Work or be homeless!

lynzpower

affordmylife wrote: »

Thats part of the problem with neglet of the children in some of these families getting substandard food so mum and dad can have their fags and beer. And as for new shoes well they are way down the list.

They could have vouchers for two pairs of shoes per child per year from a decent shop but then they would probably sell the shoes to get money for fags and beer.

There has to be a solution but i cant see one.

But I definitely think they benefit is set way way too high because they totally shouldnt be able to afford to smoke, drink, have sky, run a car etc.

Just my opinion.

By the way this does not apply to single people with a child under five, single people with a disabled child of any age or any disabled adult. But any other able bodied adult at least one per family should be working or working to receive their benefit. Not just given in for F**k all. Sorry but it really annoys me.

One of the single mothers I worked with had her bag snatched in the hospital grounds and it had her passcard in to draw money out of the post office. I gave her a 10 food voucher. the problem is that they are only accepted ( well the ones we had in our authority were) in Sainsburys.

Mum replied that she woud never buy food in sainsburys, choosing street markets, poundshops, lidl etc. Clothes were often picked up in charity shops.
She made 50 quid a week go further than most of us ever could and would teach martin a thing or two about moneysaving! :money: She said, I cant believe you give out the vouchers to the most expensive shops! its madness!! ( I agreed, raised it, it never got changed)

Why do people presume that all people on benefit are smokers!?!?!!? :rolleyes:
In 5 years in social work I only worked with probalby about 10 smokers, from a constant caseload of 25 families at any one time.

The problem is - that we are ALL failing to see here with the benefits issue- its not BENEFITS that give many enough to run a flash car, spend 40 quid a week on fags, fancy holidays, designer trainers for newborns etc, ITS DEBT!!

DEBT that is fed to the least educated and the least able to pay back.

EG: Unsolicited credit cards sent to a homeless hostel in Central London.
The provi man door knocking round estates to flog loans for something that the person could have got a social loan for ( eg new washing machine)
ridiculous APRs on the likes of catalogues and argos cards :rolleyes:
The only place you can buy a new telly is brighthouse, as its the only place willing to give credit. You cant buy a bog standard 50 quid telly, only a 2k one that turns into 3k by the time its paid off at 29.9 or whatever it is

Retired_I.F.A.

Well i've made my living selling pensions more than anything else yet it always amazes me to hear how as a nation we feel sorry fo pensioners without any savings.... getting £120 a week. On the dole you get half that and as it was in my case when I claimed it thanks to those loving caring people at the CSA I was racking up a bill at £105 a week to them for my son who spent more time with me than his mother.

Had I not found other employment I'd be selling dope or robbing or whatever it takes as would you all. Even politicians who have tried to live on dole money wether they have tried to prove it possible or merely for publicity have said the same.

Maybe theres a good arguement for increasing dole money to the unemployed in that it'd cut crime and be cost effective?

MissMoneypenny

Generali wrote: »

What seems crazy to me is that the govt pays a load of people to take tax from you and another load to give it back to you as benefits.

This is to create more state worker jobs in deprived areas and help lower the unemployment figures.

affordmylife

Tom how can you say you are a scrounger when you have worked full time for more than forty years.

Of course you are not.

Thats a fine example of what everyone should be doing so please dont say you are a scrounger x

Generali

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

This is to create more state worker jobs in deprived areas and help lower the unemployment figures.

Much better to actually help people by slashing taxes and encouraging businesses to create real jobs. Look how the economy of the Isle of Dogs and the rest of Docklands was transformed by doing that in the 1980s. It seems amazing that the single most successful government policy of the 1980s hasn't been repeated in every declining industrial town in the north.

tom558

affordmylife wrote: »

Tom how can you say you are a scrounger when you have worked full time for more than forty years.

Of course you are not.

Thats a fine example of what everyone should be doing so please dont say you are a scrounger x

I do not consider myself a scrounger, I just wondered how some of the more extreme contributers to this thread, would make of my intention not to work after I reach sixty years of age,given my work record.
It is also to point out that not all council tenants are workshy.
I would also point out again, that council rents increase by more than twice inflation, each and every year, is this really the way to encourage those on benefit to seek work?.

lynzpower

Generali wrote: »

Much better to actually help people by slashing taxes and encouraging businesses to create real jobs. Look how the economy of the Isle of Dogs and the rest of Docklands was transformed by doing that in the 1980s. It seems amazing that the single most successful government policy of the 1980s hasn't been repeated in every declining industrial town in the north.

Well it cant be can it ? How many canary wharfs can the UK take, and would you ( as a resident city worker) or any of your peers like to relocate to say Middlesborough? Oldham? Burnley? :rotfl:

Cos Im from the norf and theres no chance at ALL Id move back

MissMoneypenny

Generali wrote: »

Much better to actually help people by slashing taxes and encouraging businesses to create real jobs. Look how the economy of the Isle of Dogs and the rest of Docklands was transformed by doing that in the 1980s. It seems amazing that the single most successful government policy of the 1980s hasn't been repeated in every declining industrial town in the north.

Didn't they try that in the early 70s? Large businesses were given incentives to move to northern towns. The Midland Bank opened Griiffin House in Sheffield. Some London staff moved up there, while other chose to move to different departments and their jobs were taken by people local to Sheffield. Quite a bit of that work has now returned to London.

MissMoneypenny

lynzpower wrote: »

How many canary wharfs can the UK take, and would you ( as a resident city worker) or any of your peers like to relocate to say Middlesborough? Oldham? Burnley? :rotfl:

Cos Im from the norf and theres no chance at ALL Id move back

Some of Midland Bank staff were lured to Sheffield because of the cheap houses. Then they found they didn't like it up there and moved back to the SE again, although by then houses in the south had gone up in price.

ruggedtoast

The idea of the benefit scrounger sitting pretty in their recently purchased council house, sold to them for a song, chain smoking their way through 20 Bensons while watching Jeremy Kyle on the plasma tele bought with the proceeds of a life of petty crime is one that can get pretty much every working tax payer realy angry real quick.

The thing is in most cases those people dont exist, theyre cliches manufactured from our prejudices, theyre not people, when you start to investigate the people behind the prejudices you often realise the real scandal of the benefits system is that so many people are forced to rely on it.

Signing on is a soul sucking experience that affords you a pittance of an income - and if you rely on the state for housing you have virtually no control over where you live or why. Its a tragedy that we still produce people with such poverty of expectation that this is the best that they want for themselves.

The inequality in Britain today is absolutely staggering and to be honest I find the vile pointless displays of wealth and consumption from people who work in the City doing jobs that are inherently useless, or people paid millions for kicking a ball around, to be very depressing and more connected to the benefit scroungers than many realise.