no jobs but when I was a student I went to the job centre daily and got 3 jobs to run at the same time just to pay off some debts. The problem is the benefit system does not encourage people to work because they are better off not working in a lot of cases. This would benefit everybody because there would be less of a burden on the social security bill allowing more investment in hospitals, education etc. Taxes could be lowered allowing more disposable income which can then be spent therby creating more jobs. The arguements go on and on. The true systeme of looking after everybody was communism. Look how well that worked and that was probably the most corrupt system of all!!

Well at least an attempt to justify your badly floored argument.

Out of interest and needing information for an article on the number of jobless in Sca In Jan 08 I contact the local Job Centre Plus apart from the information on the number of jobless I also found out there was only 1 vacancy on there books which was part time and at the minimum wage.

As for the burden on the social security bill you suggest more could be spent on hospitals and education and I will agree, however education in your case has failed you miserably or are you just thick, crusader, thereby, arguments and system these are all the correct spellings unlike the ones in your article.

Now lets get to the nitty-gritty of your argument 'taxes could be lowered' So this is what you are really griping about, well sir let me tell you I have worked for 50 years to bring up my family paying tax and everything else required but without complaint as to who gets what, did your parents get family allowance for you, were you educated by the state, did you pay privately for the birth of your children, do you not use the NHS? stop moaning you have had your share in the past and no doubt will continue do so in the future.

In conclusion you refer to communism, The vast majority of us prefer to call it the welfare state and if you advocate dismantling this wonderful system to get yourself lower taxes may god save us from you and your ilk.