Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart C
I am not making excuses for the goverment, or Northern Rock (who directly or indirectly caused their own problems), but the reason the government did that is that if they hadn't, and Northern Rock had collapsed, it could have caused the collapse of one (or more) of the larger banks (Barclays, Natwest or HSBC). If this had happened, in all likelyhood, our economy would have collapsed . Because, thanks to various factors including high property prices, far too many people are very heavily in debt.
I don't think anyone is stating all benefit claimants are workshy scroungers, but a *lot* of claimants are. When I was on benefits, I spent most of my days looking for work. Similarly, a friend of mine was a student at my Uni. Every day she came in, she'd spend the whole day working on her studies. He (apparently unaware I could see him from where I used to take a break) would wait until she was out of sight, then nip in to the local pub for the day. Yes, they were both on as many grants as a couple with no kids could get, but she worked hard. He didn't work, and when he did get a job, he normally lasted 2-3 days before getting fired.
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I am not debating whether the bank bailout was right or wrong but I am not happy they just simply lie to past blame for problems on to a minority vulnerable group of people that are easy targets. The fact remains the so called workshy are actually a very small social cost in comparison to many other things eg. the waste in running the parliament costs more than the entire annual jobseekers allowance budget.
---------- Post added at 00:42 ---------- Previous post was at 00:30 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramrod
Whats stopping people from training up and getting better jobs?.....and if the better paid jobs aren't in the area then commuting to them?
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what better jobs?
As for commuting whats reasonable? eg. I think its unreasonable to have to spend an hour or more travelling to work every day. Then the option would be moving house and I guess that depends on the individuals circumstancesm but its all hype that there is plenty of high paid jobs to go round the truth is there isnt the vast majority of jobs in the country are quite far below the average wage and in some areas like mine (lowest unskilled salaries in england according to official stats in 2006) they are very low. Now I am not writing excuses for people who deliberatly dont work but I if I put myself in a position of a person he has to put food on the table and pay for the roof over their head. Many of the job options now days are temp agency works which is an irregular income might be needed for 1-2 days of the week but not the rest but this is enough for state benefits to be stopped so for starters if I was on job seekers allowance I would only give it up for a full time permanent job not temp agency work, then the income would have to be enough to at least cover my essential bills. If I work out the cost of living for a small bedsit in my area + essential bills such as council tax, heating, tv licence, food etc. and assume no social life no going out etc. then the wage needed just for that is about £7.50 an hour. Someone with kids would be ok as massive child tax credits topups and child benefit but someone without kids gets a very small working tax credit topup. So basically I am saying in that situation I would refuse any job that doesnt keep my essential bills paid so nothing less than a full time 7.50 an hour job. If I was still living with my parents and as such had lower living costs then the situation would be different and a min wage job would pay enough. But I think a lot of people have double standards when they expect others to do what they wouldnt. I have heard people say they wouldnt get out of bed for less than £10 an hour never mind £7 an hour or min wage.
Also its all too easy to say things like "lots" of people are workshy or "lots" are defrauding the system when you dont know their circumstances.
---------- Post added at 00:45 ---------- Previous post was at 00:42 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jefferson T
I'm using my enforced time off work to re-train so that when I've finished my treatment I can return to work much better qualified.
I don't really care what work I do, I started off as a cleaner in a factory, but while I've got the opportunity to re-train and get that training for free I don't see a problem with doing it.
Am I workshy, probably, but at least I'm doing something about it I guess.
A lot of people (as I've said before) do class me as a scrounger on benefits and some on here have even told me so, although not in public of course 
---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------
What I'm trying to say really is that it doesn't matter who I'm up against, if they are better than me I'd expect them to get the job, so it just means I have to work that bit harder to impress at an interview. |
Yeah it works both ways whilst I will stickup for the people the media and mps are picking on anyone in that situation should always be looking to improve their prospects and training is one thing that helps.