Drug tests for welfare recipients

poppyvally

Some states in the U.S are testing welfare recipients for drugs .They reckon anyone who can afford drugs dosent need assistance. Does anyone think this is a good idea? or would it work here




http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/welf-m18.shtml

IrishAm

No issue with it. But like all these newly proposed measures for access to social welfare benefits, they should have been introduced when work was widely available.

Tombi!

Under the Tennessee bill, welfare applicants will be required to pay for the test themselves.

So if they spend their money on drugs they won't take the test and won't be caught?

christmas2012

Its ostrasizing communities,who will have the money for drugs if they are applying for welfare?It will make some people resent the government,not to mention the waste of money to implementing it ..

yammycat

and again more begrudgery, how about drug test for the kunting bankers who rightly fuked this country, how about that

girl in the striped socks

Would the same apply with alcohol?
I don't really think its anyone's business what someone spends their money on, be it alcohol, drugs, prostitutes etc

Jen Pigs Fly

I would have to agree, fed up with these scroungers spending the states money on drink, drugs and in the bookies :mad:

snubbleste

Free drug testing for all!

jam_mac_jam

If the same rules are carried out for alchohol or cigerettes then maybe, but it wont will it? Harder drugs stay in your system for a shorter period of time then canabis for example so there are also other side effects of such a system. Not really black and white.

Temptamperu

Why just welfare heads? why not everyone seeking employment too?

Kurz

Test them for Sky TV Joe.

veronymus

Or how about drug tests for everyone? If you're employer knows you can afford drugs, then they can adjust your pay accordingly.

yammycat

xxxJennyxxx wrote: »

I would have to agree, fed up with these scroungers spending the states money on drink, drugs and in the bookies :mad:

your taxes are going towards paying off gambling bankers debt, not poor peoples drink or drug habbits

srsly78

yammycat wrote: »

and again more begrudgery, how about drug test for the kunting bankers who rightly fuked this country, how about that

Damn right. Anyone in finance not testing positive for cocaine should be fired immediately.

IrishAm

Temptamperu wrote: »

why not everyone seeking employment too?

Some companies do.

Markcheese

Look we don't kick people who cheat off the dole ( yes it's a small number) , do you really think we'd drug test ....
In the uk they use lie detector soft ware during phone interveiws to target investigations on rent allowance ( housing benefit) ... It works , but we wouldn't do it ...

filmbuffboy

surely there are more cost effective ways of weeding out the wasters from those genuinely seeking work????

what about those who smoke cigarettes, drink coffee, drink alcohol? should they be tested too?

frozenfrozen

Bring back food stamps i say

Rango555

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/08/98_of_florida_welfare_applicants_pass_newly_implemented_drug_tests_discrediting_governor.html

"Net savings to the state: $3,400 to $5,000 annually on one month’s worth of rejected applicants. Over 12 months, the money saved on all rejected applicants would add up to $40,800 to $60,000 for a program that state analysts have predicted will cost $178 million this fiscal year."

Sunnyisland

filmbuff boy wrote: »

surely there are more cost effective ways of weeding out the wasters from those genuinely seeking work????

what about those who smoke cigarettes, drink coffee, drink alcohol? should they be tested too?

And don't forget obese people

yammycat

Tax payers are paying off 250 billion of banking debts, prawn cocktail munching ass hats who cost us 250 billion, and still you get mad over some lad spending his hundred quid on booze, its hilarious , only in Ireland.

The money the bankers lost that you all are repaying but are too thick to see anything but the lad drinking on the corner could pay for 2.5 million people drinking benefits for 10 years

so yea get mad at the guy drinking his benefits, his benefits are 1% of your tax, 99% of your tax goes to the well do do lovie dovies who don't spend benefits on drink, they just sh1t the country down the toilet while trying to get maaad rich. And laughing too because nobody cares, they are too mad they have to work and johnny spends his 100 quid on booze while they have to work, omg i have to work while he drinks (too fukin thick to realise the huge tax i pay is to subsidize gambling bankers and not to pay for Johnny's booze )


if you are concerned about how anyone spends benefits you are short a few pennies and are part of the problem

Scioch

I dont see any reason why the state should be funding someone drug habit. But then again should they be funding someones chocolate orange habit ? Or paying someones sky bill ? Or fags ? Of fancy biscuits ? Or scoops ?

