The current dole system. A complete joke?
- Thread starter nichorob
- Start date
christ the rent must be cheap round your way.
and minimum wage? you are talking about 5.35? how many hours did you do?
Soldato
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A few years ago the gov were telling people to save.
I saved a bit - and now have more than £5000 in the bank.
Now - if me and the wife (we both work in the same place) are laid off and ever looking for JSA - we can't claim it, apparently becuase we have too much savings.
Nice one.....
Also, I know of numerous builders / labourers who are both working (for £400+ a week cash in hand) and claiming benifits. I earn the same, pay tax and am effectively paying their benefits. Nothing is done about it - and their employer (a very well known construction firm) doesn't have a problem with it.
Nice one #2
Everything to do with this country - its benefits system - and the way people work the system annoys me. Its annoys me even more that I work my backside off to feed other peoples lazyness - especially the parents who have 10+ kids and get £30,000 a year. I've worked from 14-34 - put in 48+ hours a week for the last 13 years, and I have seen thousands of people have better lifestyles and less stress than me by living off my tax contributions and doing naff all.
My parents did the same - worked from 13-60 - my dad worked 32 years in the same job (doing a 9day week and then getting 3 days off) - payed tax his whole life (now he can barely survive on his money because his personal pension is barley enough to live on, but means he can't claim any benefits)
Thats why as I've said - I plan on leaving at some point....not paying the stinking system anymore of my hard earned tax money or National Insurance money and hopefully actually having a life in a country that understands what a wage is and what a decent hard worker deserves.
Rant #2 over.
I saved a bit - and now have more than £5000 in the bank.
Now - if me and the wife (we both work in the same place) are laid off and ever looking for JSA - we can't claim it, apparently becuase we have too much savings.
Nice one.....
Also, I know of numerous builders / labourers who are both working (for £400+ a week cash in hand) and claiming benifits. I earn the same, pay tax and am effectively paying their benefits. Nothing is done about it - and their employer (a very well known construction firm) doesn't have a problem with it.
Nice one #2
Everything to do with this country - its benefits system - and the way people work the system annoys me. Its annoys me even more that I work my backside off to feed other peoples lazyness - especially the parents who have 10+ kids and get £30,000 a year. I've worked from 14-34 - put in 48+ hours a week for the last 13 years, and I have seen thousands of people have better lifestyles and less stress than me by living off my tax contributions and doing naff all.
My parents did the same - worked from 13-60 - my dad worked 32 years in the same job (doing a 9day week and then getting 3 days off) - payed tax his whole life (now he can barely survive on his money because his personal pension is barley enough to live on, but means he can't claim any benefits)
Thats why as I've said - I plan on leaving at some point....not paying the stinking system anymore of my hard earned tax money or National Insurance money and hopefully actually having a life in a country that understands what a wage is and what a decent hard worker deserves.
Rant #2 over.
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Man of Honour
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Six months?! That is a complete joke. If you want the system to no longer be a joke, there is only one realistic way of fixing it. It consists of the following two conditions being attached to the receipt of benefits:
1. The claimant must attend at least one interview per day, Monday to Friday. Random interviews will be secretly monitored to ensure the claimant is not sabotaging his interviews. A stern warning or a reduction of benefits would result from such sabotage, depending on how blatant/damaging it was.
2. Benefits will be withdrawn from any person able to work* who refuses an offer of a job which meets the following criteria:
1. Travel to and from work does not exceed one hour.
2. The wage, net of all deductions and travel expenses, is sufficient to pay one's living costs. (If it is almost sufficient and the claimant accepts, then he should be assisted by the state, as it at least removes the majority of the financial burden we bear by covering him with benefits, and he is showing willing which is to be commended.)
*As determined by a compulsory medical carried out initially.
Job done.
There is no realistic argument against that policy, and I challenge anybody to find one. I will point out something, in order to offset the obvious but flawed argument I do expect:
The cost of the surveillance, medicals, and any subsidies for very low earners would have course be dwarfed by the savings in effectively eliminating the dole culture.
PS: I expect some people might say that it's harsh, or that people should be allowed to pursue the jobs they want. Well as regards the former, life is harsh and we (everybody else in the country) don't owe any one person a living...they must work for it, no matter how undesirable their job. As to the latter let them do so by all means, but we shouldn't have to support them while they do so.
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I'd agree with that in theory but I guess personally I won't know what I would do if I was in *** same situation. People could keep thinking that the sought after job is just around the corner but then fail to get it. But one thing for sure, getting on the dole would not be my first resort if I knew I could get a job easily.
but that's down the fact these guys are criminals. report them to the authorities. that really is not on....
