访谈录 2010-08-19&0821 Iain Duncan Smith 提升就业率的计

And the key problem is that people who are out of work are trying to go into work. They are not clear at all that going into work actually pays. Because what happens is that you're going to work, the withdrawal¹ rate for individual benefits as are said is thirty to fifty. All that different rates could lead to what we call marginal rates reduction. Tax rates are ending up to ninety five pence in a pound which means, basically, you'd keep five pence out of every one pound that you earned. And this is complex and nobody can understand it. So the result is people we understand do not, even make the effort or change because they don't feel that they will be better off and so they spend their time on benefits. A very good example of that is, you know, about 1.5 million people they will take, of actually being on benefits for nine out of the last ten years. We have the largest number of workless households in Britain with the largest number of children growing up in workless households in Europe. It’s ... But maybe some of those people are unable to work. I mean, forgive me for bowling² this at you. But we have had quite a few emails on the very, this topic matters this morning. But, this from Miss T. Gates: Twenty years ago I lost sight of my left eye. Despite that for last five years I plodded³ on earned qualifications. I would love to work. I’ve applied⁴ for 40 jobs. The problem is, employers can’t see past the label of disabled. No good changing the system, the jobs aren’t there. And there are maybe many more who would like to work, but simply cannot, because the system in terms of employment is wrong rather than the benefits system.
Well, with respect, of course, those individual cases are dealt with; we have things like Incapacity Benefit from moving on to employment support allowances. Those are the changes. The disability living allowances for disabled people. And those support payment for disabled people. They are not work-related. They are not included in this. What we are talking about is people, about five and a half million people of working age at the moment in the UK, simply do not work during the course of the week, these are not the ones looking after families or carers of sick people. They are excluded. Five and a half million people, as I said, of those, nearly 1.5 million people have been out of work for nine out of the last ten years. We go to some areas in Britain, where you get two and three generations of people in an area, who have never held a job in their lives. And this is of course madness. And the reason it’s there is hugely due to the complexity⁵ of the system. One of my senior officials, the other day, happened to go into a job center to look at what was going on. An official there was working out for a lone⁶ parent who’d come in, having been in work for a few hours, had an offer for a few more hours, couldn’t figure out whether it work for her. It took that official 45 minutes with computer programs to work out whether that person in front of them was going to be better off or worse off if they took the extra hours. This is a system of madness, complexity that leads to disincentives of people going to work.

1 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

2 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

3 plodded   

v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作）

参考例句：

• Our horses plodded down the muddy track. 我们的马沿着泥泞小路蹒跚而行。
• He plodded away all night at his project to get it finished. 他通宵埋头苦干以便做完专题研究。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

5 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

6 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。