The unemployed

[Snow-Munki]

strange as i'm in the process of changing jobs now. My last day next week !!!

only took about 2 weeks of looking and after 2 more weeks got the job, guess i'm just lucky though

 

[iamgud]

A Merc costing over 30k? how many kids are you gonna have to have to get that much benefit.

The type of car she drives isn't the main point I was making tbh.

 

[Dave M]

I did say personally, and I personally believe mothers make better carers.

Why shouldn't farthers stay at home and the women go to work, my mum wouldn't be happy with being a house wife. She drives a Merc and has a good job and she looks after me very well.

I can understand why it could be beneficial for one parent stay home, but it shouldn't have to be the mum.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

My views exactly, no one should get 'free' money just because they don't want to work (and are seen not to be making an effort to find a job)...give them a paint brush and a tin of paint and let them paint old ladies fences. Council tax might fall to if they have to do council related jobs!

There already is something that exsists and its called New Deal. Anyone who's been claiming for more than 6months and are able to work are automatically reffered to it and they are put on a 13week placement with an employer or a taskforce, where they go around and clean up area's, painting, grass cutting etc

 

[crystaline]

Do you have any statistics for this inbalance because I think your assumptions are wrong.

I am one of 5 children, my mother was a stay-at-home mum until the last nipper had gone to college and my father was out of work for as long as I could remember (must be 7-10 years - some jobs but only temporary).

Of those 5 children there is one structural engineer, one warehouse manager, one computer programmer, one school teacher and one musician (french horn, nothing grungy).

To my knowledge none of my siblings have ever claimed benefits unlike the son of a wealthy Solicitor I knew from school who claimed while he was looking for work after leaving university - my brother was job hunting for 10 months after leaving university but just got a job in kwiksave.

Personally I think mothers should stay at home and raise their children properly, fathers should earn a living wage to support a family and the press and politicians should keep their noses out of it.

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.

I agree with this statement (well to the extent that ONE parent be home, be it mother or father):

''Personally I think mothers should stay at home and raise their children properly, fathers should earn a living wage to support a family and the press and politicians should keep their noses out of it''

But I also maintain that in environments (both home and local area) where children have no role models that promote any kind of work ethic, the patterns do occur.

I appreciate that personal circumstance is always going to provide different stories.. there are going to be so many variables which change results for different people, and I do not attempt to give judgement to yours, I am merely expressing the presence of a general pattern.

 

[Malenko]

I'm currently unemployed, for the first time ever since leaving school (about 11 years) and have been for about 2 months now. I'm in hospital at the end of this month, need 2 weeks recovery time after that so I'm off for atleast another month.

Haven't even considered signing on though. I had a bit of cash left over (although it's completely gone now) the missus pays rent etc at the moment and I'm still waiting for the money from selling my house, which should clear most of my debt an keep us going for a couple of months.

As soon as I'm recovered and fit enough after the operation I'll be getting myself a job. Sounds great, no work for a few months but it's driving me absolutely crazy. I don't understand how people can do nothing all day every day.

Ive learned a lesson anyway, never again will I leave a job without having another one lined up..

Absolutely

 

[Jonny ///M]

Heres my life story

I have worked part time sine november when i was still at school,finished school in may and have worked overtime while im not in education. I work for £5.18 and would get £157 a month doing 7 hours a week but with overtime im into £350 but getting taxed like **** . Anyway,my mate is unemployed and signed on and now gets £90 every two weeks! How can he get more in a month than i get having to work on a sunday with the damn public .

Its a load of crap i go with him when he goes to sign on,all hes had to do is sign stuff and attend interviews at the job centre about what he has done to look for a job(he hasnt actually did anything) and they accept what he says so how does that system work . I do feel better spending my own cash and get annoyed at paying tax justnow but im getting that sorted.

I do have a better lifestyle though,work is great when you meet about 20 new people and have parties every other week and great banter while at work. Ide rather work than be stuck in the house all day being depressing.

