Work For The Dole

grizzly1911

zagubov wrote: »

This country needs tons doing to it and leaving people idle instead of getting the work done is a waste on so many levels

Interestingly there was an article on about Germany today on the BBC news channel.

it commented on the fact that their infrastructure was worn out , autobahns etc. it also showed potholed B roads and made the point that communications - internet and mobile signals were rubbish outside of major cities.

It seems that for all their Vorsprung durch Technik they still have gapping holes at home. The internet is all new to Merkel apparently.

Loughton_Monkey

grizzly1911 wrote: »

..... internet and mobile signals were rubbish outside of major cities....

Never been to Italy?

John1993_2

headcone wrote: »

A bankers arrogance knows no bounds,no wonder this country is in such a state.

Banker spivs produce nothing and add no value to society,the illusion they like to proffer is rather sad.

They produce nothing create nothing apart from debt for the man in the street and have an overblown opinion of their ability.

The worst thing ever to happen to this country was the thatcher shift from the creative hand of the engineer to the greedy control of the privileged spiv class of financiers.

Worthless in productivity apart from bloated returns for themselves.

Shameful.

Well, as well as being plain wrong, that's horribly punctuated. Might I suggest putting in a bit more effort? You may find it helps you in all sorts of areas of your life.

As to "privileged spiv", I'm from a mining community in the North, about as far from privileged as it's possible to be, but let's not let facts cloud your bitterness, eh? It's easier for you to hate if you get to invent backgrounds for those at whom you rail.

CLAPTON

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Interestingly there was an article on about Germany today on the BBC news channel.

it commented on the fact that their infrastructure was worn out , autobahns etc. it also showed potholed B roads and made the point that communications - internet and mobile signals were rubbish outside of major cities.

It seems that for all their Vorsprung durch Technik they still have gapping holes at home. The internet is all new to Merkel apparently.

yes it was quite an interesting program

it also highlighted the german apprentice scheme
the low level of unemployment including youth unemployment
and the lack of a minimum wage

zagubov

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Interestingly there was an article on about Germany today on the BBC news channel.

it commented on the fact that their infrastructure was worn out , autobahns etc. it also showed potholed B roads and made the point that communications - internet and mobile signals were rubbish outside of major cities.

It seems that for all their Vorsprung durch Technik they still have gapping holes at home. The internet is all new to Merkel apparently.

I got a bit of a shock when I worked out idly once that Germans using their motorway system would, in not very many years, rack up a trillion passenger miles. :eek:

Regarding the potholes, everybody including me comments at how common they are north of the Tweed. All the free uni, prescriptions and care for the elderly has to be paid for and the state of the roads has become one of the casualties, along with the college sector, separate police forces and god knows what else they're cutting.....

dktreesea

zagubov wrote: »

I got a bit of a shock when I worked out idly once that Germans using their motorway system would, in not very many years, rack up a trillion passenger miles. :eek:

Regarding the potholes, everybody including me comments at how common they are north of the Tweed. All the free uni, prescriptions and care for the elderly has to be paid for and the state of the roads has become one of the casualties, along with the college sector, separate police forces and god knows what else they're cutting.....

Really? The roads in Scotland, especially the minor ones, are much better maintained than south of the border. How do you know you have arrived in Northumberland, heading south? The ice damage on the roads that hasn't been fixed.

Places like Edinburgh have perpetual maintenance of the roads because of having underground services. The utility companies are forever tinkering with this and that, and they don't bother talking to each other so they can do it all at once.

dmliverpool

grizzly1911 wrote: »

That much , it would help to pay for the DWP IT system I suppose.

Or they should just lower ni conts for people who contribute.

dktreesea

CLAPTON wrote: »

yes it was quite an interesting program

it also highlighted the german apprentice scheme
the low level of unemployment including youth unemployment
and the lack of a minimum wage

On the other hand, workers in some sectors in Germany are very badly paid and still need social welfare to top up their pay. And it's not such a small number that need that help; 1.3 million Germans in 2012. (source: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130508-49603.html)

Alos, there is still a lot of stigma attached to getting social welfare in Germany, let alone not working at all. I like to think that Britain is more enlightened in this way. Demonising the poor isn't the answer.

Working with the dole seems to me to have an implication attached that the jobless don't want to work and need a push in the right direction. But there are plenty of people who do treat getting a job as a full time "job" in itself; it doesn't always follow that they then get a job. Plenty of employers routinely screen out long term unemployed applicants.

If the government wants to influence whether or not people get a job there's lots they could do:

- restrict jsa to those who h ave paid into the system and limit the number of months you can get it, to, say, 6 months;

- change the corporate tax rate to make the UK a competitive place to set up manufacturing compared to other countries in Europe, like Ireland.

- Increase the differential between working and getting benefits. Make the cap on benefits a lot lower. Why is it £500 a week and then only for non working households? Why not, say, £300 a week, including for working households?

chewmylegoff

dktreesea wrote: »

Really? The roads in Scotland, especially the minor ones, are much better maintained than south of the border. How do you know you have arrived in Northumberland, heading south? The ice damage on the roads that hasn't been fixed.

Places like Edinburgh have perpetual maintenance of the roads because of having underground services. The utility companies are forever tinkering with this and that, and they don't bother talking to each other so they can do it all at once.

I thought it was very noticeable when I went to Scotland earlier this year. Edinburgh in particular had roads like a provincial third world town (I will leave others to argue about whether it is, indeed a provincial third world town ). It wasn't just the sheer volume of roadworks (seemed far worse than London to me) but the fact that in the few places where there weren't ongoing roadworks, there was an enormous pothole every three yards. Basically you had to decide which pothole looked the shallowest and drive through that one.

michaels

I know someone who is on a 15 hour minimum wage contract, that being what the employer offers all new employees (gives them a nice flexible work force and no employers NI). If he gets extra hours he loses 75% of the money in benfits cuts so works for effectively 1.50 per hour. If his hours go up to 23 he will also have to pay NI on the additonal earnings so an extra 12% (Total 87%) and for hours over 28 hours/week it may be close to (over?) 100% - what is the incentive there to try and get off benefits?