Benefits culture

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Really? Some have made a great life for themselves here, others I know live 8 to an apartment, eat only rice and beans and send every penny back to their nation of birth.
You need to get into more factories where minimum wage is the norm mate, it ain't pretty I guarantee that.
It was sarcastic in response to the post I quoted!
 
Really? Some have made a great life for themselves here, others I know live 8 to an apartment, eat only rice and beans and send every penny back to their nation of birth.
You need to get into more factories where minimum wage is the norm mate, it ain't pretty I guarantee that.
When you have an unlimited supply of people willing to work for minimum wage or less then there will be no push factor for these people to work.
 
I overheard a conversation at the club today about Britain and it's benefits culture, seemed to be 2 views on offer.

1) All fit and able bodied people should earn their benefits by working for them doing things such as litter clearance and the various other tasks that local councils don't have the money to fund.

or

2) They should be allowed to sit at home and contribute nothing to society as forcing them to work for benefits amounts to slave labour and infringes on their human rights.


Your views on this?

An equivalent already exists. If you have been looking for work for a while and haven't found anything your work coach can offer you a job -0 and if you don;t take it you'll be sanctioned.

My son was sanctioned for refusing a job at Tesco - stacking shelves on zero pay. He refused it because Tesco tried to give him a criminal record 5 years earlier for a very petty shop lift - police told Tesco top stop being silly (vindictive)
 
When you have an unlimited supply of people willing to work for minimum wage or less then there will be no push factor for these people to work.

This is why (so we are told) we have to cut the unskilled workforce coming from overseas. So that our unemployed can be forced to get out of their flea-pits to work for a pittance on a zero hours contract. Attractive.

I was speaking with one of my sons 24yr old mates at the weekend. He has just got a job - full time contract - on £7.05 an hour. He doesn't care that it is only £7.05/hr - it is the fact that it is full time contracted hours that is making his heart sing. And he is like a pig in clover with his take-home of £1000 a month.

Zero hours contracts are as far as I can see a huge disincentive to getting folk into work. The hassle of claiming in-work benefit when on a zero hours contract is a nightmare when the lad explained it to me.
 
i have yet to meet anyone that couldn't get a job that wanted one. when the recession hit my friend lost his job as a site manager on 50k a year. he was sacked Friday morning And started working Tuesday morning packing cardboard boxes for minium wage. how did he do that when everyone else was looking for a job? he walked into every factory and shop in the area and got lucky after 9 hours.

there's always work. i drove past Domino's pizza today and saw a sign "drivers wanted"

Which area of the country do you live in?

I mainly agree with get them to do litter picking, painting badly off pensioners homes and all other "community schemes" BTW. I'm also from a family that has its fair share of long term doleites, and also some who struggled to find work in the late 70/early 80's, when 3-4 million unemployed was the norm.

Ok, there isn't that level of unemployment now, but you cant fit all people and all areas into one nice easy label.

Hobbit for PM!
 
And for me there in lies a problem. 3 million unemployed and 3 million Eu workers. By my simple reckoning there should not be one person from this country unemployed. There should be three million people paying tax, there should be three million less people claiming benefits.
The question is,,Why is that not the case.

Agree in part, lets go back to 1930's Germany then, think that worked for them......
 
This is why (so we are told) we have to cut the unskilled workforce coming from overseas. So that our unemployed can be forced to get out of their flea-pits to work for a pittance on a zero hours contract. Attractive.

I was speaking with one of my sons 24yr old mates at the weekend. He has just got a job - full time contract - on £7.05 an hour. He doesn't care that it is only £7.05/hr - it is the fact that it is full time contracted hours that is making his heart sing. And he is like a pig in clover with his take-home of £1000 a month.

Zero hours contracts are as far as I can see a huge disincentive to getting folk into work. The hassle of claiming in-work benefit when on a zero hours contract is a nightmare when the lad explained it to me.

Is £7.05 a legal wage? Its below the minimum for someone over 21.
 
Agree in part, lets go back to 1930's Germany then, think that worked for them......

My response was mainly being sarcastic, but and it is a massive but. 3 million eu migrants travel from the far reaches of the eu to work in this country. Doing all kinds of skilled, semi skilled and dead end jobs. Then we have some members of our public that quite frankly have no intentions of doing a days work. Yet more than get by, how's that supposed to be right. That should be addressed and sooner rather than later.
 
