Finally ! Therese Coffey tells it like it is. If you need more money, work longer.

[SerendipityJane]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64745258

Hurrah for the voice of reason. Now this is the sort of person we need as Prime Minister.

@SemperIdem pigs are lovely, intelligent creatures. Don't be so unkind to them.

Which is great coming from a Tory whose ilk closed all the skillcentres in the 1990s.

Yum! I'm looking forward to my ham and turnip sandwich at lunchtime tomorrow. Thanks for the food tip, Therese, and thanks to all those whose votes put these geniuses in charge.

It really fucks me off when the tories churn out this same line that people can upskill and get a better paid job.. Like they havent realised that someone will always need to do those low paid 'unskilled' jobs and if they were just paid a decent living wage it would benefit EVERYONE.

Yes, yes, there are lots of reasons, but someone's circumstances making full time work difficult does not mean that the rest of the country have to work that bit harder to bail them out.

So what would your solution be? Leave them in poverty? Until we have affordable, plentiful high quality childcare of the same standard as is available in Scandinavian countries and for similar costs, people like you really need to button it.

No, of course not. They can work in a call centre Saturday and Sunday, and in the evenings they can take in washing.

I clearly recall my parents in approx 1980 (I was 15) working full time jobs - teacher and office worker - and then in the evenings and all day Saturday/Sunday, they went straight out again to the Berni Inn. This wasn’t to enjoy a steak and floater coffee, it was to work. It was truly awful. In fact I still believe the stress and exhaustion led to my poor Dad collapsing and dying in Feb 1981 at 51 years old. They had to work all these hours due to horrendous mortgage rate.

Just curious - what do you think these ‘circumstances’ might be ?

There are 24 hours in a day. Most people only work 8 of those, when they could fit in 3 full time jobs, the workshy gobshites! And that's only on weekdays, you've got a whole two days at the weekend when you can cook and clean and have a sleep. Lighweights...

Brilliant! Oh, thank heavens for humour. (though I like being warm and eating too, unfortunately)

Yep. I was married in late 1979 and we bought our modest two up two down. When our mortgage was arranged the interest rates were 11%. By the time we moved in the Thatcher government had been elected and the rates shot up to over 15% and stayed there for quite some time. It nearly broke us, despite DH and myself both working two jobs, and there was nowhere near the level of support available that’s provided via UC these days. There was supplementary benefit and income support - both of which you had to be on the bones of your arse to claim.

Looks like she's eaten all the food!!

Reminds me of a certain Monty Python sketch involving a shoe box and the middle of the road - I think there were beatings and eating glass involved !!

Whilst we are at it- she should have posted a recipe for gruel and suggested workhouses for anyone and their families needing to claim

😂

She's the MP in the constituency next to mine..
I met her at a dog show... I got the "don't you know who I am? speech. I said that no I didn't...
She also turned up for an open day in our village. Im told she walked to the front of the queue and told the people on the gate that the organiser had to told her to. The organiser didn't know she was even coming and hadn't told her too apparently!!

but do we really have to behave as if working for a living is an outrageous suggestion?
No one is saying it is. Most people do. The problem is many people are not paid enough to live on even if they work full time. Are people expected to have two or more full time jobs?

Look, people, it's quite simple:

1. Become prime minister
2. Make a mess of things then leave.
3. Go on worldwide speaking tours at a million quid a pop.

Any idiot can do it.

"Are people expected to have two or more full time jobs?"

In fairness most politicians seem to have 2 or 3 jobs on the go. So they've acknowledged it's difficult to live on those £80,000+ wages, subsidised meals, second homes etc.

It matters because some people are genuinely too ill or too disabled to do their bit, or have done it for as long as they could manage, and are being vilified for claiming benefits to which they are genuinely entitled. A lot of people have also paid into the system while working and are legitimately claiming because they’ve fallen on harder times. Which is what the benefits system was designed for - a safety net. You pay in when you can, in the hope that you never need to use that safety net. The UC system was designed by the Tories, and puts the onus on the tax payer to pick up the tab because rich employers won’t sacrifice their profits to pay people a decent living wage. If you want something to be angry about, be angry about that.

How are people going to find time to cook their turnips if they are working 16 hours or so a day? They take ages!

Don’t forget the £110,000 a year for the rest of your life for making that mess, regardless of how long you were actually in the job. Not a bad return for 49 days is it ?

Ninja Foodie. They can leave them on slow cook while they work and crisp ‘em up when they get home !!