to think that there are people who choose to live a life on benefits?

[autumnlights12]

the recent threads about George Osbourne made me wonder..
A high number of posters say that people don't choose to live like that, they stumble into it, hate it, what a miserable existence it is, nobody would ever choose it etc..
but if you have two or three children through choice, whilst at the same time having no job to provide for them, or if you turn down the job at the local factory (as I know someone who did) because it pays £7.50 an hour and a full time job there doesn't give you the same unemployment rights and benefits, isn't that choosing to live a life on benefits? Or being trapped on benefits? I'm not talking about people who can't work, disabled people, ill people, women dumped by feckless ex and left to fend for herself etc.. of course they should be protected.
I was watching 999 What's Your Emergency and I know that area. And I know people like that exist. And it's often a second, third generation who have never worked a day in their life, even during times when work was freely available. In the town I live, we have numerous Eastern European immigrants who all seem to be working, but mostly in low paid work the locals wont do
What say you?

As to why I don't become a teacher: I would fail the first interview on telling them I'd like to put children from Y3 upwards on separate desks.

YANBU

I live on a council estate mostly populated by people on benefits and I have to say I know MANY of the types of people the OP describes. :( hell i am even FRIENDS with some dare i say

But Personally I think its not that benefits are too high, but that wages are too low, and the cost of living is far too high.

I'm sure there are some who chose to live on benefits, because sadly I have a couple in my family. I'm certain that living partially on benefits is a choice for others as when recruiting staff at work I struggle to recruit full timers because they want limited part time hours so they can remain on benefits ( until the youngest leaves school, then they all of a sudden want full time work). Also when I tried to get a cleaner for a few hours a week I had a few applicants who actually asked me if I minded the fact that they were claiming too!

of course there are people like this

but you cant dare suggest it as it clearly really offends people on here

I have no idea why, as most intelligent people know there there is a clear difference between people with disabilities, people that are trapped, people who need help, and they do exist. and they deserve help. I pay tax and I dont want to live in a country with extreme poverty

and lazy scroungers who see Jezza Jyle as preferable to a minimum wage job

Letty, as OptimisticPessimist says, DLA is an in-work benefit. So no one would be prosecuted simply for working while receiving it.

Making a fraudulent application or failing to declare an improvement is a different matter, but that's not what you claim your court list says. (Do they really give that much detail?)

Is the rest of your post just as accurate?

Rainforest projects and such like might not be the highest priority for children from deprived backgrounds (although I would disagree with that) but what about the other children? The ones who do have supportive parents? Should all schools stop giving a broad and well rounded education that teaches about the relevance of learning as well as things that go on outside its own town just because of a minority of crap parents?

Don't the children of supportive parents deserve their needs to be met too?

I have to agree with Brycie too. It's quite worrying to see the low expectations and fatalistic attitudes being expressed by teachers here.

I know of someone who lives off benefits & refuses to work. It's 'the thing to do' in the area he lives - v poor area with few local jobs & people can't afford to travel for minimum wage jobs. He spends a lot of his benefits on drugs. His house got broken into & his cannabis plants were stolen. The police caught the culprits but didn't know who the plants had originally belonged to... He went to the police station to claim them...!

Conversely, his sister moved out of the area in search of a better life & is stuck on benefits, would love to work for the sake of her mental health but actually can't afford to because of childcare costs!

It's definitely not an 'all people on benefits are...' world!

Morethanpotatoprints. Of course I have empathy and sympathy for those who fall on hard time this is what the system is for. I, however, find people who have never worked, never intend to work, and continue to increase the size of their families whilst on benefits, to be no better than a parasite. Our society's parasites. Taking money from people who really need it.

Letty - And there were several claiming DLA who had been found working cash in hand etc.

Erm, so what? DLA is not a poverty benefit, David Cameron claimed it for Ivan FFS! It's totally IMPOSSIBLE that anyone was prosecuted for working while claiming DLA because it's not illegal.

Would you care to review your evidence?

Ephiny do you not think teachers go into work each and every day fully armed to do the best by the children they teach? Do you really think I sit in front of my class of 6 year olds every day and think "oh well, not much I can do"? Do you think I go home at 3:30pm every day and think "fuck it"?

What can I do, however, about the thousands of children in other schools, in other towns who are receiving their education from a different teacher? Anything?

I don't think teachers on here have low expectations at all.

They are just realistic about what they can actually do to get children to want their education when their parents couldn't care less about it. If a child doesn't want to be educated, there is only a certain amount that a teacher can do when she has up to thirty children with different weaknesses and needs.

I really think we need to be looking at ways to make all parents value education, because that is the only way teachers will ever be able to teach all children to their potential.

bubalou, ONS data show that more people are looking for work than claiming benefits. I think that answers your question.

ofgs

I had two chldren and I believed their father would support them/us (jointly). Turns out i was wrong. I can hardly leave my children at the side of the road now can i.

i actually feel resentful that somebody wth as little empathy and intelligence as the OP probably has a job/husband who works.... THAT is what makes me feel resentful!!

Freaky, I'm afraid Cake came on here calling me obtuse and being very un-calm. I'm not surprised she told me to fuck off, except that given her exclamatory tone it didn't come sooner. I think you are a bit like her, except you are more insulting from the off.

Outraged: I've just been thinking about this, and wondering about "two tiers" of education. I don't think that would be do-able or acceptable, of course. So I thought about how much a child loses by having more intense learning in school, and no homework. And I think, not very much. If parents are so supportive and involved, the time they spend on vital homework can in future be spend on non-vital projects.

Freaky.

Totally agree with your comments on learning should be fun. My dd is H.ed and we learn so much visual/kinaesthetic and practical applications.
Unfortunately, may have to rethink this as will probably have to get a job now.

Outraged: I console myself with the thought that the problem is that National Curriculum and not the commitment of teachers. That means things could change.

I mean to say, teachers' commitment is not a problem: I'm sure they are committed. At the moment they're committed to the wrong thing, but that could change.

I agree, Haahoostory. They are pathertic, lazy, shameless parasites BUT I honestly can't say the same about their children. That is the problem. I'm not happy to say let those worthless little kids suffer and go hungry/cold. Cut benefits and mum and dad will probably still smoke and drink whilst there is way less food to go round. I am pissed off that the state has to support in cases where mum and dad can't be bothered but that is neither here nor there in the equation really. In a first world country we can't walk away from kids who need state help.

Parasites operate from the top down. The people at the bottom of the pile are merely trying trying to survive, get by, keep a roof over their families heads (which in the current parasitic climate is not always possible). The true parasites have no such problems and actually are to blame for the desperate circumstances in which so many people find themselves now, through no fault of their own.

I don't understand how people can begrudge people having just enough to get by.

Yes, parasites at the top too. There is no denying that.

Brycie teachers have NO SAY in what they teach, and how.

Maybe you should be lobbying the government rather than attacking individual teachers?