don't worry , that'll all change soon. well, I mean Kevin 07 promised, didn't he ?
Seriously, on the realistic side, underpayment is only there because there is too much overpayment.

Wiz., Chainsmoker & Ginx,

My own thoughts completely echo yours.

I was also lucky enough to grow up in an extremely privileged background and had many experiences that the average person merely dreams about. But then I spent eight years after fleeing back to Australia at the other end of the scale and have been homeless, jobless and alone with two kids to bring up, as quite a few people on this forum know. I have therefore intimate knowledge of life at the top of the heap and so far below it that I was floundering around in the middens.

It is undeniable that some people cheat welfare. It is equally undeniable that Welfare ...well "cheats" is too strong a word...but it certainly does the wrong thing by them. If that side of Centrelink SNAFUs got as much publicity as the dole cheaters do perhaps public perceptions might change. Welfare recipients, many of whom are poorly educated, have no representatives however, and up against a big Government department, have little or no chance of their voices being heard. Even the occasional story that does get a public airing certainly carries little weight: Welfare recipients as a group have no power and no clout.

I do not condone cheating and have never done. But I can whip up no fervour whatsoever against those who do. Yes. Its morally wrong and if it led to such people living a life of luxury and ease I would find it a bad gap in the system that should be plugged.

But it usually amounts to the fact that they can buy a mobile phone, or a second-hand computer, or rent a few more DVDs or whatever. They will still never own a house, buy a new car, go away on holiday packages, eat in decent restaurants.

It bloody poverty per se we should be attacking in this so-called Land of Plenty. Not the poor sods who are trapped by it.

I was not so lucky, but I do know that not even the most well meaning person could support the real theft that is taking place.
I am unconcerned about the tax man, but the theft is straight from the pockets of the true poor, just think what we could do with the savings.
Just maybe pay a living pension.
I always , sorry no offense, have trouble with the middle to high income earners views on poverty.
It is true that actions such as those I report hurt real jobs, real small business men, and it is a crime isn't it?
Consider one case in ten thousand 30 year old on the dole for ten years.
Got his first job, left after a week, it got in the way of his social life?
If social conscience blinds us to miss use of welfare payments I fear for the true poor.

Belly, what do you mean "straight from the pockets of the true poor"?

I thought you were complaining about dole-cheats. Dole money comes from all taxpayers, and mainly from middle to high income earners.

I pay more in tax than most of these people ever earn. In the scheme of things, it just honestly doesn't perturb me that there are those that try to extract higher social security payments than they are technically entitled to. I'm far more worried about why they're in a position to need those payments in the first place. Let's address the root causes, not the symptoms.

When sole parents were created in thew 1980"s we all felt sorry for them and the fatherless children ,today the new rich are the sole parents on the dole on the child support and getting cash in hand

Oh Brock, do your honestly believe that? How many single parents on benefits do you know well enough to be intimate with their financial affairs? Of those, how many are "rich"?

I do not doubt that that somewhere, someone is managing to live quite comfortably in the way you describe. I however have never met nor heard stories about friends of friends who were managing to do so. We have all, I guess heard the apocryphal tales, but hands up those who have had personal contact with this "class" of people?

My seven years of close association with single parent families on benefits was of people struggling to make ends meet...and all wondering where these so-called high-lifers were hanging out.

Were you employing irony when you spoke about single parents being "invented" in the eighties?