by Nichola Hunter

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

The question posed over whether people should be dependent welfare was one that until recently, i would have casually considered and flippantly discarded. It is a question currently thrusted into the public eye, as Labour ponders over cutting benefits of those who do not actively seek employment. It is a question that is relevant to over a third of the people living in this country. I am not one of them.

I believe that the problem of welfare and benefits lies in their availability. Free money! Come and get your free money! Got no job? Can't pay your bills? Fed up of struggling to make ends meet? Then get down to your local social security office today to claim your free money now! Please do not take my vivid sarcasm for cold-heartedness. I understand that a large proportion of an older generation did not have the support, opportunities or education that is so often taken for granted nowadays. Therefore many do not posses the right training or skills required from ever-increasing, demanding employers. There is also a huge proportion of single mums. Whether teen-mums, widowers or abandoned mums, bringing up a child with no income is impossible.

Whatever the reason for relying on benefits, I think no-one should become dependent on welfare. A stepping-stone: yes, a helping hand: yes, a living: no. I can understand why people would become dependent on welfare. You get a roof over your head, food shopping vouchers, clothing vouchers etc. without lifting a finger. What more could you wish for? It is all too easy and for some they know no other way of surviving.

The problem i have with people who are dependent on welfare arose from my current life situation. I am working full time in a bar in a not very desirable area of Northern England, an area that is all too familiar with this current topic. Ask the locals who discovered the Laws of Gravity and they would shrug nonchalantly. Ask them to describe the benefits that they are entitled to and they get technical. I promise I am not generalizing.

Let me set the scene: I am working in a run-down pub owned by a well established company and due to the area, I occasionally run into undesirable clientel. One of which decided to scream profanities at me and then turn to his comrade and claim: 'She's just a useless barmaid'. In my head I tell myself to let it go, just let go, rise above it, you are better than that and have nothing to prove...
'for your information mate, I actually have an honors degree in Philosophy. Oh yeah, I

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