Re:What made the Irish famine so deadly
by graemep on Tuesday March 11, 2025 @07:59AM
(#43331574)
Is that because of the structure of the assistance?
In the UK benefits are reduced as earnings rise, you then start paying taxes at an income (as an employee) of just over £1,000 a month (the employee NI threshold is £241/week). You lose 55% from the benefits reduction, then lose with taxes, then you lose various concessions such as lower rates of/exemption from the tax paid to your local government and help with utility bills, you may have to pay travel costs - so for some people working leaves them barely, if at all, any better off.
Would you work under those circumstances?
> Help must be conditioned to effort and have a limit, so recipients have an incentive to improve their conditions under some timeline.
So what do you do when people fail to meet that deadline? Let them starve?
In the UK benefits are reduced as earnings rise, you then start paying taxes at an income (as an employee) of just over £1,000 a month (the employee NI threshold is £241/week). You lose 55% from the benefits reduction, then lose with taxes, then you lose various concessions such as lower rates of/exemption from the tax paid to your local government and help with utility bills, you may have to pay travel costs - so for some people working leaves them barely, if at all, any better off.
Would you work under those circumstances?
> Help must be conditioned to effort and have a limit, so recipients have an incentive to improve their conditions under some timeline.
So what do you do when people fail to meet that deadline? Let them starve?