Benefits could be lower in Bristol than in London

“@ Pete303North - "Tax evasion is a civic duty, not a crime."

What rubbish. Civic duty is the social force that binds you into doing things like obeying the law and also paying taxes that provide the money for essential public services the vast majority value highly, such as health, education, policing, defence...What you say is therefore self-contradictory.

Tax evasion is always going to benefit the rich and super-rich more than anyone because they can afford the top lawyers and accountants needed to make it legal. Civic duty aside, this alone make what you say very unfair on the vast majority of the population.”

“Hahahaha deary me.

We all know those that deliberately pop out a kid every 18 months from the age of 16 onwards will still get loads of money and free housing as the government wouldn't want to be seen to increase child poverty.

The losers will be those people that behaved responsibly, got a job and were made redundant and find themselves in a situation where there genuinely aren't enough jobs to go around.”

“Tax evasion is a civic duty, not a crime.”

“I will never understand why people defend THESE BENEFIT SCROUNGERS now is the time to change things once and for all .”

“Why doesn't this toffee nose idiot of a prime minister concentrate on creating more opportunities for those people on job seekers allowance that want to work & then go after all his old chums from his old school, college & his club who have been sneaky enough to employ unscrupulous accountants to avoid paying tax which only goes to make this country poorer. If all the rich individuals & corporations paid their taxes like the small people do then worrying about a few bone idol job seekers wouldn't be such an issue, so come on Cameron you W@NKER of a prime minister do the decent thing & stop kicking the poor people at the bottom & go after your chums you TORY BULLY.”

“From what the PM said (or didn't say), surely it's the case that benefits in Bristol could be higher than London?

But that would been balanced reporting without the knee-jerk emotive scare-mongering.”

“H'mm. Would you describe someone as 'vulnerable' when they've made the career choice to pop out a sprog every year to keep the benefits up?”

“Jimwormold - I kind of agree that there may be other areas of spending that need to be addressed in order of financial burden. However, it amazes me that so many people stand up for the benefits culture. Its pretty typical to refer to the 'most vulnerable memebers of society' but that's not what most want targeted - I would happily see benefits for the truly disabled doubled or trebled - I want to see the thousands in families with several generations never even trying to work or better themselves using us taxpayers to fund their chosen lifestyle.

When defending people's choice of living off the state perhaps we should also think not just in terms of the money side of things but also the other affects on society of this rapidly growing shamless society - its not healthy for anyone to have such a lifestyle so why are so many happily standing up to support them.”

“@Big_Gregory "Not many countries have this benefit culture burdening them."

Most that I would want to live in do.

By the statement, you also imply that the most vulnerable members of our society are a burden, rather than being a part of the society which is in need of assistance. I'm not really sure that this is a healthy view.

Granted there are those that cheat the benefits system but as @nickthompson points out there are far riper low hanging fruit that should be the priority.”

“This is a toe dipping exercise to see how well it will be received. A watered down solution will be implemented and a few pennies will be saved.”