You cant make people account for how they spend their money and if your testing for drugs you should be testing for alcohol and nicotine too. And looking at how we run everything else here it would cost a fortune and do fcuk all.

filmbuffboy

yammycat wrote: »

Tax payers are paying off 250 billion of banking debts, prawn cocktail munching ass hats who cost us 250 billion, and still you get mad over some lad spending his hundred quid on booze, its hilarious , only in Ireland.

The money the bankers lost that you all are repaying but are too thick to see anything but the lad drinking on the corner could pay for 2.5 million people drinking benefits for 10 years

so yea get mad at the guy drinking his benefits, his benefits are 1% of your tax, 99% of your tax goes to the well do do lovie dovies who don't spend benefits on drink, they just sh1t the country down the toilet while trying to get maaad rich. And laughing too because nobody cares, they are too mad they have to work and johnny spends his 100 quid on booze while they have to work, omg i have to work while he drinks (too fukin thick to realise the huge tax i pay is to subsidize gambling bankers and not to pay for Johnny's booze )


if you are concerned about how anyone spends benefits you are short a few pennies and are part of the problem

exactly! only in ireland....

Royal Irish

Everybody should buy johnny a beer.

LimerickSports

i think its a very good idea, but could be too harsh, if someone just smoked a joint at a party its not like other people on the dole who spend all there money on weed, drink and other drugs they dont deserve social welfare so i think its a brilliant idea if they test how much drugs are in the system etc. but will also need to put these people into some sort of rehab or care rather than cancelling their welfare making them homeless and addicted to drugs

Jen Pigs Fly

yammycat wrote: »

your taxes are going towards paying off gambling bankers debt, not poor peoples drink or drug habbits

Arn't taxes not going towards social welfare too?

srsly78

xxxJennyxxx wrote: »

Arn't taxes not going towards social welfare too?

Don't be coming in here ruining the thread with facts and the like.

andrew

Yeah, I'm sure junkies love the fact that they have to spend what little money they have on heroin. I suppose that once they stop getting the money for said heroin, they'll just magically stop being addicted and everything will be OK.

I know that that's an extreme example, but in general its a bad idea I think. Only an individual can know what's best for them, unless they have an addiction, in which case they should receive treatment for that addiction.

Blowfish

yammycat wrote: »

Tax payers are paying off 250 billion of banking debts, prawn cocktail munching ass hats who cost us 250 billion, and still you get mad over some lad spending his hundred quid on booze, its hilarious , only in Ireland.

Not true, it's just over 60 billion.

yammycat wrote: »

too fukin thick to realise the huge tax i pay is to subsidize gambling bankers and not to pay for Johnny's booze )

That's not true either, very little of the deficit is due to the bailout.

yammycat

Blowfish wrote: »

Not true, it's just over 60 billion.
That's not true either, very little of the deficit is due to the bailout.

how much of the deficit goes to johnny's booze which you are all so concerned about ?

mikemac1

Temptamperu wrote: »

Why just welfare heads? why not everyone seeking employment too?

Lots of companies do

I worked on the factory floor of the local American multi-national.
Wasn't a top job, I worked on the line

Had to do a drug test
Everyone did

It's not uncommon in Ireland but it's more the multinationals who do it

Royal Irish

LimerickSports wrote: »

i think its a very good idea, but could be too harsh, if someone just smoked a joint at a party

But most people in AH's think people on the dole shouldn't even be at parties. They should be at home eating cold beans out of a tin while looking for a job in a newspaper by candle light.

poppyvally

girl in the striped socks wrote: »

I don't really think its anyone's business what someone spends their money on,

" THEIR" money is funded by taxpayers

srsly78

Royal Irish wrote: »

But most people in AH's think people on the dole shouldn't even be at parties. They should be at home eating cold beans out of a tin while looking for a job in a newspaper by candle light.

