welfare reforms

is it me but does it strike anyone as funny that nulabour are getting ready to force everyone back to work in a recession?
Not against the plans but might be worth holding fire actually coming up with some training schemes that might actually benefit the people sent on them.
so as the economy picks up you can go look you have skills there are jobs go.
rather than trying to bully the unemployable into jobs when there are not many to be have and they don't have any skills anybody wants.
Or is that just too simple

 

What jobs are companies looking for in Sheffield, Mr Deputy?

 

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.

 

er council already employs street cleaners?
why is its the governments fault.
allowing a lot of children to have a really shite education then malinger on the dole queue other benefits for years and years.
decide to change the rules and go OI get a job whose going to employ them?
employers will rather have a hard working pole than a pissed off chav.
can't blame them but crime goes down when chavs actually have a job etc etc

 

No wonder we are the prime target for Economic Migrants. Where else in the world are people paid, long term. to NOT work. Whats that all about?

 

Getting lazy,workshy barsteward off the dole/sick/whtecer has long been spoken of by governments of both political hues. No-onwwill achieve much without a radical upheaval of the benefits system and are we ready to be really harsh to these unfortunates? Some Peruvian cadigan wearing,tree huggging, whale saving, sandal embossed liberal will be out there pleading the case for the slobs and chavv and nothing will change.

 

Seems to me that theres going to be millions more "pissed off chavs" if thats what you think the dole queue consists of. Funny really, the gubmint says we need migrants to help the economy, then the economy goes into nosedive and unemployment is set to rise like a rocket, but do we send them back? Oh no, its just that theres more chavs now......

 

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.

 

Comparing today's welfare state with eighty years ago is hardly a rational way to illustrate what is being proposed. It was a different world with hugely different level of problems - but well done to Gramps for getting out there and doing well in the end.

In the twenties and indeed late forties genuinely disabled people were expected to get out and work. Nowadays there are more registered disabled than after 2 world wars. It is to disguise the unemployment figures. Many have self induced ailments (obese, unfit, lazy, educationally unable, unwilling to lower themselves to menial work etc).

It is those who must be made to work so society can look after the genuinely needy

 

My bold.

Don't the unemployed have to prove that they are looking for work any more? Don't they eventually have to try for jobs that the DWP send them to? Don't they lose their benefits if they don't take up job offers and if they are sacked or resign from those jobs they take up?

My italics.

I don't know about elsewhere but I know that the DWP in Sheffield and Skipton are pretty robust in this area.

My underlined

I agree entirely. companies employing over a certain number (the exact number escapes me but I think it might be 100) are supposed to have a workforce which includes 10% disabled, I know few who actually do.

Not having a go but isn't job seekers allowance £47 still? I don't know how single people with no dependents can survive on this.

 

I was trying to make the point that we don't want to go back to those days, when for instance a mill-hand unemployed in Preston would have their dole stopped for turning down a job painting and decorating in Portsmouth.

But I do agree entirely that the Government's plan to massage the unemployment figures by putting people onto 'disability' has been a disaster, and we need everyone who can work, to work.

Sadly one of Grandad's Great Grand-daughters - my second cousin or some such, has adopted the scrounging lifestyle. At 30 she has done six weeks of paid employment since she left school at 16. This apparently entitles her to claim, because 'I've paid in'. I'd love to see her 'disability benefits' stopped, and those of her husband, who has five children by three women, all kept by the state (i.e. me!) and has also never worked for longer than the two or three weeks required to keep the dole people off his back.

 

Is £47 the total financial assistance received, or just the weekly cash handout for doing nothing?

 

its possibly the wrong time to start a reform as employers won't be asking for lots of new employees at the moment.
but a good time to start making some realistic plans.
Ideas any single parent long time unemployed claimant who isn't seriously disabled to have a basic skills assessment no test no cash.

anyone below a certain level of literacy compulsory basic skills course theres few jobs these days for those that can't read or write without that fixed theres no point.

 

This is the total cash handout if you, for example live with parents and do absolutely sweet FA. If you have your own place to look after the tax free handout is MASSIVELY increased.

 

Jobseekers allowance is only one benefit. There's also housing benefit and council tax benefit as minimums for a single person with no children. The sums go up if you become a parent or can claim disability benefit. You don't have to be physically disabled, you can claim for depression or other psychological conditions you can even be on disability benefit because your depression was caused by unemployment.

There are a range of other subsidies and handouts available which aren't detailed on the DWP site.