One thing that has not been mentioned yet is working a max of 16 hours. Some people want to do more than 16 hrs, but to do so means they lose benefits or end up working for nowt. Again if needs looking at
 
One thing that has not been mentioned yet is working a max of 16 hours. Some people want to do more than 16 hrs, but to do so means they lose benefits or end up working for nowt. Again if needs looking at

Yep it does, I have a 20 hour part time vacancy. I approached someone I know, the job is ok pay and fully flexible, any hours within the week just do 20 of them. Instant reply was no thanks I will be worse off, better keeping my benefits and not have to bother working. It's a nightmare really. He has no reason not to work we have to accept we are using our taxes to pay him to not bother working.

To add opposite me is family with 4 kids under 10 and a mum and dad. Housing association. 1 works part time the other not at all. They have 2 cars, virgin TV had a week in Spain last summer and seem to have a better time of it than pretty much everyone in the cul de sac. I know there aren't millions of them but every time I see them I think why do you get benefits and working tax credits and reduced council tax etc etc I know I don't. The scales are wrong and if you are on the gravy train well your luck is in but if you aren't you are screwed.

Re balancing is harder than it looks but these working tax credits that boost pay are and have been a slippery slope to when the businesses don't have to pay a decent wage and tax payers make up the difference and once on it it's not easy getting people off it.

Benefits should be a safety for those that are in need and those most at risk and I think all people agree with this what they are not is easy street which for some they have become.

I have another example, I had a lady working for me, she was pregnant and her boyfriend kicked he out and left her out to dry. The housing association gave her a 2 bedroom terrace house in a town centre, great property and exactly what she needed no issue at all. 18 years later she has a new husband, her daughter is grown up she has a joint income of £60k with her husband and they still live there, paying £96 a week rent. It isn't right, the property should be being used for people like she was not for like she is now, she can afford now to pay her way but she cannot be made so continues along happy as larry even knowing if she and her husband lose their jobs they will keep their property.

The above is what makes people angry
 
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I suppose the problem here is the Unemployment benefit and income support where never designed as a long term, it was supposed to tie you over until you got a job. Now there a a few who its a lifestyle choice.
 
I suppose the problem here is the Unemployment benefit and income support where never designed as a long term, it was supposed to tie you over until you got a job. Now there a a few who its a lifestyle choice.

Too true. I genuinely feel for kids who are growing up watching their parents doss about thinking it's the norm.

The lack of apprenticeships don't help these kids getting a chance neither.
 
This is why (so we are told) we have to cut the unskilled workforce coming from overseas. So that our unemployed can be forced to get out of their flea-pits to work for a pittance on a zero hours contract. Attractive.

I was speaking with one of my sons 24yr old mates at the weekend. He has just got a job - full time contract - on £7.05 an hour. He doesn't care that it is only £7.05/hr - it is the fact that it is full time contracted hours that is making his heart sing. And he is like a pig in clover with his take-home of £1000 a month.

Zero hours contracts are as far as I can see a huge disincentive to getting folk into work. The hassle of claiming in-work benefit when on a zero hours contract is a nightmare when the lad explained it to me.
Minimum wage traps many people on low wages due to the numbers of overseas people hapy to work for it as its four times what they can earn in their own countries.

Why on earth is this Lad wanting in work benefits if he is taking home £1000 a month?
 
Too true. I genuinely feel for kids who are growing up watching their parents doss about thinking it's the norm.

The lack of apprenticeships don't help these kids getting a chance neither.
In 2015/16, there were 509,400 apprenticeship starts in England, 9,500 more than the previous year
 
In 2015/16, there were 509,400 apprenticeship starts in England, 9,500 more than the previous year

You can throw stats about as much as you like, my point still remains.

Funding from the government for apprenticeships has been slashed dramatically. It's costing firms too much money to employ them. I know 2 Assessors who have been told that after this years students have finished that's it, no more new starters.

A few of their ex colleagues who work for other companies have been told the same.
 
I also see the other end of the scale, doing casework for the British Legion and Ex-Servicemen's and their families asking for food vouchers or help with white goods or stairlifts etc.

When I interview them I have to fill out a financial statement and it's ridiculous just how little some survive on.
 
You can throw stats about as much as you like, my point still remains.

Funding from the government for apprenticeships has been slashed dramatically. It's costing firms too much money to employ them. I know 2 Assessors who have been told that after this years students have finished that's it, no more new starters.

A few of their ex colleagues who work for other companies have been told the same.
Please show some evidence that government funding for apprenticeships has been slashed?

http://apprenticeships.qa.com/employers/government-funding-and-grants

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-apprenticeship-funding-to-transform-investment-in-skills
 
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