Tories are certainly getting stuck into our benefits system...

mitchaa

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

We're all just one step away from being that "benefit scrounger"that everybody moans about.

No we are not, it is about attitude and motivation to work.

I can honestly say if my boss took me into his office now and gave me my P45, I would have another job within the space of a couple of weeks, 110% guaranteed. Perhaps not doing exactly what i'm doing now, but something. How do I know that? I have prepared myself should the worst happen, my personal skills are widely spread to an enormous industry and then I have back up options should all else fail, (driving, military, self employment, etc etc)

If I got runover and lost both my legs, my wife would support me, my pension would pay out and I still wouldn't be claiming out of work benefits. I'd set up an online business and still generate an income. Buy high mileage cars off ebay, take 50k miles off the clock and then flog them on as low mileage examples:rotfl:There are always ways to generate your income.

It all boils down to the attributes mentioned in the 1st line of this post.

I can see where mbga9pgf is coming from, It's the military discipline in him.

Shakethedisease

Someone freshly out of work is not a benefits scrounger.

How 'fresh' is 'freshly out of work' then ?

No-one has a right to a free and easy life. Least of all those who cant be bothered to work,

Unless you're in the House of Lords, that is ( see previous post )..

I think you're aiming your self-righteous anger at the wrong people tbh. You're paying £300 a day as a tax-payer for people to sit on their fat behinds sleeping all day..

Either do the paid work you are offered, or starve.

Cos we all know there are employers out there offering paid work out willy-nilly at the moment. There's just loooads of jobs out there. Absolutely terrible that people are able to turn down 3 or 4 job offers a week in order to live it up on £65 a week JSA. :doh:

mitchaa

lemonjelly wrote: »

However, I assume that you are all aware that the benefits system loses more each year because of errors, rather than fraud? Historically, this has consistently been the case.

You mean detected fraud.

In the paragraph above, you stated the widespread problem we have with ''single'' claimants.

Detected fraud is low because there are just not enough resources to deal with the issue and it is very time resourcive.

mitchaa

Shakethedisease wrote: »

Cos we all know there are employers out there offering paid work out willy-nilly at the moment. There's just loooads of jobs out there.

Correct.

There are around 750k jobs being advertised at the moment.

If there were no jobs, unemployment would be at 1.75m and jobs being advertised would be 0. Why have these 750k jobs not been filled if there is such a demand for work?

Okay yes, i understand they are not the same 750k jobs as they were 12mths ago, people die, people leave, people retire so on and on, but still, if there was demand from these benefit claimants there wouldn't be so many advertised job positions.

lemonjelly

mitchaa wrote: »

Correct.

There are around 750k jobs being advertised at the moment.

If there were no jobs, unemployment would be at 1.75m and jobs being advertised would be 0. Why have these 750k jobs not been filled if there is such a demand for work?

Okay yes, i understand they are not the same 750k jobs as they were 12mths ago, people die, people leave, people retire so on and on, but still, if there was demand from these benefit claimants there wouldn't be so many advertised job positions.

750k jobs.
8 million economically inactive, & by the rationale displayed on here, most of those should be working.
So back to the point robin banks asked earlier on the thread - what do you expect all these people to do?

SingleSue

mitchaa wrote: »

No we are not, it is about attitude and motivation to work.

I can honestly say if my boss took me into his office now and gave me my P45, I would have another job within the space of a couple of weeks, 110% guaranteed. Perhaps not doing exactly what i'm doing now, but something. How do I know that? I have prepared myself should the worst happen, my personal skills are widely spread to an enormous industry and then I have back up options should all else fail, (driving, military, self employment, etc etc)

If I got runover and lost both my legs, my wife would support me, my pension would pay out and I still wouldn't be claiming out of work benefits. I'd set up an online business and still generate an income. Buy high mileage cars off ebay, take 50k miles off the clock and then flog them on as low mileage examples:rotfl:There are always ways to generate your income.

It all boils down to the attributes mentioned in the 1st line of this post.

I can see where mbga9pgf is coming from, It's the military discipline in him.

Not always.....sometimes things can go badly wrong which makes working at any time of the day virtually impossible, or you may only be able to work one week and then not at all for the next 6 weeks (especially true for those with disabilities like ME or for carers of those with debiliating illnesses).

