Too proud to sign on

treliac

woodbine wrote: »

The govt with the help of the right wing press has worked long and hard to make you all believe that anyone on benefits is a scrounger or the scum of the earth,a policy that will return to bite them on the bum in coming months.

Hardly. The govt has [strike]permitted[/strike], [strike]encouraged[/strike] grown the state of dependency that has arisen from being able to acquire free accommodation plus an income, without lifting a finger to earn those privileges.

If they had insisted that responsibilities ran alongside any rights, those in real need of a safety net wouldn't have to fear being labelled.

crazygaijin

February's British jobless numbers were always going to be grim - the City was expecting to see more than 80,000 more people out of work. But what emerged yesterday was truly shocking.
Britain's dole queues grew at the fastest pace since records began, taking the headline total to over two million for the first time in 12 years.

http://www.moneyweek.com/news-and-charts/economics/why-rising-unemployment-is-bad-news-for-us-all-14681.aspx

Maybe those 2 mil unemployed should move to Japan.

I live in Tokyo and the pound is so weak and the Yen so strong, you can earn 50pounds an hr minimum, you can get 60pounds an hour to stand in the street holding a sign

I was sending money in Yen back to the UK but now I think I will wait because the pound is going down even more.

Soon you will be able to get 80pounds an hr to clean toilets or wash the floor in a factory in Tokyo.

Poor old UK, what happened how did we get to this?

casper_uk

I am not to proud to sign on but found the whole thing a total waste of time and utterly soul destroying. Four months spent signing on before i gave up and just told them i had had enough and stopped going.

I wasn't entitled to any money or even NI stamps as it turned out, which they promised i would get when i started! When i got told i wasn't getting my NI stamps, that was the straw that broke the camels back.

Still i understand where i went wrong, i should of spent my house deposit, had a few kids and lived of the state years ago.

PasturesNew

I used entitledto.com the other week to compare a single person over 25 living in an area where LHA is £450/month with working.

I found if I worked 16 hours/week for £6/hour I'd have loads of free time and be just a few quid worse off than working full-time, because of WTC. The cost of getting to/from work, cost of lunches away from home and clothes for work (plus having to pay for dress down days and whip rounds), it would end up about the same. WTC was never intended to work like that, but it's been turned on its head so now jobs are offered at part-timers, knowing it'd be topped up.

Wish I'd known about WTC years ago - most single, childless people living alone have no idea that it exists.

torontoboy45

having spent over 30yrs paying into the system and never claiming, I'd have no problem with making a claim should the need arise.
why should I? misplaced pride wouldn't get in the way.
I can easily recall a 3m unemployment figure in the early 80's. I can also remember a right-wing press labelling the unemployed 'scroungers' and 'layabouts' whilst thatch pursued policies that were guaranteed to cause mass job losses, albeit short-lived.
I wouldn't succumb to social pressures: I'm not done with the responsibility thing just yet (another 18yrs work left in me) but if I needed to claim I wouldn't hesitate.

huntersc

There was a very famous fighter during the depression called Jimmy Braddock. A film was recently made about his life story called Cinderella man. Before the depression he had the fame, money, all the things he could ever want. Then came the depression and he couldn't find work and could hardly support his family. He had to claim relief money at the time, he had no other choice. He hated it but he took it.

Lady luck smiled on him and he managed to make a good bit of money from a few fights and some investments.

You know hat he did? He paid back every penny of public relief money he received. Walked into the relief office and laid down the money to cover what the state had given him.

I understand why people are too proud to take money from the government. It's the same pride that spurred Jim Braddock into giving the money back to the government.

I think most people hate taking something for nothing, being given handouts. Of course some have to take it but if you can survive without them then I get that. If I lose my job I won't need money from the state so I won't take it.

Rather than worrying about those with too much pride to take handouts we should worry about those all too ready to take every handout they can get, those that would live off handouts if they could.

torontoboy45

having spent over 30yrs paying into the system and never claiming, I'd have no problem with making a claim should the need arise.
why should I? misplaced pride wouldn't get in the way.
I can easily recall a 3m unemployment figure in the early 80's. I can also remember a right-wing press labelling the unemployed 'scroungers' and 'layabouts' whilst thatch pursued policies that were guaranteed to cause mass job losses, albeit short-lived.
I wouldn't succumb to social pressures: I'm not done with the responsibility thing just yet (another 18yrs work left in me) but if I needed to claim I wouldn't hesitate.

matbe

PasturesNew wrote: »

I used entitledto.com the other week to compare a single person over 25 living in an area where LHA is £450/month with working.

I found if I worked 16 hours/week for £6/hour I'd have loads of free time and be just a few quid worse off than working full-time, because of WTC. The cost of getting to/from work, cost of lunches away from home and clothes for work (plus having to pay for dress down days and whip rounds), it would end up about the same. WTC was never intended to work like that, but it's been turned on its head so now jobs are offered at part-timers, knowing it'd be topped up.

Wish I'd known about WTC years ago - most single, childless people living alone have no idea that it exists.

I think you will find you need to have children to claim it?

Is it not working FAMILY tax credit?

baileysbattlebus

matbe wrote: »

I think you will find you need to have children to claim it?

Is it not working FAMILY tax credit?

No, it's called Working Tax Credit. You don't have to part of a couple of have children to claim it. You have to over 25 and earn under a certain amount of money and work more than a certain number of hours a week. You can also be self employed and claim it.

matbe

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

No, it's called Working Tax Credit. You don't have to part of a couple of have children to claim it. You have to over 25 and earn under a certain amount of money and work more than a certain number of hours a week. You can also be self employed and claim it.

Just checked the website and you must either have children or work more than 30 hours a week.