What happens to state benefit in a recession

_bankrupted

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think they will have to now. Never in the history of mankind have so many received so many different kinds of benefits and top ups. It's unprecedented.

As wages drop and jobs are lost, they'll have to really look at cutting down the nebulous ones.

Hey Pastures..

I thought you were going to say..

"Never in the field of Human Benefits was so much received by so many from so few"


.

leveller2911

olly300 wrote: »

I was taught to read at home but when I was taught again at school I was taught phonics. However we also were taught the alphabet.

For some strange reason though kids for about the last fifteen years haven't been taught the alphabet as well when they are learning to read. I just find that plain weird as it presumes kids are thick.

All the kids I know and met have been taught joined up writing. In fact the thing that has been in for the last 15 years or so is to teach them joined up writing from the beginning.

So unlike you and I their natural handwriting style is joined up.

I actually don't write joined up when I'm filling in application forms as even though I was in a primary school where we had handwriting lessons and did my cousin's handwriting homework as a teenager it's easier for me not to write joined up if I want it to be legible.

So it sounds like your friend teaching a college is teaching the kids who aren't that bright.

I think joined up writing should be a progression , forming letters and words neatly is so important its the foundation of so much more...

Its like building a house, if the foundations are good then the chances are it will be a good house...Poor foundations and there will be problems in the future... You are right in that they are not the brightest of kids, BUT there were so many of them,it wasnt one or two....

beingjdc

moggylover wrote: »

We are in the Wild, Wild, West of Wales - much further West and we would get wet feet:D . I

Well, in the last year there have been tournaments of some sort in Pontlliw and at Fishguard Bay, so it's possible there will be again, though I wouldn't set a poor child loose on a tournament just like that, and online is definitely the way to test his strength against a range of players, and get some practice. If this were last week, I'm sure I have some books I don't really need any more at my parents' house. Hmm.

As for clubs, there are a few in West Wales, it turns out, though mostly around Swansea. There are other leagues for the more rural areas - North Ceredigion, Gwent, Dyfed, and East Glamorgan. North Wales play with Cheshire, apparently.

Here are the names, most of them mean nothing to me and I don't know which are the good clubs full of teachers and juniors, and which are half a dozen old men getting together for a knockabout and a pint, but you'll know if any are anywhere near you. The venues sometimes give a clue.

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]These two are what I'd actually call 'West'[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Upper Killay[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Llanelli[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif][FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]and then[/FONT]

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Bishop Vaughan School, Morriston[/FONT]
Catwg Primary School, Cadoxton
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Briton Ferry[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Treboeth[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Glynneath[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Aberdulais[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Rhyddings Hotel, Swansea[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Pontardawe[/FONT]

moggylover

gemmalouanna wrote: »

The doctors are an external company employed by DLA and they are actual GP's so I think the idea of a bonus is not true. I also do not believe that they target the most vulnerable they are sent to cases with a big change in circumstances etc or where the needs according to the claimant do not fit with the claimes disability/medication eg. a person claiming to be unable to walk yet only taking paracetamol - of course things like this need to be further investigated.

I'm not arguing about the last paragraph, but have found one of the threads about the "external company" ATOS, so thought I would post it for your information.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=677619&page=2&highlight=DLA+Assessments

They have a bad rep with most genuine claimants (my own only that I was not allowed to answer questions without pressure to put things the way he wanted not the way I wanted to say it - and I was glad that I had someone with me as I felt decidedly bullied) and with a lot of doctors (my own included) but you would have to make up your own mind once you had actually been for one of their interviews:D .

A friend of mine runs an advocacy service locally, and will now supply an indepent companion for the examination who will, if necessary, record what is being said as there have been so many people reporting that the exact opposite of what they have said is going on the forms. ATOS advertising for jobs refers to "bonuses" being paid (although not specifically what for) so I think it is pretty obvious what the agenda is: and it does not appear to be particularly about weeding out the non-genuine.

moggylover

beingjdc wrote: »

Well, in the last year there have been tournaments of some sort in Pontlliw and at Fishguard Bay, so it's possible there will be again, though I wouldn't set a poor child loose on a tournament just like that, and online is definitely the way to test his strength against a range of players, and get some practice. If this were last week, I'm sure I have some books I don't really need any more at my parents' house. Hmm.

As for clubs, there are a few in West Wales, it turns out, though mostly around Swansea. There are other leagues for the more rural areas - North Ceredigion, Gwent, Dyfed, and East Glamorgan. North Wales play with Cheshire, apparently.

Here are the names, most of them mean nothing to me and I don't know which are the good clubs full of teachers and juniors, and which are half a dozen old men getting together for a knockabout and a pint, but you'll know if any are anywhere near you. The venues sometimes give a clue.