Dont get me wrong, id love to see something like that, but I was being more realistic. I think we could safetly say something like that will never happen.
can you just imagine what would happen to crime rates if a system like that was introduced.....
How would all that be paid for? Would end up costing more to run than the cost of people that freeload.
Crime rates would rocket.
Presumably these would be short enough interviews that people would still be able to have time to job hunt/clean/eat/sleep/travel to interviews/take the kids to school as well, etc.
How many more staff would you be employing for this, per unemployed person per town, and I take it the dole offices would stay open longer?
Man of Honour
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Of course not, because no government has the balls to do it.
All what? No it wouldn't, and that's bloody obvious. You compare the cost of one medical, and an employee going to an interview site to deposit a video camera, then coming back at a later date to retrieve it and then watch the footage (perhaps four man-hours), against the cost of giving somebody hundreds per week for several weeks, months, or years. Did you think before you posted?
Nonsense. A small percentage would turn to crime, and as amateurs they'd quickly be caught & dealth with. The great majority would just learn to lump it. Most dole scroungers aren't inclined towards crime per se. Many of them are just greedy and/or lazy, and do it because they can get away with it, plus many actually believe that it's not wrong for various reasons.
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I don't know what that guy is doing, but I'm sure as hell not cosy on £46 a week. Especially when I only actually see £20 of that after covering bills (housing benefit doesn't cover all of my rent\utility bills).
Nor do I enjoy working for free when I could use that time to search for jobs - instead under New Deal I'm tied down 4 days a week. I don't even get my travel expenses covered so I'm essentially making a loss to do work that ordinary staff are paid £16k for. Not to mention half the clients don't turn up, but I still have to go do the paperwork for them.
Don't tell me it is easy or fun. Go bash the 5 million on incapacity, or the income support single parent crowd.
Nor do I enjoy working for free when I could use that time to search for jobs - instead under New Deal I'm tied down 4 days a week. I don't even get my travel expenses covered so I'm essentially making a loss to do work that ordinary staff are paid £16k for. Not to mention half the clients don't turn up, but I still have to go do the paperwork for them.
Don't tell me it is easy or fun. Go bash the 5 million on incapacity, or the income support single parent crowd.
Soldato
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Job agency: So what have you applied for this week?
Dole person: Well, I applied for position as King of England, I hear that pays very well. Though the OcUK ninjas group turned me down.
I like the idea that people have already mentioned. You get out what you put in. If you've worked for 30 years or even just a few years in a high paying job (paid a lot of tax) you should be ok on the dole for as long as the pot allows. You've paid tax, you've proven you can work.
If that pot runs out I think you should still get the dole but a reduced amount and you work 2-3 days a week doing public service until you find a job.
If that pot runs out I think you should still get the dole but a reduced amount and you work 2-3 days a week doing public service until you find a job.
Thats what contribution based JSA is for, and why it is higher than the income based version.
I should add that New Deal is a big exercise in corporate welfare...free staff, free "training" grants and money for babysitting doleys. Most of this money ends up going to the bosses of the private firms contracted to provide the programme.
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was on the dole for 3 weeks, only had to tell them very little, but then they werent actually paying me due to a final payment on my student loan at the time, so its not like they cared much
after that i just went and got a data entry job, thats now done and wanted to find some proper work...failed, back to the agency on monday for dull work again, oh well, its better than the dole. people may treat me as sub human, but tbh i just switch off and all is well
after that i just went and got a data entry job, thats now done and wanted to find some proper work...failed, back to the agency on monday for dull work again, oh well, its better than the dole. people may treat me as sub human, but tbh i just switch off and all is well
Which is why I never hand out app forms @ my workplace and ask for C.V's get rid of all the wasters
Also I am about to become a scrounger (of sorts)
Currently wife + me work pay private rent and just get by. When our next (last!!) baby comes in April she's going to get up work and our rent will paid for us and we'll only be £10 a week worse off when you inc tax credits etc. Brilliant tbh! Also i get cheap night aat courses at college (£660 vs £61)
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What do you do if you don't mind me asking? Seems like a pretty hefty wage for 16 hours.
I'm on the dole at the moment, and I bloody hate it! I have a problem with getting a job though, despite holding a degree and having constant interviews, because as soon as I mention that I have to visit the hospital once a fortnight and it may involve an overnighter they never call me back!
The crap thing is, I know it's down to my disability but because they don't say as much I can't do anything about it.
The crap thing is, I know it's down to my disability but because they don't say as much I can't do anything about it.