AndrocatAug 2, 2023

Gentle reminder: Whenever someone is trying to sell you a story about welfare fraud, they're actually just trying to make it harder for deserving applicants to get the help they need.

Stories about welfare fraud are 100% about making it hard for people to get help.
Measures to combat fraud all amount to making the walls higher.
There is absolutely zero effort made to check whether it reduces valid applications, and also zero effort made to check whether it reduces fraudulent applications.

So, next time someone wants to tell you about "social scrounging" or whatever fancy-ass vocab they've made up for their bullshit, just tell them to go fuck themselves, in the nicest possible way.

Show threadदुःख блядьAug 25, 2023
@androcat Talked to a lady who worked for the tax authority here in Norway once. She told me straight away that welfare fraud is such a minor phenomenon that it has zero effect on the welfare budget. She followed that up by saying, "So we need to decide what kind of society we want - one where we're so afraid that someone might get some help they didn't qualify for, at the risk of depriving many others who need that help? Or one where we help folks through tough times and help them become tax payers again?"
A year or two later, I read a study that showed a significant amount of "welfare fraud" cases are folks who genuinely believed they qualified.
The more accessible benefits are, the better for everyone, ultimately.
Show threadMoon✨ (they/them)Aug 26, 2023
@souvlaki @androcat Absolutely, this is so true. The actual monetary value of what's lost due to fraud in welfare is nothing compared to what money our society loses out on because of fraud by rich people, like tax evasion and shenanigans like that. Here in the Netherlands a group of people were wrongfully considered fraudulent and lost everything, because there is no fighting the tax agency. Now they got a check of €30k, while they may have lost their house, children and some even their lives. Many have yet to receive even this, but it's just lazy. We wronged you, here take this random amount of money that will probably not even solve the severe problems we caused.

This is the society we are heading for when we continue on the path philosophies like this have laid out for us. It makes me angry, but also really sad.
Show threadAndrocat

@break1146 @souvlaki And there is reason why welfare systems exist.

There's literally a cost to society when people can't get the help they need.

It costs everybody when someone gets evicted, or when someone has to work two jobs, or when a kid can't get the assistance they need to make it in school, and so on.

It doesn't benefit anyone to let people suffer and struggle.

Aug 28, 2023 at 7:46amWeb
Show threadKenneth John BardsleyAug 28, 2023
@androcat @break1146 @souvlaki
The Tories and GOP think it does.