So long as the beans in question are not a premium brand.

yammycat

poppyvally wrote: »

" THEIR" money is funded by taxpayers

and if you lose your job the same will go for you.

MagicSean

girl in the striped socks wrote: »

Would the same apply with alcohol?
I don't really think its anyone's business what someone spends their money on, be it alcohol, drugs, prostitutes etc

Because it's money that should be going to help people instead of to dealers. Personally I all welfare money should be accounted for. No drugs, alcohol, smokes or nights out. if you are struggling and need help then that's fine, i have no problem helping you. If you want luxuries then get a ****ing job and stop scrounging off the rest of us.

i wouldn't stop there though. A job seeking and skill development diary should be kept by all recipients of JSB and JSA. No single parents allownce should be provided without details of the other parent (with certain obvious exceptions) so the state my persue them for costs. JSA and JSB recipients should be required to perform volunteer work.

AlmightyCushion

Markcheese wrote: »

Look we don't kick people who cheat off the dole ( yes it's a small number) , do you really think we'd drug test ....
In the uk they use lie detector soft ware during phone interveiws to target investigations on rent allowance ( housing benefit) ... It works , but we wouldn't do it ...

No they don't simply because lie detection software doesn't work. It's way too unreliable.

Sunnyisland

Its costs our state an estimated €3.7 billion from alcohol abuse,That's a lot more than all the illegal drug addicts put together,So why don't we start with our biggest addiction first and see how we go from there.


http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=estimated%20%E2%82%AC3.7%20billion%20cost%20to%20the%20state%20from%20alcohol%20abuse%2C&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishexaminer.com%2Fireland%2F37bn-the-hidden-price-of-alcohol-165393.html&ei=xqvwT__CMY60hAfkt9GWDQ&usg=AFQjCNFhFnVDczg9kkbNdBdzW6G_Ty7rnA

Varied

Legalisation and taxation would bring in more money than any of these half-measures.

MagicSean

yammycat wrote: »

Tax payers are paying off 250 billion of banking debts, prawn cocktail munching ass hats who cost us 250 billion, and still you get mad over some lad spending his hundred quid on booze, its hilarious , only in Ireland.

The money the bankers lost that you all are repaying but are too thick to see anything but the lad drinking on the corner could pay for 2.5 million people drinking benefits for 10 years

so yea get mad at the guy drinking his benefits, his benefits are 1% of your tax, 99% of your tax goes to the well do do lovie dovies who don't spend benefits on drink, they just sh1t the country down the toilet while trying to get maaad rich. And laughing too because nobody cares, they are too mad they have to work and johnny spends his 100 quid on booze while they have to work, omg i have to work while he drinks (too fukin thick to realise the huge tax i pay is to subsidize gambling bankers and not to pay for Johnny's booze )


if you are concerned about how anyone spends benefits you are short a few pennies and are part of the problem

Typical uneducated nonsense. The majority of the annual deficit is public sector wages and welfare.

While I can see the point in drug tests, they're just not realistic.

It would cost a bomb to test every person on welfare for drugs.

Then there's the method of testing. There are many ways to cheat a drugs test, depending on the test, so the tests would have to be very stringent.

Then there's the fact that the proportion of people who are hard-working people well deserving of welfare are usually a bit embarrassed about it, if not very ashamed (I'm not saying they should be, just that most people I've known on the dole were) about it. Drug testing them would only add to the amount of people out of work that develop depression.

Take the money that would required to perform the drug tests, and instead use it to pay for house calls merely to check the claimants are in the country. That'd save us quite a lot of cash.

