Feature: Benefits system needs changing, says employer

EVERY day Simon Goodwin gets up at quarter to five to start work at his fish filleting business in Riby Street.

"Sometimes I wonder why I bother", he says, before launching into an outspoken critique of the country's benefits system.

As an employer since 1999, Mr Goodwin says he has witnessed the corrosive effect that the welfare state has had on the work ethic of the population.

"We have people coming for jobs and then when they get here, they say they can't work those hours because it will interfere with their benefits. The benefits system is offering them more to stay on the dole."

The 47-year-old says there has been a marked change in the attitude of potential employees over the past 15 years.

"Young people have just become lazier and they don't want to know physical hardship.

"The benefits system has meant they don't have to do anything. It has created a culture that doesn't want to work and that wasn't the case 20 years ago. It's frightening. My lads work a lot of hours and pay a lot of tax and these people come here and they don't want work.

"I would do away with the benefits system completely, apart from really needy cases. We have gone soft.

"The government needs to change the rules.

"They need to give these people food tokens instead of money and then they will probably get off their backsides and look for work."

Mr Goodwin's strong views are borne out of what he perceives as the injustice of a system which rewards the idle and punishes the grafters. "I pay a lot in taxes and I see people walking around with a can of beer in their hand with no intention of doing a day's graft. I get up at quarter to five every morning, and don't get home until six or seven at night. They seem to enjoy life a lot more than I do."

So why does he bother?

"At the end of the day I have got a bit of self-esteem and I want to provide for my family, I don't want somebody else doing it."

Mr Goodwin, who has worked in the seafood industry since the age of 15, once claimed benefits himself, when he was made redundant by Bluecrest.

But he insists: "I was straight back into work as soon as I could. When I was on benefits it was only for a short period and we weren't given what people are today."