Because there might be social stigma around your medical condition, the fact that you've ever been homeless, that you don't have custody over your children and aren't receiving benefits or any number of things.
You earn your pay check, receiving one means that you're valued. Maybe not as valued as someone else, but valued none the less. Benefits are received because you need them, sometimes because you've been through hardships.
I have no problem with finding people who game the system, but I don't think the public are the ones who should do that job.
Well just publish a lump sum. Taxes paid: x €, benefits received: y €. Where's the problem with that? Medical costs could be excluded (medical care is practically "free" here ie. paid by taxes).
I wasn't talking about medical costs, I'm talking about benefits received while you're sick. This article is about Norway, and just like in every other Scandinavian country, after a while the state pays for their medical leave. That's a benefit, wether or not the actual cost of treatment was paid by the state or not.
The problem with doing that is, again, the social stigma. Why did you receive 3 times the normal average of benefits for a period? Were you a fuck up? It's comparable to the mug-shot websites in the US; if an employer sees you on that site, they don't care if you were ever indicted, what the crime was, if the officer was found to be acting incorrectly; you just had the bar raised for you, and this sucks if you were innocent because then there really is no reason. I can see the same thing happening if someone can see your unusual benefits, regardless of wether you deserved them or not.
You earn your pay check, receiving one means that you're valued. Maybe not as valued as someone else, but valued none the less. Benefits are received because you need them, sometimes because you've been through hardships.
I have no problem with finding people who game the system, but I don't think the public are the ones who should do that job.