bubsnicket said:
Very few people are "unemployable" - so long as they have a hand and a couple of legs they can do most jobs! Why is it the governments job to get people the relevant skills? If some sectors of society cant be bothered with an education why should we have to force them onto training schemes? Perhaps replacing benefits with some form of low paid government work for a couple of days a week would be a good idea? There are loads of leaves on my street that need picking up! At least that way the lazy barstewards will see the benefit of a propper job or getting the training themselves.
In the twenties, my grandfather, when not in and out of hospital getting his eye fixed after a wound at third Ypres did not heal well, was an unemployed plasterer for a lot of time. (They didn't plaster in Winter, for example). He was not allowed his dole money unless he worked clearing snow, picking litter, or doing any cr@p job the dole office gave him. When he was in hospital, no money was given at all, meaning that at one time my aunt and grandmother faced Christmas on the street until an ex gratia payment was made for my aunt.
I would not like to see a return to those days, as it was a disgusting way to treat someone, made worse by the fact that his inability to work at that time was caused by fighting for his country. Neither he nor my grandmother were lazy barstewards, and in the end he got better, got steady work, and provided a home for his family. By cycling from Colchester to Cambridge on a Sunday, working there all week, and cycling back on a Saturday afternoon, until they had saved enough to move.
I agree that the benefit system should be reformed, and I am sickened by the number of second and even third generation scroungers, who can't be arrsed to work in low-paid jobs.
I'd like to see time limits applied,
sick notes checked (as happens to those of us in jobs), and unemployment no longer a career choice, but I would not like to see a return to those days.
Along with the reform of the benefit system,
I'd also like to see employers shaken up. Many of them get subsidies for taking people off the dole, keep them on temporary contracts for the required number of weeks at a low pay rate and cr@p terms and conditions. When they should be giving them a permanent job they return them to the dole, and take another one instead. This has to be wrong.