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Eurocrats sparked fury last night by ordering the UK to double dole payments.

The Council of Europe claims the handouts given to Britain’s jobless are ‘manifestly inadequate’.

Ministers have been told they are in violation of the European Social Charter – potentially opening the door for claimants to take the Government to court to get more money.

But ministers say obeying the diktat from the Council, which oversees the controversial European Court of Human Rights, would cost the UK billions of pounds and plunge efforts to reduce the deficit into chaos.

To comply, Jobseeker’s Allow- ance (JSA) would have to be hiked by £71, from £67 to £138 a week.

Last night Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused the Council of Europe of ‘lunacy’.

He told the Mail: ‘This Government has made great strides in fixing the bloated welfare system we inherited from Labour. It’s lunacy for the Council of Europe to suggest welfare payments need to increase when we paid out £204billion in benefits and pensions last year.’

The Council said Britain had signed up to the Social Charter, which is ‘a legally binding economic and social counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights’.

The charter sets out a level of income which certain key benefits – including the JSA, Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and State pension – must provide. Britain’s JSA, ESA (both £67 a week) and pension (about £102) all fall well below the £138 a week, or £596 a month, that the Eurocrats have set as the benchmark.
Because all three are below a second threshold of £110 a week, they are rated ‘manifestly inadequate’.

The Council cannot directly punish the UK for these ‘violations’, but its officials say national courts refer to these international standards when deciding on relevant cases. This means benefit claimants could try to use the Council’s condemnation to bolster their case for more money.

Tory MPs last night reacted with anger. Douglas Carswell, Conservative MP for Clacton, said: ‘We simply cannot afford to spend more money on welfare.’ Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘The Government can no longer stand by. They have got to say, “We’re sick to the back teeth of this interference, we’re going to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights”.’

Last night a spokesman for the Council of Europe said the committee is well aware that changes in benefit payments ‘can be extremely difficult to bring about, certainly in the short term’.

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I hope it happens, then the mother of that kid on tv who lives on toast and sleeps under his mam's coat can pack her job in and get some decent money' then perhaps that twat Paul O Grady will stop whining and begging, either that or give her some of his money,he's got more than me!

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Having just demolished a meal of two Farmfoods pork steaks,(4 for £2) mashed taters,two veg and gravy plus quarter of chocolate swiss roll covered in custard....total cost no more than £2....I agree with you Ashley.

Mother and child even on the totally rubbish minimum wage don't need to live on toast....loada cobblers. Especially as she would be getting help with other expenses too.

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If the French and the Germans meet this requirement,then I agree with them...follow suit...

OR GET OUT OF EUROPE

The French dole is about £145 pw and you are allowed 2 years or 3 years for the over 50s on the dole, before you get what is called RSA which is about £95 pw,

More info here http://www.pole-emploi.fr/accueil/

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re the paul ogrady ad and the child if parent that bad of would get free school meals so he would get one good meal per day in term time

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I just cannot understand this "advert" If this woman is getting the minimum hourly rate then there must be millions as bad off as her?

if she's not then her employer needs shopping

Maybe the left wing multi millionare Mr O'Grady (a recent tv contract paid £9.5 million over 3 years) could find her a position at his luxury home in Kent or working in the 200 acre grounds? (to give a comparison the size of The Forest Recreation Ground is 80 acres)

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Re item 8 no wonder the French economy is in the Pooh. I work for an agency with no guaranteed weekly wage. At my age I would struggle to get a job. If the minimum wage went much higher, I wouldn't get it as I would have no job. Higher job seekers allowance would mean higher taxes for both employer and employee. We have done enough to drive our industries to other countries. The only way to more prosperity is to get out of Europe and its stupid rules.

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We'd have the entire population of Romania and Bulgaria here in weeks.

Minimum wage would have to rise to prove that, "Everyone is better off in work".

It's a gift to UKIP.

Depends 20 hours on min wage is not good.

40 hours on min wage is O.K. ?.....just!

And what about zero hours contracts?

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Congratulations, Bubblewrap.....................................now you start to ask where the time goes and how you managed to get all those things done when you worked as well!

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YES come March my allotment takes up quite a bit of time.

300 + square yards of ground is a lot to look after when all I have is a spade,fork & hoe.

The weeds never go on holiday. ;)

P.S. I've been on pension credits since I was 60.

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If you are over 60 &unemployed(qualifing age now later) you can tavke your state pension early.

It is not the full pension but it is better than JSA I got £115 a week instead of £60 JSA

My pension will be come next Friday £143 a week plus I have two small private pensions amounting to about £50 a week.

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