All you poor people are lazy

I wonder what % of Tory MPs have ever had a min wage job?

Oh and can I just add, that sometimes, having the security of benefits is better than the unknown of working in temporary jobs or for small businesses which run the risk of going under.

At the min DP has a reasonably well paid job, we are not in debt, we live within our means. Yet we find ourselves today seriously worrying how we are going to eat tonight. We are also behind with the rent.

This is due to an unreliable bank and a boss as flakey as pastry.

Atleast on benefits we would know when the money was coming. There is more to consider when having a job than just not wanting to seem lazy. People need to live and they have to put their families first.

And Mary Portas is suppossed to be coming here to help our High Street. They seem to think that this is the answer. God help us.

I live in Braintree ttosca. Have done all my life and i can well believe it.

The system is wrong where it pays more NOT to get a job than get one, change the system

You're right. Raise the minimum wage. Increase the tax threshold. The dole is already barely enough on which to survive. Don't believe me? Try it.

The report highlights the fact that of the children currently living in poverty, 1.7 million live in working households, compared to 1.1 million in unemployed households, with the former figure on the rise.

The thinktank stated that "poverty is not simply the result of worklessness".

www.politics.co.uk/news/2010/9/13/rise-in-working-poor

Instead, Crisy and Richard are one among thousands of couples who, without attracting much attention, live daily on a precarious and crumbling financial cliff edge. They are the working poor, frequently self-employed, paying dearly and disproportionately simply because they want to stay in jobs, no matter how low the pay. For months now, the Rowleys have been hanging on to their home and their dreams of a better future by a hair's breadth. They have done so by drawing on their own reserves of resilience; Crisy's financial acumen ? "If I can't afford it, I can't afford the interest on the credit card either," she says flatly ? and significant support from their own, equally cash-strapped families.

"A year ago, Richard could have gone on jobseeker's allowance and the family would have had more money in their pocket," says Amanda Storie, outreach worker at the Seesaw children's centre in Braintree, run by the charity 4Children. She has known the family for five years. "But both Richard and Crisy want to work. They are trying to do the right thing ? but they are paying a high price."

From next month, "doing the right thing" could become even more difficult for more than 200,000 of the poorest working families. Changes to working tax credit mean that the Rowleys could be facing the most difficult two years of their lives until universal credit ? a single, simplified benefit system ? comes into force.

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/17/life-britain-working-poor

The government does need to reflrm benefits, fair enough. But it also needs to look at the sheer amount of taxes we are paying.

They may be raising personal allowances. But tax on petrol and diesel is extortionate. Its not a luxury. Its a necessity for businesses and workers a like.

TV Licence. It is another unnecessary tax. Now with the digital switchover I know a lot of people who are going to have to get a sky subscription just to watch tv as the freeview signals are crap. (Us included.) I would rather have adverts on BBC than pay twice for the priviledge of watching tv.

Heating and utility bills are going up and up even when oil and gas prices are falling.

Rents are rising because people cannot get mortgages so they have no choice but to pay the high rents.

There is more in this country that needs addressing than just the minority who choose the benefits lifestyle. And to call poor people lazy is just disgraceful. Most poor people work harder and longer than politicians do, but for less pay.

Eng Tech there are people IN work having to use food banks. There is an article about this very subject in this months Marie Claire.
As part of ITVs Tonight documentary series The Food We Eat the first episode The Hunger Shame was shown on ITV1 last Friday (10th August) and that featured the wife of an army officer having to use a food bank because his basic training pay wasnt enough to pay all the bills AND buy food.
And this is happening to many people in many low paid jobs.

"The system is wrong where it pays more NOT to get a job than get one, change the system "

As unemployment benefit is £71 per week it seems unlikely than anyone is going to be better off not having a job.

And what kind of leaders are these, that they have time to write a book rather than doing their job and finding solutions to the problems?

That's rich of people currently on a 12-week holiday, with a 3-week one at Xmas, a fortnight at Easter, term breaks.

Oh, generous expenses, time to take on lucrative consultancy jobs in addition to being an MP, and a golden pension.

A lot of the poorest people actually do work but their pay doesnt cover the basics.

Depending on your perspective though.

I came from a poor background, outside toilet, tin bath etc etc and through education and grabbing every opportunity I was given, I am where I am today, not mega rich by the way, just happy with what I have got.

Like it or not, everything has to be paid for and I have done the sums and when I was made redundan a while ago, it was not in my financial interest to get a job but my upbringing kicked in, plus my pride and I got a job, not exactly what I wanted but it brought money in to the house to help pay the bills.

The system is wrong where it pays more NOT to get a job than get one, change the system

And they said this while on their very long extended summer break. Fucking laughable hypocrisy.
British people have the longest working hours in Europe.