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]These two are what I'd actually call 'West'[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Upper Killay[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Llanelli[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif][FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]and then[/FONT]

[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Bishop Vaughan School, Morriston[/FONT]
Catwg Primary School, Cadoxton
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Briton Ferry[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Treboeth[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Glynneath[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Aberdulais[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Rhyddings Hotel, Swansea[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif]Pontardawe[/FONT]

Many, many thanks for that! We have actually been on-line this evening looking into this, and there is a club (although I do not have details beyond contact numbers, etc.) at Cardigan which is about the closest I can find.

He is quite keen, and dependant upon all the other things that he has going on, and the schedule his brother has, we may be able to sort something out a little later in the year when the County Rugby for DS1 finishes and there is an evening on which neither of them has anything going on.

Thanks again for nudging me last evening, I admit it was something I had never thought of.

moggylover

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes, that's the problem, but managed over, say, 10 years, it could be achievable.

As for Soylent Green - it would make more sense to eat criminals and chavs.

But would they not be bad for the digestion Pastures?:D And if, as some posters would have us believe, they are all pickled and sexually over-active, then I think I might prefer to go veggie rather than risk what I might catch from eating them:eek: .

Davesnave

A large amount of generalising from the particular on this thread!

Most children are taught both the alphabet and letter sounds. The majority used to learn the former long before they reached infant school, but that was a parental thing. I know that I took perverse satisfaction in reciting mine backwards. It isn't hard, compared with many things very young children learn, unless the child is dyslexic, in which case the connection between sounds & symbols will take much longer to form. Dyslexics' intelligence is like that of the general population; they are just wired-up differently.

As someone who ordered stationery from the largest consortium in the country over three decades, I can report that paper with lines, books with lines and indeed special handwriting books with special lines, have been available and used throughout that time. A great many cursive handwriting schemes have also been published and even computer-controlled whiteboards have the stuff built in. Some teachers/schools advocate the old 'stick & ball' approach to early writing, others a joined or semi joined approach. My own belief is that the approach matters less than its regular & consistent implementation, together with an insistence on general standards of presentation. That applies to much in education.

Learning about religions is part of getting to know about the wider world and entirely appropriate to a child aged 9, or younger. This is quite different from worshipping, or learning about a particular religion in depth. People argue about the amount children should be 'indoctrinated' into one particular religion, but I'm not going there! I'll merely observe that kids, and teenagers in particular, have in-built defence against indoctrination of any kind, especially in this age of information overload. The other thing I'll mention, is that the year 6 kids in the local RC school were way ahead of similar pupils in the local non-denominational primary when discussing ethical and other abstract concepts.

Anyway, I think you'll find that religion receives but a fraction of the time devoted to 'basic, important things' in today's admittedly cluttered curriculum. In the past, of course, religion was viewed by many as 'important' too, but times change.

I can't comment on modern secondary education from first-hand teaching experience. My grammar school education in the 60s didn't seem particularly challenging, and it was certainly possible then to 'mug -up' a subject quickly and pass the old 'O' level to boost one's bits of paper. I did it for subjects where I'd been bored to death in lessons and taken no notes. 'A' level was similarly uninspiring, but my school may have been well below par.

I know that my kids enjoyed their experience at a local comprehensive, and that their work in 6th form was usually much more lively and detailed than the material I produced 40 years before. I wouldn't infer anything too general from that, besides noting other local schools obtaining similar results. This is not a deprived area, however.

I tend to meet successful pupils, rather than the ones who turn into career chavs, but I do see plenty of them. My overall impression is that they produce some fantastic work and seem more confident than we were around the age of 18. Many disappear to do a gap year abroad, which is something my generation did after higher education, rather than before. It is a pity, perhaps, that those who don't fare so well in conventional education aren't given structured ways to accept challenges like that. Often, taking a young person out of their environment can have a lasting beneficial effect.

It doesn't matter how much money is thrown at education, the report will always read 'Could do better.' That's because education exists within our society, not in some idyllic vacuum. Sometimes, society moves backwards in certain respects, and where that is true, education has to run just to stand still. Indeed, sometimes it can't run fast enough, because the task being demanded is a parental one, and teachers can't be a proper substitute for good parents.

MrsE_2

_bankrupted wrote: »

Never in the field of Human Benefits was so much received by so many from so few"

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I do worry we are heading for a very very hard recession.
If we are I don't see how benefits can continue at the level they are now & pay all the newcomers.

They can only do that without cutting benefits if they slash other essential public services.

mvengemvenge

MrsE wrote: »

I do worry we are heading for a very very hard recession.
If we are I don't see how benefits can continue at the level they are now & pay all the newcomers.

They can only do that without cutting benefits if they slash other essential public services.

I can't really see how they could easily cut benefits, they've boxed themselves into a corner by being so generous, so the only way I can see it working is a mass cull of jobs in places like councils and middle-management in the civil service.

MrsE_2

mvengemvenge wrote: »

I can't really see how they could easily cut benefits, they've boxed themselves into a corner by being so generous, so the only way I can see it working is a mass cull of jobs in places like councils and middle-management in the civil service.

Well that will just mean lots more joining the dole queue (myself included!!!).

Again who will pay for this?