Sense of Entitlement

I learned something new the other day - I discovered that people in the UK can claim child benefit even though the child is living in another EU country.

Now the source of this information was not some swivel-eyed Tory - but no less than David Blunkett - a senior figure in the last Labour Government, of course, who has been banging on about this for ages, apparently.

Not that I'm surprised I have to say - because I only found out recently that UK citizens living abroad, say in Spain, can also claim for 'winter fuel' allowance - evn though they're retired to the sun.

Now how bonkers is that?

Not all all according to readers of the Daily Mail - who filled the newspapers on-line comment pages with terrible stories of how cold it can get in Spain sometimes - so why shouldn't they be entitled to the extra cash.

One chap even had the cheek to say that air-conditioning costs in Spain fully justified the payment of his winter fuel allowance - in the sense that for ex-pat Brits in Spain it was just as important to keep cool in a hot climate - as opposed to staying warm in a cold one.   

Here's what the chap had to say:

"It takes as much energy to raise temperature as it does to decrease temperature. So somebody living in Spain when its 40C in summer uses air conditioning to cool the house temperature to say 25C is the same as somebody living in UK in winter using central heating to increase temperature from 5C to 20C. If they have paid taxes all their working life them both are entitled to the same heating allowance."

What staggers me is the sense of entitlement - the conviction that because someone paid or pays taxes - that they are justified in claiming a benefit which was clearly intended for a very differrent purpose.

To my mind that's what's wrong with the UK's system of welfare benefits - which are in urgent need of reform to stop this kind of ridiculous behaviour.