 

[locutus12]

Not meant to be a rant at every unemployed person, just shocked me how many the news said were claiming!

there is a difference between the number "claiming" and the number of unemployed people. not everyone out of work is on benefits. Also i would put money on a lot of the unemployed genuinely being fed up of doing crap job after crap job after crap job with no real hope of ever getting out of that cycle.

a lot of people on this forum are well educated, come from middle class familys, were able to take advantage of a university education when it was free/cheaper.

youl find most of those unemployed have a background no where near as priveleged, and hence they are stuck doing crap job after crap job, no hope of a pension, no hope of owning their own home with todays prices, and all this can leave people deppressed, miserable and with a "whats the point" attitude.

.

Its a load of crap i go with him when he goes to sign on,all hes had to do is sign stuff and attend interviews at the job centre about what he has done to look for a job(he hasnt actually did anything) and they accept what he says so how does that system work .

it works because after 6 months your forced onto new deal where you do a crappy 2 week "back to work" course which usually also gets you a job, those who fail to get a job during those two weeks go on to a ten week course then a 13 week course, all of which is 9 till 4, monday to friday and its the most utterly depressing and boring thing you can ever have the missfourtune to attend.

 

[crashuk]

But people forget about other factors example applied for a position in my local council, didnt get an interview have a levels degree professional certs etc.., i see the whole department full of non english people, you cant understand them vice versa, they dont know how too add and subtract yet they get these positions,paid £10-20 an hour, just wondering how they manage it?. It seems that the native brit is 2nd to the non native in this country .
I work p/t and it seems i have more money than working fulltime plus iam doing another professional course this year which i get free, if i worked full time i would be worse off and owing money of cc, this way i dont own money to anyone.

 

[VeNT]

BRING BACK THE WORKHOUSES!

ok, maybe not, but I'm sure I can find somthing for the unemployable to do, you want your dole? old Mrs miggens down the road need her fence painting, heres a brush, heres some paint, when its done come back and you can have your money!

 

[crystaline]

Maybe they should start putting them all in the army...

they'd soon conveniently find other work then

 

[Lord_Kokain]

But people forget about other factors example applied for a position in my local council, didnt get an interview have a levels degree professional certs etc.., i see the whole department full of non english people, you cant understand them vice versa, they dont know how too add and subtract yet they get these positions,paid £10-20 an hour, just wondering how they manage it?. It seems that the native brit is 2nd to the non native in this country .
I work p/t and it seems i have more money than working fulltime plus iam doing another professional course this year which i get free, if i worked full time i would be worse off and owing money of cc, this way i dont own money to anyone.

Its to do with some theory of insiders and outsiders. Basically in your case you are the outsider, applying for your local council but you apply on basis of your qualifications and hope for a vacation for you. At the same time the insiders i.e. the ones already established working at the council would be able to often pull strings in their favour in a sense that they would, for example, know when a vacancy is free and get a friend/relative on it asap. Unfortunately, that exists on many places. I work at two different places(not F/T though) and on both of them, we are being told when a position is available before its being advertised in the job centre. That way we can either find someone we know to apply for it or we go for it ourselves(if its better than what we have) so our managers dont bother much with recruitment.

But the belief that, as British, you are treated as 2nd class citizen is doubtful.

 

[Jonny ///M]

it works because after 6 months your forced onto new deal where you do a crappy 2 week "back to work" course which usually also gets you a job, those who fail to get a job during those two weeks go on to a ten week course then a 13 week course, all of which is 9 till 4, monday to friday and its the most utterly depressing and boring thing you can ever have the missfourtune to attend.

Ok cheers mate,i dont know the ins n outs of JSA but **** doing 9-4 5 days a week for what? The same 90 quid a week?

Its almost as bad as the employment agency who pay under 18's £50 a week to do 10-5pm monday to friday to get them experience. Some of them do do good and end up with a part time or full time job but a lot of them end up getting told to not come back to work.

To the above,thats pretty much spot on. In my work its all friends of friends and what not. My brother got me in,my brothers girlfriend works there.......her sister also got a job.....my mate also got a job because his mate who is also my mate has a job with us.

 

[Glaucus]

Unless you have a disability, or some other decent reason you should only be able to claim benefits for say 4months after that zip, nought, nothing. four months is long enough to find a job. If you can't find one in that time, work in a supermarket or factory on poor wages. There should also be a big difference between min wage and benefits.

I now several people who don't work simply cos there to lazy. Yet they can still afford the tv's the dvd's the pub ect ect. if your on the dole you should be scrapping though life with little luxury's.

