to think cutting benefits will increase crime

For all we know works both ways doesn’t it though?
For all we know it may have been a weekday, there may have been a relative to help, there may have been contacts at the hospital that could have helped.

My point was that not feeling bad in that moment could have been usurped by stress of being caught.

Guaranteed interview does not mean guaranteed job, you know. Companies pay lip service and get away with it.

Look, I'm not saying that it is impossible for anyone with a health condition or disability to get a job. It would just be nice for some of the 'just get a job' brigade to acknowledge that there are people for whom the barriers to accessing work are considerably higher than they are for most. The playing field isn't level. We should be looking at levelling that and improving opportunity for all, not at more punitive benefit sanctions that will not work.

It depends on which day of the week she was born because if she was born on a Saturday we all know that Saturday's child works hard for a living, so there would be no need to steal.

Oh, you sweet summer child.

I've completed applications where I exactly matched the job spec and I definitely made sure to tailor the application to show it. I'd used exactly the same bespoke computer systems to perform the same role. The only difference would be the location, being ten minutes away, rather than 40.

Guaranteed interview if you meet the minimum person/essential job specification and declare that you have a disability, they claimed.

Ha ha ha ha. 'You have not been selected for interview because you do not meet the essential criteria for the role'.

I ticked the fucking Disabled box, didn't I?

Most food banks aren't open all week either. For all we know, she could have stolen the food on a Thursday and the next time a non- referral food bank was open could have been Monday. Should she have not eaten until Monday?

As in companionate love? Marriage? A bit weird.

I thought certain companies were part of the guaranteed interview scheme. My son has a disability and that is how he got his job.

The reality is that you can't just get a job instantly. You have no money, your child is hungry - are you not going to feed them til you have a job and get your first pay?

Companionate?

Working is always another way. I've never been without a job in my whole life. Sometimes I've worked more than one job to earn more money so I worked full time as a teacher, and I tutored a couple of students each week in the evenings and I examined A level papers twice a year. I would never consider stealing.

You would have felt bad if it had become public knowledge that you stole or if caught and the police wanted to prosecute. With a child in and out of hospital, that’s seems a needless stress to put yourselves under when you most certainly would qualify to use a food bank. Not all food banks need a referral.

My DH goes to work on the train. Then walks the rest of the way. It's about 20 miles in and 20 miles back. He wants to work and enjoys his job. He works from home sometimes

Thats great that you live close enough for him to leave early enough to have time to walk to the train station and no commitments preventing him to leave that early, then its great he earns enough, in the job he loves, to make it viable to afford the train daily and then have the flexibility to be able to work from home, and then nothing prevevting him doing the same on the way home after work, it sounds like the job is ideal for him. Sadly, not everyone's job opportunities are the same.

The only time I’ve ever committed a crime was shoplifting food at the self service checkout when my daughter was in and out of hospital and I was working on a zero hours contract, DWP refused to give me an emergency loan to cover me until I could claim UC. I didn’t feel bad about it at all and even if I’d have been caught I wouldn’t have felt bad although it’s not something I have ever done before or since that time.

So yes I think cutting benefit would almost certainly lead to more shoplifting type crime and wouldn’t be surprised if it pushed people into more serious types of crime too. I think People living in increasing poverty are also less like to feel particularly connected or sympathy to the more affluent in society as well which could increase other crime rates.

I don't have a low opinion of people on benefits at all. There is however a massive difference between people who have been in work and lose their job (I have been in that position) and who have a CV showing a work history etc., and people who have for whatever reason (physical/mental health etc) not worked or not worked for a long time. Group one is likely to find work quite quickly and easily. Group 2 - not so much. For every employer who is keen to take on people with health issues and disabilities (My DS is lucky enough to have one of these), there are 10 others who will put that application straight in the bin. It's perfectly possible to job hunt actively for 12 months and get nowhere, especially when you have transport and childcare in the mix. It's typical of people like you that you cannot envision scenarios where there are genuine barriers to someone taking on a job, and it's typical that your first impulse is punitive rather than supportive.

Evidently they are called ….@everydaywonderful

It's actually very insulting to suggest most of the population would take to stealing if they lost their job. It would never have even entered my mind that one person would do it, let alone to think most people would do it.

"Woke" or "snowflakes".

...or you can pay for the train at all when earning a meagre minimum salary!

What about the far left, what are they called?

Agree, there are the ones that play the system, but for everyone of those, quoting a friend who is a benefit advocate, there are 200 who are not claiming support they are entitled to.

In my time working at the job centre, the amount of people who "didn't want to work" was... almost nobody, they wanted to work but they didn't have the skills or the experience or where saddled with a very clear disability.

The ones that broke my heart were old people, over 60 with significant mobility problems being pushed away from part time jobs they could do and were already doing as they were requested to do over 16 hours. Most of them didn't have the qualifications or experience to work in an office but their bodies no longer had the strength to carry out more manual work as they did most of their lives as with knackered knees, hip problems or severe arthritis, it was impossible. Yet they were told that they could do non manual work when realistically, without office experience, nobody would have them!

Most of the people I dealt with had their confidence shattered through continuous failed interviews.

If you could see how happy they were when they secured an interview or got a job, you will know that the rhetoric that people on benefits is lazy is just a nasty piece of false stereotyping to promote the Conservative's agenda.

i am so sorry

I was just so lucky during my single life bringing up 2 children, i'm so sorry that working was more important to me and important to show my children that the work ethos is good.

no matter what i say, i found a childminder to work out of hours - oh you were lucky, i drive - oh you are so lucky you can drive, oh you are so lucky you have a car, oh you are so lucky you can afford a car!

i am a firm believer that if you want something that bad, then you do everything within your power to get it... just not crime

I don't believe there is not 1 so gle job within 20 miles of you. Where do you live I'll find you one?