On Bromley Common the other day I met and was photographed with Stan Green who is a Bromley Common-based self-employed builder. Like me he was concerned by people who get a lot more money on benefits than those in work.
Last week I talked to a managing director of a small company whose office is very close to my own in Beckenham. He told me about one of his staff who recently left his firm. The employee was a young woman who was a very effective operator who did not want to quit her job. Neither did the managing director want to lose her. He had paid her £16,000 a year and she had no quarrel with that – agreeing it was fair and proper pay for what she did.
The problem was that by the time she had paid her taxes, National Insurance Contribution, fares to and from work as well as incidentals like lunch, she was better off on benefits because they gave her £14,000 in cash without her having to leave home. The managing director would like to have paid the young woman more but he could not and the young woman accepted that.
I write this story to explain why the Conservatives are trying to make work pay more than being on benefits. Of course it is nonsense if being on benefits pays more than working for a living. I think nobody on benefits should get more than the average wage. That is hardly fair. Obviously we are not there yet but if Labour achieves office such moves may well be dead in the water.