 

[HangTime]

Well, the claimant count figure (which used to be, but now differs from, the headline figure of course) does include transitory claimants.

I agree that the most important figure is the long term JSA claimants, and those swinging the lead by fraudulently claiming sickness benefits.

It's a long time since I studied this but I seem to remember reading that the way the current economy works, it's unlikely that unemployment will ever fall below 500,000 again, even if all the long term claimants found work.

One thing I think is worth mentioning is that as we move forward in time many of the so-called 'lesser', menial jobs are being taken by immigrant workers from the EU. People from Poland for example are more than happy to work for what the British might term a pittance - even below minimum wage - because they can still earn more in a few months than they would in a year back home.

So what effect does this have? Well, it means that there is a surplus of labour for low skilled jobs, meaning there is little upwards pressure on wages in that area. And following on from that, there is naturally less incentive for benefit claimants to seek out those jobs. Why slog your guts out 40 hours a week when you can get a comprable income on the dole?

Part of me says that the British public have been spoilt by 'high' (in global terms) wages for too long, and that as our economy becomes more open, we will need to re-evaluate our expectations of acceptable incomes.

 

[Stringy]

I was unemployed from December of last year until the end of July this year. I have to say it was time well spent

 

[locutus12]

Ok cheers mate,i dont know the ins n outs of JSA but **** doing 9-4 5 days a week for what? The same 90 quid a week?

Its almost as bad as the employment agency who pay under 18's £50 a week to do 10-5pm monday to friday to get them experience. Some of them do do good and end up with a part time or full time job but a lot of them end up getting told to not come back to work.

To the above,thats pretty much spot on. In my work its all friends of friends and what not. My brother got me in,my brothers girlfriend works there.......her sister also got a job.....my mate also got a job because his mate who is also my mate has a job with us.

yup, its all for that crappy £45 a week / £90 a fort night. that "educational Maintenece Allowance" enfuriates me, i had to leave home at 16 and i had a choice, study and dont eat, or work and eat, i couldnt get any benefit to pay for me whilst i went to college at 16 and ended up leaving college to work as i needed the money to live, and now its available in abundence it "copulates" me off.

i remember 2 years ago when i was signing on, i had just turned 22 and i wanted to go on a training scheme ran by BT in conjunction with the job center and the job center told me i was too old as it was open for 18 to 21... however if i was from out side of the U.K. and had been living here for more than a year it was open for 18 to 24.

 

[Lopéz]

I've never been on the dole - can somebody tell me please what you get per week, and what you do/do not have to pay for?

Even if people on the dole got free rent, free EEC beef milk and bread I still don't see how they could be better off than if they were working? What about Gas, electricity, fuel, car, mobile, internet connection, telly, general material posessions, clothes, shoes......

My current employer is taking on staff now. Can you read, write and string together a sentence? If so then they will employ you. Most supermarkets will have similar criteria. There are lots of jobs available that people won't do because they don't pay enough, yet they can afford to live on the dole in the meantime I really don't understand that, can anybody enlighten me?

 

[philio16]

There already is something that exsists and its called New Deal. Anyone who's been claiming for more than 6months and are able to work are automatically reffered to it and they are put on a 13week placement with an employer or a taskforce, where they go around and clean up area's, painting, grass cutting etc

I'd never heard of that (being a student )..good to know they're doing something about it though!

 

[AJUK]

I can do one better than that. I wanted to expand my business by taking on a graduate and train them up to chartership. However, I couldn't quite afford to take one on at the current salary rate (I had two candidates in mind).

I made some enquiries and to my delight there was a scheme where the government would pay 50% of their salary for a year which would have not been a massive amount of money but enough to assist me in being able to afford to take on and train a graduate and get them to an experienced and cost effective level. Great I thought, just the job, the country will benefit from a trained engineer in the long run and I will be able to expand my business, thereby increasing the tax revenue I contribute; win/win all round I thought. My hopes were soon dashed because when I wanted to make an application I was told that it only applies to foreign students wanting to work in the UK.

That is how much this government care about creating jobs for our young people. **** all! Needless to say, I am still struggling along and now have no intention whatsoever of expanding my business.