'Should we starve the jobless back to work?' poll discussion

squidworth

My boss was joking the other day about how much unemployed can claim and I should check it out. So being at a loose end over the weekend for a bit I worked it out. Being an overworked single parent with 2 teenage kids in education in a housing association property it worked out I would get more not working. Needless to say I dropped him a note thanking him for his suggestion...

Cerisa

Bella I guess your solution would have been that I should have sold my laptop (bought when I was earning around £20,000 a year) which I was using to apply for jobs. I had a *lot* of these prejudices before I was on benefits.

"I'm not against benefits in theory, however there should never be a scenario whereby its better to not work than to live on benefits."

I totally agree, and never thought this could have happened. However I would have saved myself a lot of hassle (and been better off financially) if I hadn't taken temporary work. Still not sure why I was penalised for that. I got other things out of it (self respect, experience, fun) but it still wasn't worth it. I ended up £160 worse off - and when I pointed this out to the benefits office, I believe their response was a wordy version of "tough luck".

Cerisa

"the system shouldn't penalise everyone because of a few skivers."

:T

alan8253

Rent is paid by housing benefit so £100 for everything else is about right. If you want to save serious money on the benefits system (more than a relatively small amount by tinkering with JSA) try ending everyone's right to child benefit no matter what their income or how many kids they choose to have.

Cerisa

squidworth wrote: »

My boss was joking the other day about how much unemployed can claim and I should check it out. So being at a loose end over the weekend for a bit I worked it out. Being an overworked single parent with 2 teenage kids in education in a housing association property it worked out I would get slightly more not working. Needless to say I dropped him a note thanking him for this suggestion...

yes, but you have the potential to earn more in the future. the single mum on benefits doesn't, for now, she's just stuck. and that's scary.

squidworth

Cerisa wrote: »

yes, but you have the potential to earn more in the future. the single mum on benefits doesn't, for now, she's just stuck. and that's scary.

dont be scared - use this opportunity to attend college/university so when the time comes you can leap-frog over those who have been stuck in the same job with no spare time or cash for serious further education. its what a lot of my single mum friends are doing now their children are approaching the end of schooling...

rickbonar

I wonder what the current crop of MPs will claim when they are made jobless after the general election?

jogu

rickbonar wrote: »

I wonder what the current crop of MPs will claim when they are made jobless after the general election?

They get a £65,000 "resettlement grant".

spiro

leeparsons wrote: »

Where the f*** have you been living to? I really feel you dont have a concept on how much things are. I got to say I dont as well. Thou I know for a fact, that 100quid to live on is quite impossiable. I know that average room for a bed sit about 10 year ago was 60 quid. So I would say that is atleast 80, probabl;y edging towards the 100 pound mark.

The poll cleared said to use £50 as the cost of rent. Therefore if someone vote for £100 per week this was £50 for rent and £50 for everything else per week. SO forget what you think rent might be, that was the reason behind the poll using a single national figure.

Eileen155

I have a single friend, no dependents but with mortgage and the usual bills. He is 58, he was made redundant in December. He's not particularly skilled but is a good worker and has never been unemployed before. He is managing, so far, to get temporary work through agencies, mimimum wage. This is not enough to cover his outgoings but better than JSA. Each job he gets is for a few weeks, he doesn't know till the day the job ends whether he will have anything else for the next week, he is lurching from crisis to crisis. He is applying for at least two jobs a week, mostly through agencies as they are the ones who seem to deal with unskilled jobs these days but he never gets any replies. In our experience agencies don't seem to treat people too well. They promise to get in touch, they don't, they put forward CVs to employers but you never hear anything etc etc. They do, and have, rung him on a Friday to say the job has ended and there's no work on the Monday. Don't they know in advance.? It's very demoralising. I wouldn't be surprised if people became depressed and unable to work.

We looked into benefits. Because he is single, no dependents he is entitled to JSA £69 a week (I think) and council tax benefit, nothing else. Income therefore £300 per month roughly, outgoings including mortgage and all bills £600 per month roughly leaving a £300 per month shortfall. He doesn't get any help towards his mortgage until he has been on JSA for six months, if he was paying rent he would get that paid I think. He had redundancy insurance but because he has been working on temporary contracts since he was made redundant in December he has forfeited the right to that (we think)

He is conscientious, a good worker and desperate. He is trying so hard to get permanent employment.You cannot label everyone on JSA as scroungers. £69 a week is ludicrous for those really in need.