Jeremy Clarkson has criticised people receiving benefits, suggesting claimants should have to send taxpayers grateful emails or risk losing their payments.
The Clarkson’s Farm presenter outlined the proposed system in a column for The Times. His comments followed discussion of possible tax rises to fund adult social care in England.
What did Jeremy Clarkson say about benefit claimants?
Jeremy reportedly compared people claiming personal independence payment (PIP), as well as other benefits, with his three dogs.
After describing his pets as “uber benefits scroungers”, he discussed the money he had spent on their veterinary care and the attention they required when unwell. He then argued that his dogs showed him affection and gratitude in return.
Jeremy wrote: “At present, people who work hard, feed, clothe and entertain those who won’t work at all. And what do we get in return? Nothing.”
He went on to suggest that each claimant could receive the email address of a randomly chosen person who goes to work. Under his proposed system, the claimant would then have to send that worker a message every time their benefits were paid.
“It’s very simple. Every week, when the benefits are paid, the recipient is given the email address of a randomly selected person who is getting up and going to work every day,” he wrote.
The presenter used £194 as the weekly amount in his example and offered a mocking suggested message about the claimant buying a larger television.
“And they are told that unless a proper and genuine email is sent, thanking the working person for their generosity, the benefits will stop. And I’m not talking about a cursory ‘thanks mate.’ I want fulsomeness. I want to hear what they’ve done with the £194 I gave them that week,” Jeremy continued.
“And I want effusiveness as well. I want to feel their gratitude. ‘It is SO kind of you to go to work every day so that I don’t have to. Thanks to you I was able to buy an even bigger television this week.'”
Why did Clarkson make the comments?
The remarks came after Andy Burnham declined to rule out tax increases as one possible way of addressing England’s adult social care funding problems.
The Prime Minister had also promised action following decades of government inaction. He warned that funding the system would involve “difficult decisions”.
Jeremy responded by arguing that people receiving support should show more gratitude to the taxpayers funding it.
He ended the column by suggesting that having to write the emails might lead some PIP claimants to decide they did not have “a head-based neurodivergence issue after all”.
His thank-you email system was presented as Jeremy’s own suggestion in his newspaper column, rather than an announced government policy.
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