The jobless are no shirking scroungers – you try living on £65.45 a week

The_White_Horse

PasturesNew wrote: »

Out of their £65 JSA/week, a single person, living alone, aged over 25, who tries to be doing the right things will be paying out for:
- water
- gas/electricity
- telephone landline, internet
- TV license
- contents insurance (Buildings insurance if you are a home-owner)
- food
- loo roll/household essentials
- clothes/hair dos, to look respectable for job interviews
- newspapers for job ads, stamps (for those archaic companies advertising)

If you live outside of a major city, you've probably got a car, which you need to keep legal so it's available for job interviews and getting to/from work. In fact, having a car means more jobs are available to you. This means an additional:
- car tax
- car insurance
- MoT/repairs
- £2 of petrol in the tank

but if you don't work, why should you have luxuries like a car? hair dos? clothes? you are not entitled to any of these things. no job = no car. the end.

life is unfair. my grandmother didn't ask to get cancer and die, but she did. that is the way life pans out.

if you have a job, you can have lots of nice things and if you don't you can't.

the benefit should allow you to exist - have a roof over your head and basic food rations. nothing else long term.

but, as I said earlier, for workers who have paid in, they should get a standard of benefit equal to their salary for a period of 6 months. after that, it all stops. at least that would HELP for 6 months. 60 quid is no use to people who earn/need 500 and more a week. that is a proper saftely net. it is a safety net for those who pay in.

PasturesNew

abaxas wrote: »

PasturesNew :

No need to newspapers or stamps, job club will provide them for free.

That is, if you can be bothered to go to one. If you live in the country, yes, you are fracked.

I thought job clubs were killed off years ago

PasturesNew

The_White_Horse wrote: »

but if you don't work, why should you have luxuries like a car? hair dos? clothes? you are not entitled to any of these things. no job = no car. the end.

life is unfair. my grandmother didn't ask to get cancer and die, but she did. that is the way life pans out.

if you have a job, you can have lots of nice things and if you don't you can't.

the benefit should allow you to exist - have a roof over your head and basic food rations. nothing else long term.

but, as I said earlier, for workers who have paid in, they should get a standard of benefit equal to their salary for a period of 6 months. after that, it all stops. at least that would HELP for 6 months. 60 quid is no use to people who earn/need 500 and more a week. that is a proper saftely net. it is a safety net for those who pay in.

Would you employ somebody who looked like they'd been cutting their own hair for 6 months? Or who were a tad shabby? Crumpled? Stuff wasn't fitting them? Shoes needed reheeling?

Have you ever lived in the countryside, where there isn't any public transport, and no local jobs? Some people need a car. Nearly every job I've ever had has been 20-50 (even 200) miles away.

lostinrates

The_White_Horse wrote: »

but if you don't work, why should you have luxuries like a car? hair dos? clothes? you are not entitled to any of these things. no job = no car. the end.

If you do not look presentable and have transport you are unlikely to succeed at interview! Hairdo's need not be expensive ones, but they do need to be done, clothes need to be smart and clean, and transport is required...in many cases this is cheapest by car.

kabayiri

Doctor_Gloom wrote: »

In last night's television debate Cameron and Brown were most eager to get the 5 million people on out of work benefits back to work.

I must be missing something but they never said where the 5 million jobs for the 5 million people were going to come from? :eek:

That'd be another elephant in the room.

Maybe they honestly do not know.

Maybe the days of outreach officer, social community cohesion support assistant, care specialist, are shrinking.

It's not that we can't make use of these people. It's just that as a nation we are brassic.

Personally, I think we are paying for 25 years of 'efficiency in business' / outsourcing of jobs to India / manufacturing increases in china.

Ultimately, you run out of things for the next generation to do, and its a high price to pay.

lostinrates

kabayiri wrote: »

brassic.

I've been seeing/hearing this word a lot lately. I'm gathering it means ''hard up'' but from where does it originate? I can't believe its to do with cauliflower or broccoli.:o

kabayiri

lostinrates wrote: »

I've been seeing/hearing this word a lot lately. I'm gathering it means ''hard up'' but from where does it originate? I can't believe its to do with cauliflower or broccoli.:o

If you tried to pay for your petrol with broccoli or cauliflower, I would generally agree you were brassic.

I've no idea where it comes from, but as a word it has a nice ring to it.

PasturesNew

I just checked on http://www.reed.co.uk - for ALL jobs within a 5 mile radius of my town. What did I find:

- HR Manager.
- Nursery Manager.
- Financial Planning Manager
- Senior Financial Advisor
- Commercial Account Handler/Insurance
- Temporary Finance Officer
- Financial Advisor
- Site Accountant
- Construction Project Programmer
- Experienced Cleaners (3 days/week, season only - and you need your own transport)
- Pastry Chef
- Chef de Partie
- Construction Project Admin
- HR Assistant
- Stores Manager (£6.50/hour)
- Personnel Officer (must be CIPD)
That's the lot. All of them. Lots of adverts to train as a Red Driving Instructor, join the Army or buy an expensive training course to become a plumber.

Which of the above would you go for? Could you go for?

Exocet

lostinrates wrote: »

I've been seeing/hearing this word a lot lately. I'm gathering it means ''hard up'' but from where does it originate? I can't believe its to do with cauliflower or broccoli.:o

Funny how you wait for days for a chance to shine and then little bits of specialist knowledge come in handy. In older times a lot of kitchen equipment was made of brass, it needs regular cleaning, and if neglected loses its lustre and develops a greenish tinge. It was noted by physio therapists during the miners strikes in the 70's, that as well as the usual bad backs, lumbago and chilblains developed as a result of huddling round the fires on picket lines, the striking miners were also developing early stage scurvy from poor nutrition. Avid viewers of House will remember the episode where he diagnosed scurvy by using a Dulux colour chart, the light tinge of green being the give away. Hence the connection, first made by the rappers NWA, of brassic to mean broke. Literally it means - brass and sick.

kabayiri

Hopefully, not too OT, but not so long ago I had a tour of Pilkingtons factory.

Looking around the museum, what really struck home was just how hard the working people had to work in the early 20th century, and before. Photos of working class people working 6 days a week.

They really needed Sundays to wash clothes and recover.

Have we become a bit soft as a nation?

Watching the government propaganda (oops, ads) on tv, you'd think the next generation can all become games designers; media producers; or marine biologists. Being a team leader in a call centre doesn't quite sound so sexy.