Blowfish

yammycat wrote: »

how much of the deficit goes to johnny's booze which you are all so concerned about ?

Total social welfare spending is about €20 billion. It's anyone's guess as to the details of the breakdown of this.

Jester252

I would love to see this system in place. Its bad enough that we have to pay for them to get clean so why should we pay for them to get high in the first place.

irishpaddy

poppyvally wrote: »

Some states in the U.S are testing welfare recipients for drugs .They reckon anyone who can afford drugs dosent need assistance. Does anyone think this is a good idea? or would it work here




http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/welf-m18.shtml

what the ****. how many of the ****ing bankers that brought the world to almost a standstill are on drugs. they can do more damage by not being on the ball then any social welfare recipient. when you are on welfare. maybe its time to have a time when we say no more, **** you if you think you can live without the poorer people in the world to clean your **** houses etc. if you dont need them to spend their few bob on all the crap the rich make. they should remember to get to the top of the ladder there has to be a first rung on the bottom, so is the bottom rung more needed then the top rung,, maybe.:mad:

srsly78

irishpaddy wrote: »

what the ****. how many of the ****ing bankers that brought the world to almost a standstill are on drugs. they can do more damage by not being on the ball then any social welfare recipient. when you are on welfare. maybe its time to have a time when we say no more, **** you if you think you can live without the poorer people in the world to clean your **** houses etc. if you dont need them to spend their few bob on all the crap the rich make. they should remember to get to the top of the ladder there has to be a first rung on the bottom, so is the bottom rung more needed then the top rung,, maybe.:mad:

People on the dole clean our houses now!?

goose2005

Royal Irish wrote: »

But most people in AH's think people on the dole shouldn't even be at parties. They should be at home eating cold beans out of a tin while looking for a job in a newspaper by candle light.

Candle light, is it? Can't they just read the paper when the sun's out? Or hold it under a street light? And that better be a freesheet, I'll not have these people squandering 1.70 on the Indo.

MagicSean wrote: »

Because it's money that should be going to help people instead of to dealers. Personally I all welfare money should be accounted for. No drugs, alcohol, smokes or nights out. if you are struggling and need help then that's fine, i have no problem helping you. If you want luxuries then get a ****ing job and stop scrounging off the rest of us.

i wouldn't stop there though. A job seeking and skill development diary should be kept by all recipients of JSB and JSA. No single parents allownce should be provided without details of the other parent (with certain obvious exceptions) so the state my persue them for costs. JSA and JSB recipients should be required to perform volunteer work.

As with the Florida example, such a scheme would consume a mountain of administrative costs and save very little.

up for anything

Wouldn't it be much more cost effective to shoot anybody who has been in receipt of any type of social welfare for longer than, say, six months. Also shoot any dependents they have. It wouldn't take long that way to reduce social welfare spending and it would galvanise those who were coming up to their sixth month to take a job, any job. :rolleyes:

charlemont

yammycat wrote: »

and again more begrudgery, how about drug test for the kunting bankers who rightly fuked this country, how about that

True and I reckon none of them ever get randomly searched on the street either.

MagicSean

goose2005 wrote: »

As with the Florida example, such a scheme would consume a mountain of administrative costs and save very little.

That would depend on how it was implemented.

Channel Zero

MagicSean wrote: »

Personally I all welfare money should be accounted for. No drugs, alcohol, smokes or nights out

And how would you like to enforce this? Let's see..

I have a suggestion. Let's ankle-tag all unemployed people!

If they attempt to buy a bottle of wine on a Friday night, or God forbid, enter a local pub or restaurant with their loved one on a "night out", the guards can be immediately dispatched to the scene.

I don't like using these much but here we go, just for you:

mattjack

So mrMattjack, you gave a dirty urine in your test , have you taken any opiates recently ?

Yes , boss. I had a headache and took some solpedeine.