"Brown considers training payments"

As Tory spokesman, Chris Grayling MP (Con, Epsom & Ewell) points out ...

"Last month Gordon Brown wanted contracts and benefit cuts for those who refuse training. This month he says he wants contracts and benefit increases for those who accept training. Once again he's chasing headlines by latching on to a scheme in New York that has only just started, and no one yet knows if it works."

The main reasons* why our welfare system is so corrosive are:
a) It is far too complicated and overlaps with the tax system,
b) It encourages single-motherhood and long-term sickness (real or imagined),
c) It discriminates against couple families and discourages people from taking on short-term or low-paid jobs (like apprenticeships!) or staying in education,
d) It is a tad too generous to those right at the bottom (which is why there are over five million of them), and
e) The marginal withdrawal rate is so high, that a household with one earner on an average income is only a few quid a week better off than a workless household.

Now, how the f*** is overlayering all that with yet another no doubt savagely means-tested benefit going to help?

* All of which would be solved by replacing the whole thing with a Citizen's Income scheme, of course.