There's no justice in the world.

I don’t usually read the ‘trade’ magazines which we get at work, deeming them too dull and boring to merit my attention. It is hard to think of a more stultifying title for a magazine than ‘Local Government Lawyer Today’ or ‘Public Sector IT’.

However today a strap line on the front cover of one of these august publications caught my eye, highlighting the escalating cost of benefits and how other local authority services (like mine) are struggling for funding because of it.

Now if there’s one thing which exercises me politically, it’s why I should be burdened with supporting the welfare state when I have never taken a penny from it in my lifetime and I see profligacy and waste all around from its recipients?

That is, of course, a sweeping statement which tars all with the same brush. And I do accept that there are many deserving people out there drawing on the state’s purse who thoroughly deserve to be helped in many ways, whether with money or with caring. But there are lots that don’t, and several of them seem to live in my area.

I am going to cite one particular family as an example. This family have six, soon to be seven, children. God knows where they all sleep in a three bedroom semi! The father doesn’t work in the conventional sense and when she isn’t pregnant or nursing an infant, the mother would appear to work as a shelf stacker doing night duty, so presumably earns comparative pennies. Both these adults are physically fit, although we understand the Dad has some sort of mental difficulties around socialisation (but there are lots of jobs which require lone workers). The children all have large numbers of toys and some quite expensive stuff, such as a mini motorbike and fishing gear. For a bit of cash in hand (we guess) ‘Dad’ often goes off with loads of good quality gardening equipment (certainly better and more powerful than we have), returning later in the day. Their garden and house is immaculate partly due to ‘Dad’s somewhat casual earning arrangements which leave him plenty of time at home and partly due to the fact that the Council has, to the best of our knowledge, provided a new kitchen, bathroom and roof for the property within the last 3 years. The kids all go to school and are immaculately turned out.

These people cannot possibly support six children on income support and shelf stacking wages, probably just two adults would be a struggle, and now they are bringing a seventh child into the world. We can only assume that they are doing it for the money, a jaundiced unkind view but one fuelled by the fact that presumably they have lost money in the government’s benefit reforms and caps and are now looking to bump up (no pun intended) the monthly income.

I’m doing something wrong here. All my life I have worked hard, even when my daughters were small, to make my own way in life. I pay my taxes and my bills and I would never deliberately bring about a situation for my family which I could not support financially. And yet this family are not alone, and the situation is tolerated.

If it were me, I would change the law to say that the maximum number of children that the state would support is two. Any more than that and you’re on your own; after all, contraception is free on the NHS and our population is expanding at an alarming rate which needs curbing. I would issue child allowance in food vouchers and in vouchers which could be used at Boots for ‘baby’ supplies such as nappies and children’s clothing and not in cash. Rent and Council Tax would (if it has to be paid) be paid direct to the local authority or landlord, and the remaining benefit would be paid partly in food vouchers and only partly in cash. Those drawing benefit would have to have regular health checks by a qualified nurse to ensure that they are not smoking or excessively drinking and if so, part of their benefit would be withdrawn to encourage them to stop. The savings that were made would pay for the nurses tenfold.

This does, of course, all sound a bit like a Communist State and rather extreme. But The Hubby and I (actually mainly The Hubby, out in the rain yesterday) have just spent this weekend – all weekend – sorting out things on our property to maintain its value and we both work all the hours just to we can pay the mortgage and have a decent quality of life. No one subsidises us and whichever way we seem to turn, there is another bill to be paid or another unexpected expense.

I’m sick of it. And now we have been told that if we want to retire, we’ll have to wait until we’re 67. These people are in their early forties at most and are probably younger, and living a better basic quality of life on the state than we’ll be able to afford for the next 15 years despite their ever expanding tribe of children. Oh, and I don’t have any money at work to run my service and even the slightest investment has to be justified by endless reports and cost benefits analyses because…. wait for it …. bloody social care services are mopping up all the cash. So we’re back to where we came in, aren’t we?

Oh, if only I were in charge........