Clocking is illegal by the way and quite easily checked these days....some of us like to stay within the confines of the law which can also then limit things a tad (yes I know you said this tongue in cheek). I could never knowingly break the law and feel comfortable...I am the pain in the bum travelling at just below the speed limit in front of you!

Shakethedisease

every day there is a post by some single mother with several kids going on about how she is spending £1k on new leather sofas/the latest nursery suites/the most expensive Next clothing for her kids etc etc or how much disposable income she has (and invariably it is much much more than the working mothers/couples on the forums

I find that a little hard to believe, or at best, a little over exaggerated. 1k on a sofa on benefits ? Mabye Brighthouse or somewhere like that. Getting things 'on tick' ? I seriously doubt they would have 1k just 'lying around' to splash out on a new sofa etc etc. Next clothing goes for peanuts on Ebay as well. All my kids were dressed in Next and Gap stuff too.. but I'd never bid more than a couple of quid for something. Same with all the nursery stuff.

Of course, it could all be wishful thinking, or just plain stretching the truth on an anonymous forum, boasting about buying things they can never afford really. No-one's going to know either way ( sort of like people do here ? ).. You should always take what people say on public forums with a healthy pinch of salt. And I wouldn't be putting any great stock in 'what single mums on forums say' as far as basing what specific 'benefits policies' should be. IYKWIM ? ( in terms of boasting about having loads of 'disposable income')

It should also be remembered that children DO cost money. Some here talk about them as if they cost nothing to clothe, feed, keep clean, keep warm and keep healthly. We're not all whoopy-dooing into the sunset with the 'extra' and ignoring the fact that nappies food and clothing for them has to be budgeted for.. ( not me personally now, but when I was a single parent of 2 )..

what do you expect all these people to do?

Yes, I keep wondering that myself. All these 'cuts' to encourage people into work, yet nowhere near enough work to go round, more unemployment on the horizon and not one policy so far for creating much in the way of work or jobs.

Even in 'my day' there were YTS (2 years) and ET schemes around in huge numbers for the young ones and the unemployed to facilitate gaining experience in workplaces. The 'pay' was crap lol, but at least there was something..

drc

Shakethedisease wrote: »

I find that a little hard to believe, or at best, a little over exaggerated. 1k on a sofa on benefits ? Mabye Brighthouse or somewhere like that. Getting things 'on tick' ? I seriously doubt they would have 1k just 'lying around' to splash out on a new sofa etc etc. Next clothing goes for peanuts on Ebay as well. All my kids were dressed in Next and Gap stuff too.. but I'd never bid more than a couple of quid for something. Same with all the nursery stuff.

Of course, it could all be wishful thinking, or just plain stretching the truth on an anonymous forum, boasting about buying things they can never afford really. No-one's going to know either way ( sort of like people do here ? ).. You should always take what people say on public forums with a healthy pinch of salt. And I wouldn't be putting any great stock in 'what single mums on forums say' as far as basing what specific 'benefits policies' should be. IYKWIM ? ( in terms of boasting about having loads of 'disposable income')

Perhaps they are stretching the truth to some degree, but I have seen these kind of claims from so many different posters over the years that I suspect a lot of it is true. A lot of them seem to have a child with a disability (most common one is autism) which means they also get carers allowance and some disability benefit for the child. If you actually type the figures into entitledto.com, you will see that a single parent with 3 kids actually gets a hell of a lot in benefits once you include not having to pay rent or council tax.

mitchaa

A single mother of 2 claiming benefits and living in Aberdeen gets circa £20k in benefits. The equivalent to the average British salary of £26k.

In more expensive areas, almost everywhere in the south, this figure will be higher.

Some need to study hard for 5-10yrs to try and earn that kind of salary, some of course though can just leave school at 15/16, unqualified to even make a sandwich and get that same £26k 'job' by opening up their legs and popping out a sprog or 2.

elaina79

It's clear by some of the comments on here that some posters have no experience of disabilities.
I was an active mother of 2 about 3 years ago, working full time, not having a day off in 6 weeks.
I now have rheumatoid arthritis which means I'm very tired and weak slot of the time, hopefully
with the right treatment someday I may get my life back, but what employer would take on someone
who could work someday but then have weeks off. As for home jobs I wish there was some.