MSE News: Benefits shake-up to introduce Universal Credits

GlasweJen

I agree, if her child doesn't get support at home from English speaking parents they may get SEN support at school, particularly if other needs are present.

I know of one family who taught their child BSL and not english before starting school even though the child had nothing wrong with their speech or hearing. Parents wanted her to integrate into the deaf community and stuff her own peers.

Nickynoo1

I do think benefits should be a safety net, to protect the vulnerable etc, but I am concerned about the jobs available ratio to the unemployed.

I am a mature student, but in the summer instead of turning to income support i would prefer to work. But the vacancies available seem to be less and less. with cuts being made in the public sector, more people will be competing for the few jobs that are about.

We need more jobs, better paid ones - that reflect the cost of living in the UK, apprentiships, etc......

GlasweJen

Just because there aren't many jobs going doesn't mean we should excuse a whole section of society from seeking work or improving their skills with the eventual plan of taking up work.

I never understood the "there are no jobs for normal people never mind disabled people", it would be like saying "there are no jobs for white people so let's stick black people on benefits" or vice versa. It shouldn't work like that.

moggylover

Loanranger wrote: »

ska_lover wrote: »

Surely it's the responsibility of the child's father to support his child? Why is it OK for the taxpayer to support the children and not the father?

Ah! Now I suggested that in a post on the CSA board the other day and got flamed for it:(

moggylover

ska_lover wrote: »

Loanranger wrote: »

I don't know..why IS it OK for the tax payer to support the children?

My only answer is - go and ask the absentee fathers Loanranger. Not all of them are proper MEN are they - i.e will not face up to their resonsibilities cos they are snivvelling little gobs*h*ites!

TBF, there are female nrp's that are just as incapable of accepting any responsibility to the family they walked away from.

Everyone told me that an nrp was entitled to a life, and a new family, and to be able to start up their own business, etc., and that was what benefits were for:(

moggylover

richpoortyke wrote: »

Whatever your opinions are about the new system the real problem is the lack of jobs.
If i heard IDS this morning correctly he said 5.5 million need to be getting into work. He also said there were 0.5 million jobs in the jobcentre.
So what are we all going to do then - Job share?

And of those 0.5 million jobs, hardly any are full time. I think they plan on handing everyone an hour a week and telling them to eat cake;)

plumber2009

There are tones of jobs available out there IF YOU are prepaired to LOOK!!!.

1.REED.co.uk
2.Direct.gov
3.Newspapers and Shop adverts.
4.Tell your friends and family that you are looking for work and they may be able to get you work.
5.Just to also mention that the hospitals are always looking for domestics and porters.

There is NO EXCUSE to not get a job. People are just to fussy and lazy.

moggylover

Jowo wrote: »

My original response appears to have been lost as they merged the posts.

I should have been clearer about what is meant by bogus businesses. I don't mean that they have been fraudulently set up and submit fake tax returns. I mean the amateur pocketmoney/hobby businesses.

Tax credits can cripple genuine business drive. The posts I have seen on this topic for those seeking tax credits are the antithesis of good business practice as they encourage the maximisation of expenses and the minimising of profit. A real entrepreneur seeks to minimise operating costs and maximise return. They will spend all their spare time to establish their business, not just switch off when the mythical or minimum 16 or 24 hour threshold for eligibility for tax credits has been achieved.

I wonder whether the HMRC and the govt have analysed and perhaps detected how many 'self-employed' tax credit recipients have coasted along without actually growing their businesses, content to indulge in a hobby with limited return to keep them in beer money and retain their benefits.

The Universal Credit isn't introduced for several years yet so legitimate businesses that have the potential for real returns will be able to benefit from the generous subsidies until they are self-sufficient.

The amateur businesses, which involve the odd bit of child care, a few dog walking rounds, selling moisturiser to the next door neighbour, will revert back to being the pin money they actually are rather than being a springboard into economic cushioning in the form of tax credits.

Those that can't make a living from it will realise that they do need to start making tangible profits from it, work longer hours, find more clients, cut costs and will perhaps decide to find proper employment for a proper wage where genuine goods and services are offered.

Many of the 'businesses' I see being discussed in relation to tax credits often do not require any major outlay to establish - catalogue distribution, child care, flogging tat on ebay, taxi driving and similar.

They can also be done around other paid employment until it is viable to do them on a full time basis - that's what many people do when they first start up in business anyway.

How did people used to manage to set up businesses before tax credits??!!

Well, my uncle did a milk round before he started work for himself, and my aunt used to work evening shifts in a local factory so that she could still care for the kids during the day time.

However, that would never work nowadays, because there are hardly any jobs where you can have fixed shifts (employers want the flexibility to work for them not you) and there are hundreds of applicants for every job so you have no leverage to get them to let you work the shifts you want.

Furthermore, whilst you denigrate those small businesses that allow single parents to at least work around their children and the system that tops this up, until the UK has a huge amount more real work on sensible shift rotas to offer than it does now: that is probably the best there is on offer.

However, I would point out that I know a lady who got to be extremely comfortably off and ran a distribution centre for tupperware, who only started off intending to earn some pin money whilst the kids were at school.

I also know another who runs a secretarial services bureau from home because she is disabled. It wouldn't be the entrepreneurial star of the year, but it gives her her self-respect back and she deserves a pat on the back for so doing, not denigration because she doesn't look to earn millions.

Try the reality of being a single parent on benefits and being pressured to go back to work when there is no work and very little that is parent friendly, and that is why people are given the advice they are: and by the Jobcentre staff as well as on here.

moggylover

plumber2009 wrote: »

There are tones of jobs available out there IF YOU are prepaired to LOOK!!!.

1.REED.co.uk
2.Direct.gov
3.Newspapers and Shop adverts.
4.Tell your friends and family that you are looking for work and they may be able to get you work.
5.Just to also mention that the hospitals are always looking for domestics and porters.

There is NO EXCUSE to not get a job. People are just to fussy and lazy.

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

What have you been smoking?

Loanranger

plumber2009 wrote: »

There are tones of jobs available out there IF YOU are prepaired to LOOK!!!.

1.REED.co.uk
2.Direct.gov
3.Newspapers and Shop adverts.
4.Tell your friends and family that you are looking for work and they may be able to get you work.
5.Just to also mention that the hospitals are always looking for domestics and porters.

There is NO EXCUSE to not get a job. People are just to fussy and lazy.

Not to mention the jobs advertised directly on employers' own websites. Every website I look at I routinely click through to the careers section and nine times out of ten they have vacancies.