income based jobseekers allowance

sniggings

bashing benefit claimants seems to be all the craze atm so we would be on a loosing battle. It seems all they have to do is give an example of a family with 5 kids claiming £2000 housing benefit, then stop housing benefit for single under 25s :eek: the two are not related but it seems to be working.

The economy seems to be too reliant on property prices so I can't see anything changing soon, it will be a slow process, when teacher and firemen, nurses etc can no longer work in big cities, something might change but first us English will get accused of not wanting to work before that happens, not that house prices and rents are crazy and the min wage is not a living wage.

tricklesthegreek

it's so difficult, because the benefits system has been abused for so long. They should start the whole process again, and stop the case where people get to stay in council houses for their whole lives and pass them on. Council houses should be available for those in need until they can afford it, but with a capped amount of time. Then they need to have schemes in place to give people a reason to want to work. As in - better wages for workers. I know someone who I work with who shall remain anonymous who stayed unemployed for 7 years because it wasn't worth them going back to work as he would have had to earn £17 an hour to match all the benefits he was on. That's a bonkers world that we live in. It should be that work always is the best benefit, and rather than stupid 'computer says no' philosophy that each case is studied on it's own merit. And the 'well if I get pregnant as a teenager I'll get a house' mentality needs to be stamped out. One of my kids in my class, no word of a lie, said to me, 'is it true you have to have a kid before you will be given a house'? That's a 9 year old saying that. Frightening. My answer? 'No darling, you need to work first. Do as well as you can at school, work hard, and then you can have whatever you want'. Yes I know the reality isn't quite that but just to stamp out that mentality is the first stage.

In Greece you get benefits for six months and that's it, no income support, no long term stuff - their attitude is, if you haven't sorted yourself after six months, it's your problem.

I know they're in the !!!!!! now but that's unrelated to that.

In the meantime my husband has got his interview at Pizza Hut on Tuesday- he's not too proud and if it means he can come off JSA then he'll be happy enough. As you say, it's looking at the bigger picture. Just wish rents would come down because it's bonkers. My uncle told me to move to Middlesbrough as we could buy a house for £15k - but while my dad is in the position that he is then I can't leave him. He spent his life taking care of me, the least I can do is make sure he is okay. If it means I have to suffer high rents and sacrifice any kind of life then for me the pay off has to be seeing my dad and taking care of him. Just hope my husband can find something soon to take the pressure off. :j

DogsBody

Lodger? If you are in an expensive rent area and have the space....:)

sniggings

A agree with all that Trick, I only wish when they are "fixing" the benefits system they do it fairly, like no excluding free buses passes etc because Old peole are the Tories biggest votes and giving examples of families on high housing benefit but them using that argument to cut benefits for the under 35s, as each time they cut these benefits, they always seem to miss the very people given as the example, people with kids will be excluded from the shared allowance for the under 35s etc so a family of 5 6 7 kids will still be getting £26k in benefits but the single person under 35 will be most hit, and save the lest amount of money.

I support benefit cuts but only wish they would target them more fairly.

sammyjammy

sniggings wrote: »

A agree with all that Trick, I only wish when they are "fixing" the benefits system they do it fairly, like no excluding free buses passes etc because Old peole are the Tories biggest votes and giving examples of families on high housing benefit but them using that argument to cut benefits for the under 35s, as each time they cut these benefits, they always seem to miss the very people given as the example, people with kids will be excluded from the shared allowance for the under 35s etc so a family of 5 6 7 kids will still be getting £26k in benefits but the single person under 35 will be most hit, and save the lest amount of money.

I support benefit cuts but only wish they would target them more fairly.

Fair point but the trouble is that they need to resolve the issue that it is now cheaper and easier to give the money to everyone (bus passes, winter fuel allowance etc) than it is to means test it. Crazy but true.

One way to resolve this is to try and link it to the tax system by way of allowances but thats to easy and would take away that Nanny state requirement of control over us and gratefulness from us that politicians love

sniggings

sammyjammy wrote: »

Fair point but the trouble is that they need to resolve the issue that it is now cheaper and easier to give the money to everyone (bus passes, winter fuel allowance etc) than it is to means test it. Crazy but true.

One way to resolve this is to try and link it to the tax system by way of allowances but thats to easy and would take away that Nanny state requirement of control over us and gratefulness from us that politicians love

not knowing the ins and out of pensions but wouldn't attaching free bus passes, winter fuel payments etc to pension top up guarantee payments be a simple way to do it, sorry but if the government feel that claiming 14% off someone on benefits who has a spare bedroom and feel it is cost effective, then surely the argument on too costly to target pension benefits does not stand up.

Pensioners being the Tories biggest supporters seems to be the real reason these benefits have not been touched.

tricklesthegreek

I'm with you on that one sniggings. It's too much for those in genuine need and I despair when I see people who deserve benefits not getting them - and I don't mean people like me - I see some children at the school where I teach who don't have shoes that fit them and because their parents earn just over the cut off line they don't get anything. The amount of neglect cases I deal with which are directly linked to poverty is insane - neglect is very rarely down to parental choice and it's horrific that some of the children I see have to suffer because the benefits system at present is so cocked up.

Additionally, my husband had his JSA interview today and he enquired 0- they seem to think because I earn under 50k that I would be entitled to something. Now, as you know, £70 a week earnings for him get all of our bills paid. But if I was on £45k a year we would be swimming in money and we would still be entitled to a benefit? That's bonkers. Each benefit should be means tested immediately and also related to necessary outgoings. So if you are living in Manchester with £450 a month rent and you are £50 short to pay your bills and survive, then you get £50 a month. If you are living in inner London and pay £1300 monthly rent and you are £150 a month short then you get £150. So long as it is absolute essentials excluding mobile phones, sky tv - because ultimately that's not the government responsibility. It should be that everyone is allocated enough to pay rent, council taxes, gas, water, electric and petrol and food to get to work. Kind of like us bankrupts have to do an SOA to our official receivers to prove how much we need to live on.

I can guarantee though there would always be people who worked the system. Such is the way of our land eh!!

tricklesthegreek

oh and regarding the Tories - they can go swing for it. They are becoming elitist more and more by the day. I was lucky I went to uni when I did, because even if my husband and I were working there is no way on this earth I could afford to go now. My friend who is a tory (we have interesting conversations at dinner!) says it's a good thing because people can't get jobs now because everyone has got a degree so it's not specialist anymore. Hmmm. I disagree. People can't get jobs nowadays because banks won't lend, people can't spend, companies can't grow and jobs get lost. Typical capitalism really, with boom comes bust - it's always inevitable, and in 15 years I'm sure we will all be celebrating how amazing our economy is. But the tories have got a hell of a lot to answer for in my mind - they won't touch the untouchables and they're sometimes the very heart of where the problems can begin to be resolved.

tricklesthegreek

Dogsbody - we are not allowed to rent out a room because our tenancy agreement prevents us from subletting. It was the first thing we thought of because I've actually got a mate who was willing to pay us £350 a month to get out of her parents house - but it got flatly turned down. Not sure if there's a way we can be sneaky and get around it!!

tricklesthegreek

Whoever suggested the HMRC job, thank you, I had a look and just spent 45 minutes doing an application form for him for a role in Southend. Wouldn't have thought of looking at them - that application form is a sod but addressing the competencies is a really nice way of doing it!