To be scared of getting a job in case I'm worse off?

[BenefitScrounger]

NC and prepared for a flaming.

I've been claiming JSA for over two years now and am on the Work Programme. I have no qualifications and all I could get (I think) is a minimum wage job. I have been lying about my attempts to get work because I think I am better off out of work.

At the moment I get full housing benefit plus council tax, free dental care/prescriptions (if I need them) and £71 a week to live on. My bills aren't covered obviously, but they're not huge, and I have lots of free time to indulge hobbies etc.. I don't feel the need to buy stuff very often as I'm not into fashion/beauty and I eat cheaply. I can afford to eat out once a week with a TasteCard. The only thing I miss is holidays abroad but I'm not sure I would be able to afford them if I got a job anyway.

If I got a full time minimum wage job, would I be worse off? Just thinking of travel expenses, student loan repayment and time lost - not sure if I would still get any council tax benefit?

Has anyone had experience of this? By the way, I'm childless and live alone.

Haven't read the whole thread, but here are my views. When I was 18 til21 , I worked 60hrs a week for less than I would have received in benefits. It was a struggle, particularly when non working folk seemed to have more than me, however, where would my life have gone, I would have been in the benefit trap, not meeting the folk I know now, and would still be struggling to this day. I think op you are being very short sighted, maybe people are kind to you now, but if they are working, their life will change, and yours won't. It's a bit like a recent thread about buying first house. If you don't think sacrifices now are worth the long term gain, then fine, but just remember that there will be a price to pay long term for this attitude, tho quite frankly, I wouldn't give you a job with that attitude!

Why are beagles so heartbreaking?

A bit weird? What does that mean?

Goldship: I thought I wasn't paying for it. Am I paying for stuff or not?

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=qDvo_qjmdMud6M:&imgrefurl=true-wildlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/goat.html&docid=FoUDdo8FZ6_8WM&imgurl=2.bp.blogspot.com/-3y9S" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&tbnid=qDvo_qjmdMud6M:&imgrefurl=true-wildlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/goat.html&docid=FoUDdo8FZ6_8WM&imgurl=2.bp.blogspot.com/-3y9S

Why do you keep saying that you will lose your house? It is not your house.

If you are struggling then do some overtime or get a saturday job or find a cheaper flat to rent.

If you are real i don't believe that you live well on £71. You can just about survive on that not eating out every week and buying art materials. Either you lie or you live off your bf.

OP, you aren't paying for anything

the tax payer is

hth

d'aw

'A bit weird' as in sometimes I can't go out. It happens often enough for me not to complete degree/hold down job but not often enough to be on DLA.

Thought someone else might have experience of this but seems not.

It's my home as much as anyone who rents and gets some HB has a 'home'.

I do live well on 71 a week. I get art materials once or twice a year - birthday and Christmas - from friends and family.

Do you mean social anxiety?

Though frankly you sound more narcissistic than anything else.

Unchartered: that's what I thought. So I am not paying my internet provider then, as Gold suggested I was.

Are you happy as you are?

Social anxiety - yes, I think so. But it's erratic and most of the time I am fine.

amillion: yes, but I can't see it lasting for all the reasons everyone's said. I'm much happier than I used to be, but because I'm relying on welfare I now feel trapped in it.

The only extra thing I can think of to sugggest is that you start up your own business,probably working mainly from home?
But tbh,that needs a lot of motivation.

You are currently trapped on welfare.

Benefit - okay then, why are you spending OUR money on these companies you say you are so against?

Instead of nit picking answer the question

Beagles are heartbreaking because they get all their fags for free. Bloody scroungers.

The issue, really, is that benefits pay you just enough to live on, and so does a minimum wage job. In fact, in London, a min wage job is probably short of what you need to live on. What was Boris' 'London living wage'? £8.30/hr, apparently.

Governments of all stripes try to conjour up various carrots and sticks to get people to move from one to the other, but it's ultimately pretty much a matter of maths. Cost of living is what it is, really.

What can we do? Not much as far as I can see. You can't reduce benefits below starvation level, and god forbid we should interfere with The Market, and get companies to pay their staff a living wage. Any ideas?

Oh so you managed to answer THAT question.

Get some mental health support, and you will probably find that your anxiety improves through the self esteem you gain from being in employment.

See, if you had started off a thread called "I suffer from social anxiety, help me get off benefits", you would have had a much better response.

This is why my boy is so fat.
He looks at me with those eyes and I have to share my crisps.

That video they released a year ago or so with footage of beagles who had formerly been in laboratories and their first step onto grass.

Mind you beagles look heartbroken and big-eyed sad anyway even if they are full of the joys of spring. Beautiful dogs/.

There should be a living wage and a cap on private rent. That would help. But, the free market blah blah.

I don't understand why the free market gets to curb most people's freedom.

Ah Lesley, I remember her.
Strokes chin.

beagles on the grass

Benefit - who the hell are you to say what should and shouldn't happen. Seriously.